Baptist Briefs
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Ballance leaves Baptists Today. Bob Ballance has resigned as executive editor of the moderate newspaper Baptists Today one year after accepting the job. The 41-year-old former pastor of Highland Park Baptist Church in Austin has become interim pastor of Heritage Baptist Church in Cartersville, Ga. No other details were released by the newspaper's board of directors or Smyth & Helwys, the publishing firm that produces the newspaper. Ballance could not be reached for comment.
___ BWA authorizes cntennial history. The Baptist World Alliance, to mark the 100th anniversary of its founding in 2005, has commissioned the writing of a "Centennial History of the Baptist World Alliance." Denton Lotz, BWA general secretary, announced that Richard Pierard, professor of history at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, will be the editor of the centennial history, with Eljee Bentley, of Birmingham, Ala., a retired Southern Baptist historian, and Gerald Borchert, professor at Northern Baptist Seminary in Lombard, Ill., serving as associate editors. Also serving on the core committee will be James Leo Garrett Jr., distinguished professor emeritus of theology of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.
___ N.C. churches damaged by flooding. At least 25 churches and several agencies of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina have been damaged by floods in the aftermath of Hurricane Floyd. Several buildings at Kennedy Home, one of several campuses operated by the Baptist Children's Homes of North Carolina, sustained significant damage when the normally quiet Falling Creek near Kinston overflowed.
___ VBS theme revealed. God's faithfulness will be the focus of Vacation Bible School materials produced by LifeWay Christian Resources for 2000, using the theme "The Fantastic Good News Ocean Odyssey: Diving Into the Depths of God's Faithfulness." Resources will be available Dec. 1, including the "VBS Scuba Sampler."
___ Indiana convention may rebuke church. The executive committee of the State Convention of Baptists in Indiana has drafted a recommendation for action by the state convention concerning University Baptist Church in Bloomington as a result of the church calling a woman as senior pastor in July 1998. The recommendation stops short of removing the church from membership in the convention but declares the church "stands in violation of the principles of Scripture and outside the commonly held beliefs of Indiana Baptists in calling a woman to be senior pastor." As a result, the convention no longer will seat messengers from the church and no longer receive funds from the church "until such time as the church repents of its current course and the convention votes to rescind this action."
___ Chapman: Premillennial theology practical. When he was pastor of First Baptist Church of Wichita Falls, Morris Chapman saw more people convert to Christianity once he began preaching "the premillennial coming of the Lord Jesus Christ," he told students at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary Sept. 30. Premillennialists believe the end times will include a literal thousand-year rule on earth by Christ, but that will be preceded by a seven-year period of tribulation from which Christians will be exempt, snatched from Earth in a rapture. During his first two pastorates, Chapman said, his preaching of another theological view "didn't get past the pulpit." But when God convicted him to begin preaching about premillennialism, "there were more baptisms than ever in the 100-year history of the church."
___ NAMB approves agreement with new Texas convention. Trustees of the Southern Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board have approved a cooperative agreement with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, a new state convention formed by conservatives upset with the Baptist General Convention of Texas. The agreement--which provides for planning and cooperative funding of missionary work--is modeled after a previous agreement with the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia convention, according to a NAMB news release.
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