SBC messengers re-elect Texas pastor Bart Barber to a second term as president
New Orleans, US RNS Texas pastor Bart Barber was elected to a second year in office during an afternoon session of the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting. Barber received 7,531 votes, 68 per cent of the 11,014 vote total, beating out Georgia Baptist pastor Mike Stone, a more conservative challenger, who received 3,458 votes, or […]
In the US, Georgia pastor Mike Stone to challenge SBC President Bart Barber this summer
United States RNS For only the second time in more than three decades, a Southern Baptist Convention president will face a challenge for reelection. Georgia pastor Mike Stone, who lost a hotly contested election in 2021, announced on Wednesday that he would accept a nomination for the presidency of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. Pastor Mike Stone. […]
Southern Baptist Convention: How did Saddleback get kicked out of the SBC? It’s complicated
The five congregations ousted last week were the first to be expelled from the Southern Baptist Convention on a national level for having women pastors since the ban on women pastors was instituted in 2000. BOB SMIETANA, of Religion News Service, reports…
In the US, Todd Benkert leaves SBC abuse task force after conflict over pastor’s restoration
United States RNS Todd Benkert, a Southern Baptist pastor who helped force reforms in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination’s sexual abuse policies, has stepped down from a task force he was appointed to last year to implement those reforms. Benkert’s role on the committee became controversial this week due to a public dispute involving a […]
In the US, Tyre Nichols police beating video prompts faith leaders to react with grief, goals
United States RNS Religious leaders reacted swiftly – with legislative appeals and collective grief – to the release of video footage of police officers beating Tyre Nichols, a Black man who died days after a traffic stop in Memphis, Tennessee. An image of Tyre Nichols and the words “JUSTICE FOR TYRE NICHOLS” are projected onto […]
SBC President Bart Barber says predecessor Johnny Hunt is unfit to return to ministry
United States RNS Bart Barber, a country pastor who also happens to be the sitting president of the Southern Baptist Convention, began his Tuesday as he does most days, with prayer and feeding his cows. Before the day was out he would take the rare step of denouncing one of his predecessors. “I would permanently […]
Southern Baptist Convention: New president Bart Barber wants the denomination to regain its rural soul
RILEY FARRELL, of Religion News Service, reports on how Barber, a pastor from rural Texas, has the task of pulling the SBC’s 13.7 million members “back from the brink”…
New SBC President commits to move sex abuse reforms forward
Anaheim, California, US AP The new president of the Southern Baptist Convention said on Wednesday he will accelerate sex abuse reforms in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. Texas pastor Bart Barber’s first priority: to assemble a panel of people – Southern Baptist leaders and experts – to shepherd this work for the whole convention as mandated […]
Who is Bart Barber, new Southern Baptist president?
Anaheim, California, US AP Bart Barber is a staunch Southern Baptist conservative who would welcome bans on abortion, opposes critical race theory and believes only men should serve as pastors. Yet Barber, elected Tuesday as the new president of the Southern Baptist Convention, says he has a track record of dialogue with those who disagree […]
In the US, Southern Baptists agree to keep list of accused sex abusers
Anaheim, California AP The Southern Baptist Convention voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to create a way to track pastors and other church workers credibly accused of sex abuse and launch a new taskforce to oversee further reforms in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. The vote came three weeks after the release of a blockbuster report by an outside […]