Forrest Pollock

File photo

Baptist Press

ASHEVILLE - Florida pastor Forrest Pollock and a 13-year-old son were killed May 12 when the single-engine plane Pollock was flying crashed in North Carolina.

Tracy Tynette Eure gets a final hug from a Chowan University professor May 10 as she waits in line to ring the bell.

Chowan University photo

N.C. Baptist schools are awarding degrees to almost 4,000 graduates at ceremonies across the state this month. Continuing a tradition, Chowan University graduates rang a bell in the Susan Parker Kerr Gazebo immediately following the school's commencement ceremony.

Eleven N.C. Baptists have been nominated or named to serve on Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) boards or committees.

Les Puryear

Baptist Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Les Puryear, pastor of Lewisville Baptist Church, will be nominated for president of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) during the SBC's June 10-11 annual meeting in Indianapolis, Dwight McKissic, senior pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, announced May 12.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - One week after an effort to oust 71 members of Two Rivers Baptist Church failed by four votes, the Nashville megachurch voted again and this time removed the dissidents on a show-of-hands vote.

NEW ORLEANS - The emerging church movement, much like postmodernism, is too diverse for easy definition, with participants scattered along a lengthy continuum, Ed Stetzer told a Baptist College Partnership meeting at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

Dottie Rambo

Photo by Morris Abernathy

Baptist Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Gospel music legend Dottie Rambo died early May 11 when her tour bus veered from a Missouri highway and struck an embankment.

NEW YORK - C.S. Lewis' "Chronicles of Narnia" book series is so revered by Christian readers that adapting the books into film becomes a delicate tightrope. Changes risk alienating fans, but what works in the books doesn't always translate well to the big screen.

Caleb Courtney

Photo by Luis Ascui

Discovery Kids Channel

When Caleb Courtney first appeared on "Endurance: Fiji," he thought the show might change his life.

"I have a couple of 9-year-old kids that think I'm the bomb," said Courtney, but other than that, life has continued as normal for the busy sophomore at Watauga High School in Boone.

After a natural disaster strikes in the United States, the question almost immediately arises: Where was God? Or, did God allow this to happen?

Danny Akin

BR photo by Norman Jameson

BR

The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) may be top heavy, bloated and unfocused but it is "premature" to write its obituary, according to Danny Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

A North Carolina Baptist Men's assessment team of two is on its way to Thailand to seek visas to enter devastated Myanmar.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Citing widespread confusion about what it means to be an "evangelical," a group of Christian leaders issued a manifesto proposing to define the identity and commitments of evangelical Christians.

LifeWay Research

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - While economists debate how serious America's economic slowdown really is, Southern Baptist pastors report their members are still giving, in spite of the financial pressures felt by many families.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Raima, a hearing-impaired craftsperson in Mauritius, is part of an artisan group called CraftAid that provides jobs for people with disabilities. While working with her artisan group, she met her husband, Tana, who is also hearing-impaired. The couple now have a son and provide for their family by making unique handcrafted cards sold through WorldCrafts. They have learned that deafness does not handicap their hope.

Baptist World Aid (BWAid), the relief and development arm of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA), has pledged $50,000 to assist with emergency relief efforts in Myanmar.

Rob Nash

CBF photo

ATLANTA - The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) is entering into a two-year partnership with a global Christian campaign to end poverty.

Churches reporting their 2007 statistics show that North Carolina Baptists reflect national trends, with decreases in baptisms, members and the number of churches filing reports.