The Southern Baptist Convention's newly elected President Fred Luter recently visited with renowned evangelist Billy Graham, an experience which the Louisiana native described as "incredible" and similar to meeting Moses on Mount Sinai.

"First of all, I was just kind of amazed that when I walked in the house … he was sitting at the kitchen table, and it was like you were walking on Mt. Sinai and there's Moses just sitting there," Luter told the Baptist Press.

"You know it was just incredible," he added. more >>

Volunteer chaplains who serve the officers of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) in North Carolina have been told that they are no longer permitted to pray in the name of Jesus at public events.

Chaplains have been used for years in the department to not only support the officers, crime victims and their families, but to also offer prayers at public ceremonies and events. Terry Sartain, senior pastor of Horizon Christian Fellowship and a CMPD chaplain, was scheduled to pray at a recent promotion ceremony, but he backed out after he was told he could no longer pray in Jesus' name at public events or on public property.

The phone call he received about the policy change was "nice," he says, and he was offered the opportunity to withdraw "because they really respect my faith and the work that I've done as a chaplain." Sartain has worked with the CMPD for seven years. more >>

A pastor in North Carolina who has been strongly condemned by many Christians for making anti-gay comments was given a standing ovation by his congregants during the church service Sunday.

Several members of Providence Road Baptist Church in Maiden, N.C., and about 100 visitors gave Pastor Charles Worley a standing ovation when he approached the pulpit Sunday, Hickory Record reported. Others lift their hands in support of the 71-year-old pastor.

Worley received widespread criticism after his May 13 sermon in which he said gays should be rounded up into an electric fence and left to die. His remarks were apparently in response to President Barack Obama's May 9 announcement that he supports legalizing gay marriage. more >>

A church in Wake Forest, N.C., is expecting more than 1,200 people to gather for a Memorial Day picnic – the state's largest – on Monday to honor veterans who have served America and to give glory to God for His providential acts in the country's history.

Hosted by Hope Baptist Church, the all-day outdoor Old-Fashioned Memorial Day Picnic will feature patriotic speeches, live music, a free barbecue lunch, rides in vintage military vehicles, a children's parade, a living history camp, and special remarks by two WWII veterans, the church announced Saturday.

"We owe a great debt to the sacrifice our veterans have made to oppose tyranny and defend our nation's cherished liberties," Scott T. Brown, a church elder and the organizer, said in a statement. more >>

A Christian student group has dropped a lawsuit against the University of North Carolina-Greensboro after the university agreed to officially recognize the group as religious, therefore making the group exempt from the university's nondiscrimination policy.

The legal group the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) filed the lawsuit on behalf of the "Make Up Your Own Mind" club, a pro-abstinence, pro-life group, after the university refused to acknowledge it as a religious group.

According to the university's nondiscrimination policy, non-religious groups must offer open membership to all students, regardless of their religious beliefs. more >>

Minister Franklin Graham appeared on the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) this week, co-hosting its signature ministry program "Praise the Lord" with network co-founder, Jan Crouch, just as the network is facing scrutiny over allegations of financial dishonesty.

Graham, son of famous evangelist Billy Graham and president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) and the humanitarian aid ministry Samaritan's Purse, hosted Crouch at BGEA's picturesque retreat and training center, The Cove, in Asheville, N.C.

Graham and Crouch, who created TBN with her husband, Paul, in 1973, discussed evangelism in foreign countries, in particular Asian countries like India and China, as well as conflict-torn African countries like Sudan and South Sudan, where Samaritan's Purse is particularly active. Graham acknowledged the challenges, but focused on the role Evangelical Christians have in spreading the Gospel, or as the co-hosts put it, "bringing the word of God to the end of the world." more >>