Postcards: In small-town Illinois, a little church says goodbye

Ryan Burge, pastor and sociologist, has documented church decline for years. On Sunday, after 150 years, his own church held its final service. BOB SMIETANA, of Religion News Service, reports…
American Baptist Churches USA to be led by Rev Gina Jacobs-Strain

United States RNS On Saturday (4th November), the American Baptist Churches USA became the last of the major mainline Protestant denominations to appoint a female leader by naming Rev Gina Jacobs-Strain as its general secretary. Jacobs-Strain was selected unanimously by the ABCUSA’s Search Committee after an 18-month-long process, said the denomination’s president, Rev James Wolfe. […]
Essay: Some Baptists debate about women preaching, others listen to women preach

Baptist minister BRIAN KAYLOR says, in an article first published on Religion News Service, that focusing almost entirely on the SBC not only minimizes the theological (and political and racial) diversity of Baptists, but it also privileges a patriarchal body over others…
In the US, president of Central Baptist Theological Seminary resigns due to ‘ethical lapse’

RNS Rev Molly T Marshall has stepped down as president of Central Baptist Theological Seminary due to an unspecified “ethical lapse,” according to a statement from the seminary. Marshall said she offered her resignation effective from 1st March “because of an ethical lapse that betrayed my stewardship of office,” according to her statement the seminary released […]