Newsworthy Baptist-Related Articles

First and foremost, is the news that two Cuban Baptist leaders were arrested on October 3 and remain in jail.  Their crime?  Who knows.  Very few details have emerged and the men have yet to be formally charged.  Hope this story receives more attention in the press.  Here’s a snippet:

Rubén Ortiz-Columbié, coordinator for special projects of the Eastern Cuba Baptist Convention, and Francisco “Pancho” Garcia, director of the convention’s teen department, were reportedly carrying out church work when nabbed by authorities.  Ortiz’ son, also named Ruben, is a pastor in Florida. He said the two men were on their way to distribute money donated for Baptist work. He said his church, Primera Iglesia Bautista in Deltona, Fla., regularly sends funds to the convention for mission projects in Cuba.

Observers in the United States familiar with the situation said they don’t know why police targeted Ortiz and Garcia. Ortiz is a well known Baptist leader in Cuba and worldwide. He is former general office manager of the Eastern Cuba Baptist Convention and has taught stewardship at the Baptist Seminary of Eastern Cuba for 20 years. Since retiring from the convention he has continued to visit churches to determine project needs and help them to secure necessary funds and labor to get the jobs done in a volunteer capacity.

In other news, First Baptist Washington D.C. has called a new pastor.

WASHINGTON (ABP) — Jeffrey Haggray is stepping down after eight years as executive director of the District of Columbia Baptist Convention to become pastor of the historic First Baptist Church of Washington.

Elected Oct. 11, Haggray, 46, will be the first African-American pastor of the 207-year-old congregation that has been the church home to Supreme Court justices, members of Congress and Presidents Harry Truman and Jimmy Carter. Haggray said he is “humbled and grateful” for the call to serve the congregation.

Finally, while I usually like the op-eds over at EthicsDaily.com, the most recent column by Chuck Warnock is based on bad bad statistics. Here’s how Warnock begins:

People don‘t need to go to church.

At least that‘s how the majority of people in America act. Less than 18 percent of the population attends church on any given Sunday. In the U.S., we are chasing downhill Europe‘s church attendance rate of 7 percent. David Olson predicts by 2020 we‘ll be halfway there.

This 18% stat is based on the personal research of David Olson.  Olson is the director of church planing for the Evangelical Covenant Church and a former pastor.   Meanwhile, a recent survey by Pew Forum found that around 39% of American attended weekly worship services between January 2007 and January 2009.  During that period, worship service attendance hit a low of 36% in December 2008 and a high of 42% in April 2008.  Whether the percentage is 36, 39 or 42, that’s quite off from the 18% stat cited by Olson. The Pew Forum statistics match-up with pastor surveys done by other organizations and sociologists of religion.

It’s worth noting that Olson’s books are endorsed by a number of prominent evangelism/church planting gurus.  However, I’ve yet to come across an actual trained social scientist to endorse Olson’s radical findings.  If pastors and others in the ministry are interested in sociology of religion as it relates especially to American Christianity, I suggest they check out the works of respected sociologists.  The social-scientific findings The Pew Forum and sociologists like Rodney Stark, Roger Finke, and Peter Berger hold – in my opinion – a little more weight than a pastor/church planter who is likely driven by a specific agenda.