MACON, Ga. – Melissa Wells, a certified sign language interpreter, was expecting a Deaf co-worker to show up at Tabernacle Baptist Church on a recent Sunday morning, so she  was prepared to sign the songs and sermon.

MARIETTA, Ga. – Training church leaders and volunteers in how to help children and teens suffering from trauma has quickly become one of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board’s most popular ministries. Foster care mobilizer Tera Melber said more than 350 people have undergone the training being offered through Mission Georgia, a Mission Board initiative that seeks to help the state’s most vulnerable populations.

MARIETTA, GA – Corporations rarely cast a twenty-year vision and churches may never look that far ahead, but Dr. John Hull, pastor of Eastside Baptist Church in Marietta is doing just that. A committee or task force is being formulated to do the groundwork to chart a course to make the church as effective and productive as possible in 2043. Pastor Hull has been urging the church to become a maximum church by emphasizing that Eastside exists for the purpose of connecting people to the life-changing message of Jesus Christ.

ATLANTA – Longtime college football coach Tommy Bowden challenged Georgia pastors and politicians on Thursday to always take bold stands for Christ despite the fallout they may face as a result. “You’re in a battle with Washington D.C,” he said. “You’re in a battle with Hollywood. You’re in a battle with print media. You’re in a battle with tele-media. You’re in a battle with social media. I mean, man, if you take a stand for Christ, it is tough.”

HARTWELL, Ga. – Pioneering church planter Terry Meeks is retiring more than 30 years after joining a group of Hartwell families to launch what would become one of northeast Georgia’s premier congregations. Meeks and the others started Cornerstone Baptist Church in the unlikeliest of places, a defunct funeral home, but it worked out beyond their wildest imaginations.

MARIETTA – Brandon Nichols is a church planter who thinks like a missionary, has a heart of compassion, a deep sense of God’s calling upon his life, and his finger on the pulse of the moment. Nichols is pastor of Mercy Hill Church in Marietta, a work he started in 2016. He is a native of Warner Robins, and a graduate of the University of Georgia and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Prior to coming to the north side of Atlanta to plant a church, Nichols was the student pastor at Central Baptist Church in Warner Robins. He began giving some thought to planting a church in 2013, knowing that starting something new would not only require a spirit of adventure, but would likely be fraught with formidable challenges

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – Hundreds of Southern Baptist student ministry leaders came together in the Chattanooga Convention Center for the annual Youth Ministry Conclave to refocus, reset and recharge as they prepare to further their ministry to students across the nation. “Conclave is a partnership of multiple state conventions,” said Chris Trent, next gen catalyst for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board. “Every year, it feels like worship is special because it provides that opportunity where leaders can be in the room, but they don’t have to worry about [leading] anything.”

The Georgia Baptist Foundation has launched an initiative to help church members donate timber to support the work of local churches. “The concept of selling the land that has been in your family for decades may be unsettling, but there are many other ways to steward the land resources that God has blessed you with by supporting your church,” said Johnathan Gray, the foundation’s president and chief executive officer. “Many Christians would make gifts of timber if they had an organization to help them do so – especially in Georgia with its 24 million acres of timberland, 92% of which is owned by private landowners.”

JONESBORO, Ga. – More than 400 Georgia Baptist students participated in REEL Fest, an event sponsored by the Georgia Baptist Mission Board that allows the next generation of worship leaders to hone their musical and singing skills. REEL Fest, short for Refocusing Energy on Exalting the Lord, is a high-energy worship event that draws students from sixth grade and up from across the state.

DULUTH, Ga. – Churches gave more than $1.4 million over the past year through the Mission Georgia offering that provides funding specifically for sharing the gospel in Georgia, a state with more than 9 million unchurched residents. Georgia Baptist Mission Board Chief Operating Officer David Melber said that was an increase of more than $100,000 over the previous year.

GRIFFIN, Ga. – Charles Raburn and his chainsaw were dwarfed by the massive branches of a giant oak toppled by one of the tornadoes that hit Georgia last week. In a breathtaking scene, the Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief volunteer stood high above a soggy lawn in Griffin, among those branches in a tree that measured nearly 20 feed around at its base.

ALPHARETTA, Ga. – Kevin and Casey Kilgore had what most would consider normal lives. Kevin had served as an associate pastor at Northside Baptist Church in Tifton, Georgia, for 14 years. They had four daughters—all in public schools, a mortgage—and a cat. The Kilgores imagined spending the rest of their lives serving the Tifton community. But then God said go.

