The Baptist State Convention (BSC) Executive Committee on July 10 took its first detailed look at changes being proposed by the Articles and Bylaws Committee for consideration by messengers to the 2008 annual meeting in November.

Jason Burton helps out with Vacation Bible School music at Southside in Greensboro.

Photo by Bob Burchette

Biblical Recorder

GREENSBORO - Eight churches that joined forces in mid-June to conduct a Vacation Bible School (VBS) together learned a unique lesson, and reaped great spiritual rewards, according to Patrick Fuller, pastor of the host church.

Justin Furr of Concord First Baptist Church gets ready to eat mystery foods during a creative, multi-church "Castaway" retreat.

Contributed photo

Your ship has wrecked on a deserted island. You and your fellow castaways salvage only a few scarce resources to survive. Now survivors from a second shipwreck threaten your own ability to stay alive. How will there be enough for all of you? Can you put differences aside to work together?

Gregory Gomez IV

Baptist Press

RICHMOND, Va. - Gregory Gomez IV, 22, a student missionary serving in Peru for the summer through the International Mission Board (IMB), was killed in a bus accident July 5.

The funeral for Sen. Jesse Helms, who died July 4, was held at a North Carolina Baptist church in Raleigh on Tuesday.

Social-networking sites like Facebook and MySpace are redefining the way many Americans build and maintain relationships - and also how their churches communicate.

Giving to religious charities and congregations passed the $100 billion mark for the first time in 2007, according to a recent report by the Giving USA Foundation.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Specialty license plates on cars can signal the driver's support of an array of topics from the environment to animals to college sports teams, but those that support belief in God have faced scrutiny in at least two states recently.

Kerri Hamiliton shares how she and her husband, Robert were called to be missionaries to Brazil.

IMB photo

RICHMOND, Va. - Journeyman Trevor Yoakum lay face down in mud on the side of a narrow highway in Nigeria. Gunfire exploded in his ears. Squealing tires followed and then the crunch of cars crashing.

Biblical Recorder staff are working a four-day week July and August, taking Fridays off to save utilities and commuting expenses. Office hours during this period will be 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. although it is not uncommon for staff to be there earlier and later.

Six months into 2008 Cooperative Program gifts from North Carolina Baptist churches continue below 2007 levels and are 12.3 percent below budget.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - In the second major release from their U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, the Pew Forum states that "70 percent of Americans with a religious affiliation say that many religions - not just their own - can lead to eternal life."

Jon Powell

BR Photo by Steve DeVane

BR

Can't we just get these people together?"

That's the question Jon Powell asked a prosecutor during a juvenile court case. Powell, a Buies Creek attorney, was frustrated at his inability to help the young people involved in the case.

Leaders of the Juvenile Justice Project at Campbell University School of Law say the program and others like it have helped victims and offenders. Here are some of their stories.