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  Debate over academic freedom rages at Louisiana College_112204

  Posted: 11/19/04

  Debate over academic freedom rages at Louisiana College

  By Bruce Nolan

  Religion News Service

  PINEVILLE, La. (RNS)–With its neat red-brick buildings and green, impeccably groomed campus, Louisiana College, a small liberal arts institution owned by Louisiana's Southern Baptists, does not look like a tense, unhappy battleground. But it is.

  11/19/2004 - By John Rutledge

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  Texas-based MercyMe receives American Music Awards honors_112204

  Posted: 11/19/04

  MercyMe accepts an American Music Awards trophy.

  Texas-based MercyMe receives
  American Music Awards honors

  By Adelle M. Banks

  Religion News Service

  LOS ANGELES (RNS)–The Texas-baseed Christian music group MercyMe was honored as the winner of the inspirational category at the American Music Awards.

  11/19/2004 - By John Rutledge

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  Texas Baptist mission trips to Mexico increase 25 percent with 620 groups_112204

  Posted: 11/19/04

  Texas volunteers lead an outreach activity for children along the Texas/Mexico border. More than 70 mission teams served more than 18,500 people in Texas colonias during the past year through BGCT River Ministry.

  Texas Baptist mission trips to Mexico
  increase 25 percent with 620 groups

  By John Hall

  Texas Baptist Communications

  Texas Baptist mission trips to Mexico through the Baptist General Convention of Texas River Ministry shot up more than 25 percent in the past year, including an increase in churches looking to serve in the nation's interior.

  11/19/2004 - By John Rutledge

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  Mississippi Baptists elect first Hispanic officer_112204

  Posted: 11/19/04

  Mississippi Baptists elect first Hispanic officer, avoid effort
  to make 2000 Baptist Faith & Message official doctrinal statement

  JACKSON, Miss. (ABP)–For the first time in its 169-year history, the Mississippi Baptist Convention elected a Hispanic as an officer.

  Messengers also threw their support behind state and national bans on gay marriage.

  Joel Medina, bivocational pastor of Iglesia Internacional Las Americas in Carthage, was elected second vice president without opposition.

  Joel Medina (Mississippi Baptist Record Photo by William H. Perkins Jr.)

  11/19/2004 - By John Rutledge

• Missouri Baptist Convention moves toward tightening its membership requirements_112204

  Posted: 11/19/04

  Missouri Baptist Convention moves toward
  tightening its membership requirements

  RAYTOWN, Mo. (ABP)–The fundamentalist-oriented Missouri Baptist Convention took the first step toward limiting membership to “Southern Baptist” churches and excluding churches that support moderate organizations, including the state and national Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the Baptist General Convention of Missouri.

  Messengers to the convention's annual meeting agreed to vote next year on four constitutional changes that would tighten requirements for MBC membership. Membership would be open only to churches identified as “Southern Baptist” and affiliated solely with the Missouri Baptist Convention.

  If approved, the changes would exclude congregations that support both the traditional Missouri Baptist Convention and the newer alternative state convention established by moderates. Likewise, congregations that support the moderate Cooperative Baptist Fellowship would not be allowed to participate.

  11/19/2004 - By John Rutledge

• Nigeria offers evangelistic door to reaching rest of Africa, national Baptist leader says_112204

  Posted: 11/19/04

  Nigeria offers evangelistic door to reaching
  rest of Africa, national Baptist leader says

  By John Hall

  Texas Baptist Communications

  The evangelistic “door” to Africa is waiting for Texas Baptists to help turn the knob and open it, a Nigerian Baptist leader insists.

  11/19/2004 - By John Rutledge

• North Carolina Baptists retain multiple giving options_112204

  Posted: 11/19/04

  North Carolina Baptists retain multiple giving options

  By Steve DeVane

  N.C. Biblical Recorder

  WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (ABP)–Messengers to the annual meeting of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina voted to keep the convention's four giving plans. But a move to eliminate the plan favored by moderates still looms as a possibility.

  11/19/2004 - By John Rutledge

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  On the Move_112204

  Posted: 11/19/04

  On the Move

  Scott Ayres to First United Methodist Church in Sugar Land as recreation minister from Eastwood Church in Gatesville, where he was minister of youth.

  David Bonnet to First Church in Evant as pastor.

  Brian Branum to River Road Church in Amarillo as music director.

  11/19/2004 - By John Rutledge

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  Distance no barrier for churches in partnership_112204

  Posted: 11/19/04

  Distance no barrier for churches in partnership

  By John Hall

  Texas Baptist Communications

  When a pair of missions-minded Baptist churches decided to help each other expand their ministries, they were not going to let a little barrier like 1,800 miles stand in their way.

  11/19/2004 - By John Rutledge

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  Abilene’s Pioneer Drive Primetimers find joy in serving others_112204

  Posted: 11/19/04

  Abilene's Pioneer Drive Primetimers find joy in serving others

  By George Henson

  Staff Writer

  ABILENE–Senior adults involved in the Primetimers ministry of Pioneer Drive Baptist Church in Abilene are using the prime time of their lives to serve other people.

  11/19/2004 - By John Rutledge

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  Religious Right opposes pro-choice Republican as Senate committee chair_112204

  Posted: 11/19/04

  Religious Right opposes pro-choice
  Republican as Senate committee chair

  By Robert Marus

  ABP Washington Bureau

  WASHINGTON (ABP)–Religious conservatives are raising loud objections to the elevation of a pro-choice Republican to the chairmanship of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee.

  11/19/2004 - By John Rutledge

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  SUDAN: ‘Falls the shadow’_112204

  Posted: 11/19/04

  Displaced Sudanese children rest on the ground in the Otach camp in Sudan's Darfur region. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly Photo)

  SUDAN: 'Falls the shadow'

  By David E. Anderson

  Religion News Service

  WASHINGTON (RNS)–Sudan's government and rebel groups in the nation's troubled Darfur region, under political pressure from a United Nations Security Council meeting in Kenya, signed something of a peace agreement.

  11/19/2004 - By John Rutledge