Rob Lemons doesn’t know anything about the family that will one day occupy the house he’s helping build for them. He doesn’t know their names or their story, but that really doesn’t seem to matter to Lemons. The house is going to go up any way, one way or the other.

It’s not just Lemons who finds himself in this position. The missions director at Ardmore Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, N.C., Lemons is the volunteer coordinator for Baptist Build 2012, a consortium of 14 churches in the Winston-Salem area that have teamed with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina, Habitat for Humanity of Forsyth County and CHANGE (Communities Helping All Neighbors Gain Empowerment) to build its first house in the nearby Smith Farm development.  ... read more

From the BBC ...

Mount Olive is a small town in rural North Carolina, best known for its pickle factory and southern charm. Less than two years ago the Census listed this place as having zero immigrants from Haiti among the town's 4,600 inhabitants. But over the past 18 months that has changed as thousands of Haitians have flocked to the area.

The BBC's James Fletcher has been to Mount Olive to find out why and to see how the town is coping.  ... more

BOILING SPRINGS, N.C. – Gardner-Webb’s School of Divinity recently held Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) Day to spotlight the organization’s relationship with the University.  The event brought together CBF leaders, CBF student scholars, GWU faculty and staff, and members of the faith community to worship, reflect, and plan for the future.
 
At a worship service in Gardner-Webb’s Dover Chapel, CBF North Carolina (CBFNC) representatives encouraged the audience to better focus on knowing and relating to God, and to take inventory of individual spiritual gifts and put those to use. “Grow in your relationship with God individually,” said Dr. Larry Hovis, CBFNC executive coordinator, “yet find colleagues you can talk with to help cultivate that relationship with the Father.”   ... read more.

From Gail O'Day, Dean and Professor of New Testament and Preaching at Wake Forest University School of Divinity

I am pleased to announce that out of the award election process, Laura Barclay is this year's Wake Forest University Distinguished Service Award (Bill J. Leonard Distinguished Service Award Pro Fide et Humanitate). In her work as Social Ministries Coordinator at CBFNC, Laura has been a leader for the Racial Reconciliation Ministry team, the Wealth and Poverty Committee, as well as a wide range of other initiatives for ministries of justice, reconciliation, and compassion.  She is an advocate for creating possibilities for women in ministry and is a key player in the immigration awareness and advocacy work of CBFNC.  

Please join me in congratulating Laura and I hope that many of you will be able to attend the Wake Forest Founders Day Convocation (February 16 at 4pm in Wait Chapel), when Laura will receive this award.

During Sunday's installation of Dennis Foust as senior pastor of St. John's Baptist Church, the chairman of the deacons compared the new union to an arranged marriage.

But it looks like love at first sight.

St. John's, a moderate Baptist congregation with a reinvigorated vision of itself and its future, went looking for a leader who could help it turn new dreams into broader action.

Baptist Women in Ministry invites all Baptist churches to make plans now to have a woman preach on any Sunday in February 2012. Visit their website for more information.

MOUNT AIRY, N.C. -- Two churches in Mount Airy, N.C., have withdrawn from the local Surry Baptist Association in response to its dismissal last July of an affiliated church which called a woman as pastor.

Piney Grove Baptist Church voted unanimously Nov. 30 to leave the 66-church association, centered on Surry County northwest of Winston-Salem, N.C. Four days later, on Dec. 4, First Baptist Church also voted, 145-34, to end its ties.

Both churches cited the association’s July 26 action to dismiss Flat Rock Baptist Church in Mount Airy two weeks after its new female pastor, Bailey Edwards Nelson, began her ministry there. But they added Surry’s move was only the latest indication of growing disagreement with the association’s direction.

Fred Craddock was a young preacher trying to find his voice when he received a call from his mother one day.

"You need to go see your father," she said. "He may not live longer."

Craddock found his father in a VA hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. Fred Craddock Sr. had whittled down to 73 pounds. Radiation treatments had burned him to pieces. He couldn't eat or speak.

When he saw his son, he picked up a Kleenex box and scribbled on it a line from Shakespeare's "Hamlet": "In this harsh world, draw your breath in pain to tell my story."

"What is your story, Daddy?"

His father's eyes welled with tears. He wrote: "I was wrong."