Friday, March 23, 2018

• 'Shorty' the church bus: An unlikely evangelism tool

  by Emily Howsden/The Baptist Messenger, posted Friday, March 23, 2018 (2 months ago)
  

  Screen capture from BGCO
  

  Screen capture from BGCO
  MUSKOGEE, Okla. (BP) -- Many churches now operate a bus ministry which usually involves transportation of members and visitors from the church to their home and vice versa.

  However, Timothy Baptist Church in Muskogee, Okla., has an interesting bus ministry that takes the church into the community.

  "Shorty is a small, old school bus that I kind of had the idea for and shared it with some people in the church," said Kelly Payne, the church's pastor. "The idea was to find a bus that we could equip to pull into a neighborhood and get the church to the community." Read More

• Congress passes online, anti-trafficking bill

  by Tom Strode, posted Friday, March 23, 2018 (2 months ago)
  

  iStock
  

  iStock
  WASHINGTON (BP) -- Congress has given overwhelming approval to legislation designed to thwart sex trafficking by holding accountable online sites that facilitate the crime.

  The Senate adopted the bill in a 97-2 vote March 21, barely three weeks after the House of Representatives had passed it Feb. 27 in a 388-25 roll call. The bill will go to President Trump, who is expected to sign it.

  The Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) would amend a 1996 anti-obscenity federal law to authorize the prosecution of websites that support the sale of people in the sex trade. The proposal -- which includes provisions from the Senate's Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) -- also would clarify trafficking victims have the right to bring civil action against such online sites as the classified advertising company Backpage.com. Read More

• Scientists struggle with Earth's solid inner core

  by Julie Borg/WORLD, posted Friday, March 23, 2018 (2 months ago)
  

  iStock
  

  iStock
  ASHEVILLE (BP) -- If naturalistic theories are correct, Earth's solid inner core shouldn't exist, according to a new research paper in Earth and Planetary Science Letters journal.

  Current theory says Earth's center consisted of a ball of hot liquid iron 4,200 miles wide until about a billion years ago when the molten metal spontaneously began to solidify. Now, Case Western Reserve University planetary scientists say spontaneous solidification of the core is scientifically impossible.

  Andrew Snelling, a geologist with Answers in Genesis, said secular scientists struggle to find plausible theories for how Earth's inner core formed because they base their assumptions on a naturalistic viewpoint that rules out the supernatural explanation the Bible gives for Earth's origin. Read More

• Okla. pastor Felix Cabrera to be 2nd VP nominee

  by David Roach, posted Friday, March 23, 2018 (2 months ago)
  
  
  DALLAS (BP) -- Oklahoma pastor Felix Cabrera will be nominated for second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention, Alabama pastor Ed Litton announced today (March 23).

  A Puerto Rico native, Cabrera planted Spanish-speaking Iglesia Bautista Central (IBC) in Oklahoma City in 2015 and has seen the congregation grow from about 12 in worship attendance to more than 200, according to information released by the church. Cabrera also is co-founder of the Hispanic Baptist Pastors Alliance and founder of the RED 1:8 Church Planting Network, which has helped plant 34 churches over the past five years in North America, Puerto Rico, Latin America and Spain. Read More

• Korean couple honored for Nepalese & Bhutanese plants

  by Shannon Baker/Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware , posted Friday, March 23, 2018 (2 months ago)
  

  Photo by Shannon Baker
  

  Photo by Shannon Baker
  BALTIMORE (BP) -- Korean pastor Samuel Cho and his wife Young -- known for starting the first Nepalese and Bhutanese Baptist churches in the United States -- were honored in a retirement celebration March 18 at the Baltimore-area White Marsh Baptist Church.

  The service was conducted in four languages -- Korean, Nepalese, Bhutanese and English -- and featured testimonies and greetings from various groups who have supported the couple's efforts in Baltimore during the past decade.

  At the conclusion of the service, Cho symbolically transferred his leadership as pastor to Manoj Shrestha of the Nepal Baptist Church of Baltimore and Razu Budhathoki of the Bhutan Baptist Church of Baltimore through the joint cutting of the celebratory cake. Read More

• Sweden 1st to offer payouts to sterilized transsexuals

  by Diana Chandler, posted Friday, March 23, 2018 (2 months ago)
  

  iStock
  

  iStock
  STOCKHOLM, Sweden (BP) -- Transgender Swedes forcibly sterilized to expressly prevent reproduction are eligible for payouts of about $27,000 each under a new law that is reportedly the first of its kind worldwide.

  Sweden's one-house parliament, the Riksdag, adopted the legislation March 21 affecting people forced to undergo sexual sterilization under the Gender Recognition Act of 1972 before changing their gender designation on legal documents. Read More

• PALM SUNDAY: A celebration of humility

  by Terry Turner, posted Friday, March 23, 2018 (2 months ago)

  Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem entailed an extraordinary measure of humility, Terry Turner writes in regard to the crowd's misguided celebration in the days before His crucifixion. Read More

• EDITORIAL: Un día en particular

  by Oscar J. Fernandez, posted Friday, March 23, 2018 (2 months ago)

  BRENTWOOD, Tenn. (BP) -- ¿Están calladas las piedras?

  Ese día en particular, tal vez comenzó como cualquier otro día. ... Read More