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Chicago pastor urges support to quell gun violence

July 20, 2022 By Diana Chandler

Assistant Pastor T.J. Grooms

New Beginnings Church of Chicago Assistant Pastor T.J. Grooms ministers in Parkway Gardens, a low-income housing development where a mass shooting occurred early July 1 next door to the South Side church. “I know everybody in that community,” Grooms said. “I knew three out of the five that were shot. It happened in the wee […]

‘Just horrific’: Illinois Baptists minister after Highland Park shooting

July 6, 2022 By Diana Chandler

Screenshot WGN News

Mass shootings don’t generally happen in affluent Highland Park, where a gunman killed eight and wounded 30 others gathered for a July 4th parade. “That’s the last place that you would normally, and I say normally, expect stuff like that to occur,” said Rick Dorsey, administrative counsel chairperson with the Chicago Metro Baptist Association. “We’re […]

Voddie Baucham to be 2023 SBC Pastors’ Conference presidential nominee

March 22, 2022 By Diana Chandler

Voddie Baucham

Voddie Baucham, dean of theology at African Christian University in Lusaka, Zambia, will be nominated for Southern Baptist Convention Pastors’ Conference president at the 2022 SBC Annual Meeting in Anaheim, according to a story published at the Daily Wire, a conservative news site conceived and founded by political commentators Ben Shapiro and Jeremy Boreing. The nomination […]

Sunshine, resilience noted as residents recover from tornadoes

December 14, 2021 By Diana Chandler

Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville, IL following December 10 tornado strike. Screenshot KSDK-TV St. Louis

Pastor Stan Ballard noted Monday’s “beautiful weather” as he described the resilience of the 1,500 or so people in Monette, Ark., in the face of death and destruction from unseasonable tornadoes. “One lady put on Facebook – whose home was destroyed – she said, ‘I’ve lost my home, I’ve lost my car and I’ve lost […]

Sex abuse task force motions fail at Missouri, Mississippi state meetings, pass in California, Arkansas

October 28, 2021 By Diana Chandler

ric Sherwood, pastor of Gore Springs Baptist, makes a motion for the formation of a sexual abuse task force at the Mississippi Baptist Convention Annual Meeting on Oct. 26. The motion was not passed by the messengers.

Motions to create state-level sex abuse task forces failed at the 2021 state Baptist annual meetings in Mississippi and Missouri this week, although a motion on handling sexual abuse was unanimously approved in Arkansas. A comparable motion presented at the California Southern Baptist Convention meeting Wednesday (Oct. 27) was ruled out of order, and a […]

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