Indiana

INDIANAPOLIS – Going into their annual meeting with a smaller membership count and declining baptisms, Southern Baptists were called to take an honest look at reality.

On the surface level, members of the Southern Baptist Convention – the largest Protestant denomination in the country – may pat each other on the back for all the good works they’re doing, but outgoing SBC president Frank Page urged them to see themselves as they really are, even though it may hurt.

“I wonder … will we as Southern Baptists recognize the signs of what is happening among us?” Page told thousands of attendants Tuesday. more >>

Young Southern Baptists are kicking off a major outreach initiative Friday that will affect a total of 80 U.S. cities and offer some $16.4 million in free labor to local residents over the next few months.

The more than 23,000 students – ranging from teen-age to college-age – participating in the 2008 World Changers project will install new roofs, repair drywalls, paint, and landscape for sub-standard homes in poor neighborhoods across the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.

Indianapolis will be the first of 96 cities to host the World Changers project. Students will rehabilitate 15 homes from May 30 to June 7, just ahead of the annual Southern Baptist Convention meeting, June 9-11, at the Indiana Convention Center. more >>

An Indiana pro-life group is upset over a plan by local Planned Parenthoods to offer free emergency contraception in cities with large college populations.

Planned Parenthood of Indiana announced that beginning Feb. 26 it will offer doses of emergency contraception at 10 of its centers within the state. The giveaway will take place in Bloomington, Evansville, Fort Wayne, Hammond, Lafayette, Madison, Mishawaka, Muncie, Terre Haute and Valparaiso until April 8 or while supplies last, said spokesman Steve Carr.

According to Planned Parenthood, the "Free EC Day" was timed to remind young people of the importance of responsible sexual behavior as spring break nears for many Indiana colleges and universities. more >>

An Indiana Senate committee approved on Thursday an amendment to the state constitution that would ban same-sex “marriages.”

The legislation will now go before the Senate for a full vote where it might clear again as it has in previous years.

However, it is unlikely that the ban would be amended to the constitution this year. The House Rules Committee chairman has told media outlets that he will not give it a hearing this year. more >>

Faith-based groups and nonprofits received advice on how to access millions of dollars in federal grant money during a two-day conference sponsored by the White House Conference on Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.

More than 1,000 nonprofit leaders joined the conference, held Nov.5-6 in Indianapolis, to learn from experts on how to improve their skills when it comes to writing proposals for government grants and grow their social service programs.

"Government works better when we work with every willing partner, whether it's a large or small organization, a faith-based or a secular one," Jay Hein, director of the Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, said Monday. more >>

Innovate 2007 kicked off Thursday to help inspire hundreds of church pastors and staff to plow new grounds in ministry.

"What does it mean to be innovative in your environment?" posed Mark Beeson, senior pastor of host church Granger Community in Indiana, ahead of the two-day conference. "Innovation isn't imitation. It isn't comfortable; it's authentic."

The annual event draws church leaders from all styles of faith, including the traditional, the contemporary and the emergent, trying to pick up practical as well as creative and successful ideas for church growth and leading ministry. more >>