Church planting was part of NewBranch Community Church’s vision from the beginning, says Teaching Pastor Ken Rucker. The question for this Georgia church, which began gathering in 2008, had always been, “When’s the right time to plant?”

CARTERSVILLE, Ga. — After 30 years of service, Don Startup, worship pastor at Tabernacle Baptist Church in Cartersville, Ga., is retiring. On Sunday, June 16, one week before his final service as worship pastor, the church celebrated Pastor Startup and his ministry.

COLUMBUS, Ga. – Tony Dickerson is known as a Baptist statesman, an anointed expository preacher, and a loving pastoral shepherd who is about to enter his 52nd year as senior pastor of Pinehurst Baptist Church in Columbus. He is also a proven leader and a genuine man of God.

NASHVILLE (BP) – Late last Wednesday afternoon, June 12, the gavel dropped at the 2024 SBC Annual Meeting in Indianapolis and thus officially ended the service of those on the Convention’s Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force. However, several weren’t there to see it.

INDIANAPOLIS (BP) – In anticipation of the 100th anniversary celebration of the Cooperative Program (CP) in 2025, Baptist Press editor Brandon Porter interviewed Tony Wolfe, executive director-treasurer of the South Carolina Baptist Convention, and John Kyle, communications director at the Louisiana Baptist Convention, on the CP Stage in the Exhibit Hall prior to the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention.

TOCCOA, GA – James reminds us that pure and undefiled religion will prompt believers to care for widows (James 1:27). The writer of Proverbs penned, “Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed” (Proverbs 19:17).

MARIETTA, Ga. — Dr. Randy Cheek was approaching 70 years old when he was called as senior pastor of Eastwood Baptist Church in Marietta. His first Sunday he preached a message that has become his personal prayer, “Lord, whatever you want, I want.”

INDIANAPOLIS (BP) – Newly elected SBC President Clint Pressley, in his first press conference following the election Wednesday, June 12, expressed his confidence in Southern Baptists as he responded to questions on issues dealt with in the 2024 SBC Annual Meeting at the Indiana Convention Center.

INDIANAPOLIS (BP) – North Carolina pastor Clint Pressley, elected SBC president from a field of six nominees, begins his term with two newly-elected officers and two officers reelected during the 2024 SBC annual meeting in Indianapolis.

INDIANAPOLIS — In a highly anticipated vote on the final day of this year’s Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting, messengers narrowly defeated the proposed Law Amendment which specified that only men can serve “as any kind of pastor or elder as qualified by Scripture.”

INDIANAPOLIS — Southern Baptist messengers approved recommendations presented by the Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force on Tuesday, June 11.

It’s likely a Fayette County first: A county marshal ordered a church pastor to appear before a judge to answer for a publicly advertised car show held during daylight hours entirely within the church property.

INDIANANPOLIS — Newly appointed missionaries looked around the Indiana Convention Center’s hall at the urging of Paul Chitwood, International Mission Board president. He gestured from the stage to more than 13,000 messengers and guests sent by local churches to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Indianapolis. 

INDIANAPOLIS (BP) – The SBC voted June 11 to discontinue its cooperative relationship with a Virginia church that has a female associate pastor. The church has ordained at least three women as pastors over more than four decades and told the SBC Credentials Committee it would consider a female as senior pastor.

INDIANAPOLIS — They told stories about a young mother living in gang-controlled slums in a crowded city; Sudanese refugees who fled their homes with nothing and found a safe place in Uganda; Chuck, a third-generation Korean Japanese man living in Japan who was initially resistant to the gospel. 

INDIANAPOLIS (BP) – In his first address as SBC Executive Committee president and CEO to trustees Monday, Jeff Iorg presented a mandate to address issues that have been roiling Southern Baptists in recent years.

INDIANAPOLIS (BP) – Increasing financial transparency, combatting sexual abuse and electing a new slate of officers were among highlights of the SBC Executive Committee’s meeting Monday in Indianapolis.

INDIANAPOLIS – Preceding this year’s Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting in Indianapolis, Send Network, the North American Mission Board’s church planting arm, hosted a kickoff event on Sunday evening designed to set the focus for the busy days ahead.

INDIANAPOLIS (BP) — Hundreds prayed Sunday evening in the main meeting hall for God’s direction, the next generation, pastors and all others arriving for the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting in the coming days. 

INDIANAPOLIS (BP) – The Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force has launched the curriculum it hopes churches will use to train volunteers in preventing sexual abuse and responding to those who have experienced it.

CARMEL, Indiana —When Jared Barham brought students from his Indianapolis church to the first-ever Crossover Student Rally at Harvest Church in Carmel, Indiana, he had big hopes. The associate pastor of youth at Northside Baptist Church in Indianapolis hoped they’d hear the gospel from a different voice and learn about how to share it with their friends.

INDIANAPOLIS – About 51 percent of Hoosiers, inhabitants of Indiana, say they seldom or never attend church or religious services, according to a recent report by Axios Indianapolis. One local pastor is praying that Crossover will help to turn those numbers around.

PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. — The Deaf Ministry at First Baptist Church Peachtree City hosted a special event on Sunday, June 2, to share the love of Jesus with Deaf and hard of hearing people. Visitors came from Dorsett Shoals Baptist Church in Douglasville and from East Thomaston Baptist Church in Thomaston.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (BP) – When Joseph Josselyn of “Jesus: A Deaf Missions Film” lost his hearing as a toddler, life became “a little painful at times” as he grew, accepted Jesus and worshipped God in the hearing world.

NASHVILLE (BP) – On Tuesday (June 4) Southern Baptists’ Abuse Reform and Implementation Task Force released its final report and recommendations ahead of the 2024 SBC Annual Meeting in Indianapolis. The report highlights the release of a new curriculum designed to help local churches of all sizes “establish or evaluate their abuse prevention and response plan.”