– Following a lengthy dispute over scheduling (CT, Oct. 2, 1995, p. 98), the Faith & Values Channel (F&V) and the Southern Baptist Convention's American Christian Television System (ACTS) have reached an agreement that will keep acts programs on the air for the next three years. F&V CEO Nelson Price and ACTS president Jack Jackson in a statement said "the arrangement helps the channel fulfill its purpose of providing interfaith and evangelical programming with a broad viewership appeal."
– James "Larry" Holly, who two years ago rankled Southern Baptist Convention leaders by forcing a vote on Freemasonry's incompatibility with Christianity (CT, May 17, 1993, p. 81), has been told not to return to his home church in Beaumont, Texas, for having raised the same issue. Holly told CT that the pastor and two deacons of Calvary Baptist Church "asked that I never come back again" after Holly told the congregation that allowing Freemasons to serve in leadership had prevented revival in the church. In 1993, the denomination determined that Masonic membership should be a matter of "personal conscience."
– Conservative theologian Robert D. Preus, 71-year-old retired president of Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana, died November 4 of a heart attack. Preus was "honorably retired" against his will in 1989 after 15 years as president. He fought for three years in both secular and Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod courts to be reinstated, and he was during the 1992-93 academic year (CT, Aug. 17, 1992, p. 42).
– Campbell University, a moderate Southern Baptist school in Buies Creek, North Carolina, plans to open a divinity school in 1997. Campbell is hoping for 125 students in its first graduating class in 2000. Southeastern, one of six existing SBC seminaries, is in Wake Forest, North Carolina, but it is under the control of conservatives. There are seven Baptist colleges in the state.
– John Guest, who for the past decade has headed an evangelistic team that bears his name, last month became pastor of the New Church of Sewickley (Pa.), a new interdenominational congregation. Guest once served for nearly two decades as rector of Saint Stephen's Episcopal Church in Sewickley. The new church was started by lay leaders of Saint Stephen's after an "amicable" division. Guest, who remains an Episcopal priest, says the congregation will be known for its evangelistic outreach. He will continue to lead his evangelistic organization.
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