Former SBC President Paschall dies. Frank Paschall, who served as Southern Baptist Convention president from 1966 to 1968, died April 10 at his home in Nashville, Tenn. He was 86. Paschall was pastor of First Baptist Church in Nashville—the church home, at that time, to many executives from the Southern Baptist agencies headquartered nearby—from 1956 until his retirement in 1983. A native of Calloway County, Ky., he served on executive committees of both the Kentucky Baptist Convention and the Tennessee Baptist Convention. He also was a trustee of Belmont College—now Belmont University—in Nashville. He was a member of the SBC Executive Committee from 1964 to 1970. Paschall graduated from Union University and held two degrees from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He was preceded in death by his wife of 50 years, Olga, who died in 1994. He is survived by two daughters—Palma Lynn Paschall Freeman of Dallas and Sandra Kay Paschall of Nashville.
Baptists feed 5,000 in Fargo. Southern Baptist Disaster Relief teams from the Iowa and Minnesota/Wisconsin state conventions prepared 5,000 hot meals in Fargo, N.D., in support of the American Red Cross and Salvation Army during the recent Red River flooding.
Alabama pastor found dead at church. A Southern Baptist pastor was found dead April 7 in his Alabama church, apparently after suffering a heart attack. The Associated Press reported investigators ruled out foul play in the death of Rodney Bowling, 46, pastor of Grace Point Baptist Church in Somerville, Ala. A sheriff’s deputy found his body around 7 a.m. after being summoned to check on him. According to the church website, Bowling started Grace Point Baptist Church in the small north Alabama town three years ago with a Bible study held in a family’s garage. The next week the group moved to the Cotaco Volunteer Fire Department, where on a few occasions firefighters in the congregation were paged out of services to respond to a call. The church purchased property in 2006 and moved into a new building in 2008. Bowling had been a preacher more than 25 years, serving as pastor of churches in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. He leaves a wife, Johnna, and three children.
Funds to Kentucky Baptist school opposed. A church-state watchdog group says the Kentucky Supreme Court should strike down a $10 million state appropriation to build a pharmacy school at Baptist-owned University of the Cumberlands, claiming it uses taxpayer funds to advance a particular religion. Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed a friend-of-the-court brief urging the commonwealth’s high court to uphold a March 2008 ruling by a special judge that the funding constitutes “a direct payment to a non-public religious school for educational purposes” not permitted by the Kentucky constitution. Formerly called Cumberland College, the University of the Cumberlands is affiliated with the Kentucky Baptist Convention. In 2006, Kentucky’s General Assembly appropriated funds to begin a pharmacy school there, so students from the area wouldn’t have to travel far to get an education, also making it more likely they would remain close to home to pursue their careers. The idea quickly lost popularity with some lawmakers, however, after the school expelled a student for moral misconduct after he posted on a social-networking site that he was gay and dating a student at another school.
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