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Alliance News
#FreshFire
Ignite a fresh fire with the Alliance of Baptists
Fire is powerful. A source of heat and light, it allows for rapid transformation. Fire inspires our vision for the Alliance of Baptists as we, like fire, seek to provide an avenue for transformation, renewal and rebirth in church and society today.
Make a financial gift to the Alliance of Baptists and ignite a
fresh fire for God's justice and hope in our world!
This September, a generous Alliance supporter will match all gifts from first-time givers. Your first gift, if given to the Alliance this month, will be doubled!
And, if you are already a supporter and make a gift larger than last year's, that gift will also be matched!
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Practicing Congregation
During the next two weeks churches will begin fall programming. For some congregations this means Sunday school will start up again after a summer break. In others Wednesday night activities will include music classes, children's programming, dinner and adult studies. Choir practices, small groups, book clubs, English as a Second Language classes, are all coming to congregations somewhere.
Whether your congregation has a full slate lined up, or you are preparing to open your whole children's department in a single classroom, such programming is a vestige of 20th-century American Christianity--and I'm not just talking about the bright colored construction paper stapled to a bulletin board.
Several years ago another pastor and I were talking about our congregations. He was lamenting the fact that many of his families were skipping out on Wednesday night programming for their kids' soccer practices. In his mind this represented a problem with his church members--their faith was suspect, their commitment lacking.
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Tribute to Virginia G. Neely
August 10, 1928--August 30, 2018
by Paula Clayton Dempsey
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Virginia and Alan Neely |
Welcoming and ushering in the "new" in Baptist
life is a centerpiece of the legacy of Virginia
Neely, who died August 30, 2018 at the age of 90. For 52 years Virginia served alongside her husband, Alliance founder Alan Neely, teaching, writing, editing and collaborating in a ministry that has brought lasting renewal not only to Baptists, but also to the larger church.
With undergraduate and graduate degrees in English, as well as a Master of Divinity degree, Virginia's keen intellect and skillful writing served as a compliment to Alan's vision and academic pursuits. Her warmth and humor equipped them to follow God's call that led them, along with their three children Jennifer, Betsie and Roger, to missionary service in Columbia, South America, for 13 years.
Virginia's vision of women's rightful place in ministry in the church is embodied in the volume she and Anne Neil coedited: The New Has Come, published in 1989 by the Alliance.
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Register Now!
Click below and watch this video detailing the Alliance's upcoming
JUSTSEX conference
Oct. 18-20 in Nashville, Tenn. This justice-focused event will equip
people of faith to engage in constructive conversations about sexuality.
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