Over the past decade, America’s market for religious investment products has grown by more than 3,500 percent, according to data from fund tracker Morningstar.

08/30/2007 - By John Rutledge

CHICKASHA, Okla.—Members of Cowboy Country Church in Chickasha, Okla., put hours of work into transforming an old building into their new church home. But after worshipping there just one Sunday, the building became uninhabitable.

The new church became infested with mold after flooding from Tropical Storm Erin, which blew through Chickasha Aug. 18-19. 

08/30/2007 - By John Rutledge

PINEVILLE, La. (ABP)—Baptist-affiliated Louisiana College will establish a new “biblical” law school named after Paul Pressler, the Texas appeals-court judge better known for leading the fundamentalist takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention.

The college hopes to open the Judge Paul Pressler School of Law in 2009, said Joe Aguillard, president of the 1,000-student school. The school wants to have as many as 40 students in the first year and grow to 300, he said.

08/30/2007 - By John Rutledge

“Its a lot more than just a question of hymns or choruses,” said Charlie Brown, pastor of The Crossing Baptist Church in Mesquite.

08/30/2007 - By John Rutledge

Baptists can change, and reconciliation is possible, Emmanuel McCall testifies in his new book, When All God’s Children Get Together: A Memoir of Race and Baptists.

McCall’s book provides a travelogue of the journey Baptists in the South took during the past 50 years. It’s a trek that transported them from segregation to repentance, from mutual mistrust to reconciliation.

That journey parallels McCall’s ministry—from when he enrolled as the only African-American student at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1959, to when he stepped down as the Southern Baptist Convention’s race-relations leader in 1991, to his participation in bringing Baptists across the races together to affirm the New Baptist Covenant next year.

08/30/2007 - By John Rutledge

DALLAS—Soon after Pastor Bruce Troy arrived at Gaston Oaks Baptist Church in Dallas, he challenged a group in the congregation to answer one question: “What would you do if God put 100 people on your doorstep?”

Three years later, Troy observed: “That’s exactly what he’s done. They just don’t speak English.”

08/30/2007 - By John Rutledge

Two of the nation’s largest parachurch campus evangelical organizations, Campus Crusade for Christ and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, stress building ethnically diverse communities in their mission statements. And recent statistics cited in the San Francisco Chronicle and Christianity Today suggest their goals for diversity slowly are starting to become a reality.

08/30/2007 - By John Rutledge

TBM offers relief to Erin victims. Texas Baptist Men dispatched two clean-out teams, a shower unit and recovery group to two West Texas towns flooded by the remnants of Tropical Storm Erin. Clean-out teams from Amarillo and Lubbock, a recovery team from Waxahachie and a shower unit from O’Donnell headed to Merkel and Hamlin. The Ellis Christian Disaster Relief Box Unit took 2,000 moving boxes to help flood victims collect the items they would like to save. About 250 homes in Hamlin and 30 in Merkel were affected by flooding that occurred as a result of the remnants of Tropical Storm Erin. Texas Baptist Men disaster relief efforts can be supported by sending a check designated “disaster relief” to Disaster Relief, Texas Baptist Men, 5351 Catron, Dallas 75227 or via credit card by calling (214) 828-5351.

Ethics lecture program endowed at Howard Payne. A gift from Gary and Molli Elliston of Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas has enabled Howard Payne University to establish a distinguished lecture program focusing on the significance of Christian ethics, beginning in the 2008 spring semester. The Ellistons endowed the Currie-Strickland Distinguished Lecture Series in honor of David Currie, executive director of Texas Baptists Committed, and in memory of Phil Strickland, director of the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission. “On an annual basis, this lecture will provide a special opportunity to students, faculty and the general public to consider the importance of Christian ethics in the workplace, in the classroom, in ministry, in national and world affairs and in the minds of Christians as they make decisions in their daily lives,” Howard Payne President Lanny Hall said.

08/30/2007 - By John Rutledge

BELTON—Two University of Mary Hardin-Baylor students brushed paint on a stucco stairwell outside of the Temple Public Library, while other team members inside washed windows and dusted bookcases.

Elsewhere, students filled potholes, painted walls, sorted clothes and generally lent a helping hand throughout Belton and Temple.

08/30/2007 - By John Rutledge

By Andrew Daugherty

08/30/2007 - By John Rutledge