HOT SPRINGS, Ark. — John McCallum knows the pain of struggling with grief and loss during the holiday season. But rather than sinking in sorrow, he’s using it to serve others.

McCallum, senior pastor of First Baptist Hot Springs, makes a point to write a personal letter to everyone in his church just before the holiday season who has endured the loss of a family member since the last season.

“One of our secretaries keeps track for me all year and gives me the list in early November. I write so many notes, I space it out over about two weeks. Then, I mail them all at the same time, so they get them before Thanksgiving,” he told Baptist Press in written comments.

He says the idea came to him while teaching a class on grief a few weeks before the holiday season. [Read more…]

WASHINGTON — Control of the next Congress remained uncertain by early afternoon Wednesday (Nov. 9), a day after the 2022 mid-term elections.

Republicans seemed near to gaining the majority in the House of Representatives, while it appeared a December runoff might be required to determine which party controls the Senate.

In the House, the GOP led the Democrats 204-176 in seats won as of 1:45 p.m. CST Wednesday, according to reporting by The New York Times based on results from The Associated Press. The Senate was deadlocked at 48 seats each, with winners yet to be declared in four races, according to the report.

Race calls in the House leave Republicans 14 short of the 218 seats needed to take the majority from the Democrats. In the Senate, the GOP needs to win three of the races for a majority. Democrats require only two victories to maintain a majority by virtue of Vice President Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote as president of the Senate.

The narrow margins from the congressional voting Tuesday (Nov. 8) proved unexpected following predictions of a strong Republican showing. [Read more…]

NASHVILLE — Pro-life advocates appeared poised to suffer across-the-board losses on five state ballot initiatives voted on Nov. 8 in the first nationwide election since the reversal of the Roe v. Wade decision.

The failure to gain passage of a pro-life measure in Kentucky or to defeat constitutional amendments that guarantee abortion rights in California, Michigan and Vermont dealt a troubling setback to Southern Baptists and other Americans who welcomed the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in June. In addition, the vote totals reported in Montana by midday Wednesday, Nov. 9, seemed to indicate a pro-life proposal would fall short of passage.

By overturning Roe, the high court had returned regulation of abortion to the states and brought an end to a legal regime throughout the country that resulted in the deaths of an estimated 63 million-plus preborn children since 1973.

Abortion-rights advocates have now prevailed in at least five state initiatives since Roe fell. In August, Kansas voters defeated an amendment that would have affirmed that the state constitution does not protect the right to abortion or require public funding of abortion.

Southern Baptist leaders called Wednesday for perseverance in the pro-life cause.

“As a 52-year-old pastor, I recognize that the generation ahead of me fought for 50 years before they saw the reversal of the unconstitutional Roe v. Wade decision,” SBC President Bart Barber told Baptist Press in written comments. “I pray that my generation and the pro-life generations after me will apply the same steadfast diligence to the cause of ending abortion state by state. [Read more…]

CARSON CITY, Nev. — Voters in Nevada and Arkansas took steps deemed contrary to and problematic for religious freedom in Nov. 8 midterm elections, while legalized marijuana passed in two of the five states that considered it.

Nevada voters added gender identity and sexual orientation to freedoms protected in the state constitution with 57.11 percent of voters approving the Equality of Rights Amendment, Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske reported.

Arkansans appeared to have narrowly defeated a constitutional amendment that would have restricted the government from burdening religious freedom “even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability,” and limiting such actions to “the least restrictive means.” With 97.3 percent of the vote counted, Issue Number 3 or the Arkansas Religious Freedom Amendment was failing with 50.44 percent of voters opposing it, Arkansas Secretary of State John Thurston reported.

Among states that sought to legalize marijuana use, Maryland and Missouri approved the measure, while it failed in Arkansas, North Dakota and South Dakota. [Read more…]

NASHVILLE — Almost every church in the U.S. is holding in-person services again, but some pre-pandemic churchgoers still haven’t returned.

In August 2022, 100 percent of U.S. Protestant pastors (rounded to the nearest whole number) say their churches met in person, according to a Lifeway Research study. This continues the increases from the past two years of churches holding physical gatherings. In August 2021, 98 percent of churches gathered in person, after 75 percent reported the same in July 2020.

“While there are a handful of exceptions, we can definitively say that churches in the U.S. have reopened,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research. “While masks began to rapidly disappear in many settings in 2022, churchgoers have not reappeared quite as fast.” [Read more…]

NASHVILLE — This year, as millions of Americans celebrate Halloween, many Protestant pastors in the United States are encouraging their church members to respond to the holiday in specific ways.

More than 7 in 10 (71 percent) pastors say they encourage church members to invite friends or neighbors to church events on or near Halloween, such as a fall festival, trunk-or-treat or judgment house, according to a Lifeway Research study. Nearly three in five (58 percent) pastors say they want church members to build relationships with neighbors who trick-or-treat. And 1 in 3 (34 percent) pastors encourage church members to hand out gospel tracts to trick-or-treaters.

More than 3 in 4 (78 percent) Americans are planning on celebrating Halloween this year, according to a Numerator survey. But not all pastors want their church members to take part. Lifeway Research found just over 1 in 8 (13 percent) say they encourage people in their congregations to avoid Halloween completely. Others don’t try to push their congregations in any direction regarding the holiday, with 8 percent of pastors saying they don’t encourage their church members to do any of these things. [Read more…]

NASHVILLE — In his career in the ministry and now head of a nationally recognized search firm that has helped some 3,000 churches find pastors, William Vanderbloemen notices patterns. He also joins those saying the American Church is undergoing a historical shift in pastoral leadership.

Churches contact Vanderbloemen in the search for a pastor, but pastors also reach out to his company. This typically happens when they arrive at a “What’s next?” phase of life, something Vanderbloemen had noticed occurred a lot in January after a pastor gets extended time with family during the holidays.

“When people get out of their routines they ask, ‘Why am I doing this?’” he said. [Read more…]

NASHVILLE — Individuals aren’t the only ones facing consequences of inflation and other negative economic factors in the U.S., as many pastors say their churches are being harmed as well.

A Lifeway Research study of U.S. Protestant pastors found 52 percent say the current economy is having a negative impact on their churches. For 40 percent, the economic circumstances aren’t having any effect. Fewer than 1 in 10 pastors (7 percent) say the current economy is a positive factor for their churches.

The economic outlook among pastors has soured more in 2022 than in recent years. Last year, around half of pastors (49 percent) said the economy was having no impact. Only once in the previous five years, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, were pastors most likely to be pessimistic about the economic impact on their congregations. During this time, pastors had been more likely to say the economy was having no effect. The two years prior to the pandemic were the only two years in the study’s more than 13-year history when pastors were more likely to say the economy was having a positive impact than a negative one. [Read more…]

SBC president Bart Barber was featured in a 60 Minutes segment hosted by Anderson Cooper on Oct. 9. — CBS screen capture

NEW YORK — SBC president Bart Barber was a guest of Anderson Cooper on CBS’ 60 Minutes program on Oct. 9. The 13-minute segment dealt with issues of sexual abuse in the SBC, political division in the United States surrounding former President Donald Trump, the separation of church and state, abortion, immigration and same-sex marriage.

Barber was elected as president of the Convention at the 2022 SBC Annual Meeting in June in Anaheim, Calif.

“I believe that the Southern Baptist Convention faces some unique challenges right now. I felt like God was calling me to try to give leadership at this moment to help Southern Baptists move forward,” Barber told Cooper. [Read more…]