Baptist News hands operations to board
The corporation that has operated a news service for Baptists in Arkansas since 1983 will be dissolved and operations will be returned to the Arkansas Baptist State Convention’s executive board, according to a news release.
The Southern Baptist-affiliated convention announced earlier this month that the board of trustees for Arkansas Baptist News, the denomination’s statewide news service, voted on the decision Jan.
- The newspaper will continue online, and the convention’s communications staff will work with Baptists in the state to determine “the best way to communicate in the future.”
The decision was made after the results of a financial feasibility study last year demonstrated that the service was no longer viable as a separate agency, and after a pattern of steady decline in subscriptions and revenue over a period of nearly three decades, the release said.
Greg Addison, the state convention’s associate executive director, said Wednesday that future plans include expansion of news coverage through the newspaper’s website, arkansasbaptist.org.
“The action by the Board of Trustees for the Arkansas Baptist News is about how the ministry is structured, not the importance of telling the story of how Arkansas Baptists minister to our state and around the world,” Addison said in an email. “The [Arkansas Baptist News] … began under the Executive Board ministries in 1901 and will continue uninterrupted as the ministry returns there.”
Performance to accompany unveiling
The United Methodist Museum of Arkansas, 723 Center St.in Little Rock, will host a music presentation in conjunction with the opening of its new exhibit on March 1.
Musical acts including the St. James United Methodist Church Elementary Handbell Choir with Kyle Blackburn and St. Paul musicians will be featured from 2-4 p.m. at the museum, which is housed inside Little Rock’s First United Methodist Church.
The Rev. J. Wayne Clark will also speak at the event. Guests are invited to view the exhibit before the presentation, which will be available for viewing when the museum opens at 9 a.m. that day..
More information is available at ummac.lr@gmail.com or (501) 904-1280.
Duke dean, scribe to visit Little Rock
Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church, 4823 Woodlawn Drive, will host Dr. L. Gregory Jones, author and current dean of Duke University Divinity School, for its forthcoming 2020 Raney Lecture Series.
Jones, who is also a professor at the university, is the author of titles including Embodying Forgiveness and Christian Social Innovation.
For the 2020 lecture series, “Practicing Forgiveness,” Jones will give the sermon “Love Made Me an Inventor” at 6 p.m. March 13, after which a question and answer session will be held; a reception and book signing will take place at 7:15 p.m.
He will preach the sermon “Life in the Spirit” at 9 a.m. and “Forgiveness as a Way of Life” at 11 a.m. March 15. A reception will take place at 10 a.m. in the church’s gathering hall.
Admission is free and child care will be provided at all services for the series. Register for the March 13 reception at (501) 664-3600.