BENSALEM, Pa. – More than 5,000 people have come to know Christ in rural villages in Liberia over the past four years thanks to a ministry led by Truett-McConnell University alumnus Henry Peabody.

Endurance, longevity in ministry, and life-long integrity seem to be characteristics of the few — not the many — in church ministry today. The public fall of church leaders due to long-concealed moral failings heightens the urgent need for Christ-like leaders who last. In a recent interview, Jeff Struecker, assistant professor of Christian leadership at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, shared about his most recent test of endurance and his reflections on developing a culture of Christian ministry and leadership that lasts.

GRIFFIN, Ga. – A soggy forecast won’t deter Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief chainsaw crews who are helping tornado victims remove trees from their homes and property. “It’s just rain, nothing severe,” said Jeff Carter, a crew leader who was among the first to arrive in the Griffin area where an EF-2 tornado did widespread damage.

ATLANTA – Southern Baptists make up the largest religious group in Georgia with nearly 1.6 million members in communities across the state, according to the U.S. Religion Census. Southern Baptists outnumber by far the second largest group, Catholics, by 1,584,393 to 898,162, according to the census conducted by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies.

GRIFFIN, Ga. – Chainsaw crews from Georgia Baptist churches expect to be busy for three weeks or more helping tornado victims remove trees from their homes and property in Griffin and other hard-hit communities. They began arriving within hours of the tornado outbreak that’s being blamed for two deaths and widespread property damage.

BRUNSWICK, Ga. – Chris Winford started last year with a prayer that the Lord would make him a man of deeper faith. “Little did I know I was about to become a living example,” the pastor at First Baptist Church in Brunswick said. A grim cancer diagnosis caused Winford to trust in the Lord more than ever before. His is an encouraging story of faith and courage amid uncertainty and of a gracious God who provided a happy ending.

TIFTON, Ga. – Penny Chesnut has seen some unusual sights during her four decades serving in Baptist Collegiate Ministries at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College. She recalled the day she walked into the BCM building on the Tifton campus and saw a young man bathing his chicken in the kitchen sink to get it ready for a class project. Then there was the time a student thought the BCM a good place to bleach a deer’s head, again for a class project.

DULUTH, Ga. – Members of the Georgia Baptist Convention’s Administration Committee chose Milledgeville Pastor Tim Oliver as their chairman on Tuesday. “It’s an honor,” said Oliver, pastor at Lakeside Baptist Church. “I’ve never felt qualified in anything God called me to do, but He has always blessed.” Oliver, who had been serving as the committee’s vice chairman, was the unanimous choice for the top post. He has been serving in ministry for 34 years, the last 20 of which have been at Lakeside.

CARTERSVILLE, Ga. – A small church in north Georgia has begun the year in a big way, by baptizing nine new believers. “It’s amazing to see God moving in such a big way with everything we’ve been through in the past couple of years,” said Cassville Baptist Church Pastor Andrew Hackler. “There’s nothing else we can credit this to other than the moving of the Spirit and faithful obedience to what God has called us to.”

SANDERSVILLE, Ga. – The director of Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief said chainsaw crews have completed a deployment to Sandersville where a tornado touched down earlier in the week. Dwain Carter said more than 20 volunteers have been on the scene since Wednesday. “I look for Disaster Relief volunteers to be there for a couple more days,”  he said. A line of storms brought at least four tornados and heavy rain to much of Georgia on Tuesday and Wednesday.

DULUTH, Ga. – Registration has opened for the Georgia Baptist Evangelism Conference, one of the state Mission Board’s most popular events, having drawn more than 1,500 participants last year. Levi Skipper, the Georgia Baptist Mission Board strategist who oversees the evangelism conference, said two locations were chosen for this year's event in late February and early March to make it easier for people to attend from all areas of the state.

SANDERSVILLE, Ga. – Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief workers are in Sandersville where a suspected tornado caused localized property damage. “We have experienced, to this point, one tornado,” Dwain Carter, director of Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief, said Wednesday morning. “I have people on the ground currently and will deploy a recovery team there first thing in the morning.”

WASHINGTON — News that the Food and Drug Administration has finalized a rule change that makes abortion pills more widely available in pharmacies and via mail order has pro-life advocates alarmed. Mike Griffin, public affairs representative for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, called the FDA's action "terrible."