ALPHARETTA, Ga. – Steve Browning, lead pastor of First Baptist Church Alpharetta, will be nominated to serve as president of the Georgia Baptist Convention at the annual meeting scheduled for Nov. 11-12 in Statesboro.

ROME, Ga. — Close to 50 football players on the team at Shorter University made decisions for Christ this year before the season started, and 17 followed through with believer’s baptism. Zach Morrison, in his seventh year as head coach, described what happened after players arrived at the school in early August for preseason training and conditioning camp.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — While Jeff Iorg’s initial plans for retirement won’t happen as expected, the former president of Gateway Seminary noted he and his wife, Ann, are at peace because “God called, and here we are.”

FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. — Eli Akin is all about serving others. He has developed an outreach ministry, M25 Barbecue, that is personal, selfless, effective, and Christ-honoring. His ministry combines compassion, service, evangelism, and, yes - barbecue – a winning recipe for any church or community.

WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — With a long agenda for consideration, the Executive Committee of the Georgia Baptist Convention met for its regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday, Sept. 10, at Central Baptist Church in Warner Robins.

WINDER, Ga. — As the residents of Barrow County, and especially the students at Apalachee High School, deal with the aftermath of last week’s school shooting, Georgia Baptist churches are working together to provide support. Mark Marshall, ​senior lead strategist of Church Strengthening for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, told a meeting of the state executive committee in Warner Robins on Tuesday that Georgia Baptists “were on the front lines” of the response effort.

CLAXTON, Ga. — Worship, praise and prayer rang out as usual on a recent Sunday at Eastside Baptist Church in Claxton, but with a big difference. The nearly 40 people in attendance in the church sanctuary lifted their voices in their native language – Creole.

BRENTWOOD, Tenn. — After a difficult economic stretch for many churches and pastors, Southern Baptist pastors may feel more comfortable compared to two years ago.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill.  — A circuit judge in Springfield has ruled against the Illinois Baptist State Association in a suit to protect IBSA from requirements to provide employees with insurance benefits that cover abortion. The ruling came more than four years after IBSA filed suit, saying the Illinois Reproductive Health Act did not violate IBSA’s religious freedom.

WINDER, Ga. (BP) – Area churches have canceled or altered normal Wednesday activities after a shooting at Apalachee High School left four dead and nine others taken to area hospitals with injuries. In a press conference this afternoon, Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey confirmed that the deceased were two students and two teachers.

McDONOUGH, Ga. — With four of this year’s six regional SPARK church-strengthening conferences in the books, the Georgia Baptist Mission Board’s discipleship team is shattering attendance numbers. So far in 2024, more than 2200 participants from over 130 churches have taken advantage of the gatherings to learn strategies and ideas for improving all aspects of their church’s ministry.

McDONOUGH, Ga. — A record number of participants registered for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board’s SPARK conference at Glen Haven Baptist Church in McDonough, Ga., Sunday, Aug. 25.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — The pilot of a plane that crashed in northeast Wyoming in July, killing seven people, declared an emergency and loss of the autopilot shortly before the incident that claimed the lives of three members of the Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame quartet The Nelons.

DULUTH, Ga. (BP) – Afghanistan. Benin. Brazil. Bulgaria. Cameroon. China. Colombia. Cuba. Dominican Republic. Ecuador … The 2024 Paris Games opening procession of athletes? Were the contestants vying for 2024 Miss Universe taking their place on stage? No, and no.

LONG BEACH, Calif. — From the moments the lights went down for the opening worship set to the final prayer that wrapped up the event, the Send Network Gathering in Long Beach, Monday and Tuesday, August 26-27 drove attendees toward the conference theme: “Multiplication for Movement.”

MAYSVILLE, Ga. — Maysville Baptist Church is a thriving fellowship of believers with two morning worship services that are characterized by many contagiously joyful Christians who believe in going into the highways and hedges with the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ.

BUFORD, Ga. — A very special ceremony took place on Friday, Aug. 16, at Phillips State Prison in Buford. Faculty from Truett McConnell University gathered with prison staff, family, and friends to celebrate 24 offenders who received their bachelor’s degrees in Christian studies.

TALMO, Ga. — The Transitional Interim Pastor’s (TIP) Fellowship may well be the only ministry of its kind across the Southern Baptist Convention. It serves a significant role in the ministries of transitional interims in Northeast Georgia. Organized by several associational mission strategists in 2016, it is designed to build on the training provided for transitional pastors by helping them keep their skillsets sharp during and between ministry opportunities.

LAKE PARK, Ga. —  Eldridge Lyons, 86, is in his 46th year as pastor of Francis Lake Baptist Church in Lake Park. Throughout his ministry at Francis Lake, Lyons has been able to utilize the gifts and expertise of his membership to make the church a strong, united fellowship. Several months ago, Colby Davis, one of the children, prayed such a meaningful prayer that Lyons started calling him “the pastor’s assistant.”

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP) – The 2025 SBC Annual Meeting in Dallas will feature a 100th anniversary celebration of the Cooperative Program and President Clint Pressley presiding over his first annual meeting. Dozens of key leaders met at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary on Thursday, Aug. 22, for a kickoff to begin preparations for the June meeting.

SANDERSVILLE, Ga. — In his opening prayer on Sunday, Aug. 11, Sisters Baptist Church pastor Kevin Carter praised God for His faithfulness over the course of the congregation’s 200-year history. “Father,” he said, “You have been with us through depressions and wars and famines and all kinds of storms of life… We praise you for Your goodness and Your faithfulness.”

CHULA, Ga. — C.S. Lewis, in his book Miracles, defines a “miracle” as being the opposite of an “ordinary.” It is something so unexpected that it speaks to divine intervention. In recent years, a miracle takes place each July in the small South Georgia community of Chula, and BCM Send Me Now Mission Teams are some of the instruments that God has used to make it happen.

The Georgia Baptist Mission Board kicked off its series of SPARK church-strengthening conferences earlier this month with gatherings in Cornelia and Columbus. Initial attendance numbers are very encouraging, says Scott Sullivan, the board’s discipleship catalyst.

A team of Georgia Baptists from First Baptist Church of Jonesboro and the Georgia Baptist Mission Board recently returned from a fact-finding and ministry trip to Poland and Ukraine. Lanny Loe, missions pastor at FBC Jonesboro, in consultation with the International Mission Board, organized the visit to the war-torn nation with GBMB staff Chris Reynolds and Marty Youngblood.

SAVANNAH, Ga. — Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief will opening a second recovery site in the Savannah areas on Monday, Aug. 19. The site will be located at Chevis Oaks Baptist Church.