LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. – Georgia Baptists face great challenges in reaching in the state with the gospel, and that’s why it’s imperative that they work together, Georgia Baptist Mission Board Executive Director W. Thomas Hammond Jr. told a group of the state’s top leaders this week. “Our business is to fulfill the mandates that have been given to us by our Lord to do His work,” he told members of the Georgia Baptist Executive Committee on Tuesday.

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. – A Mission Georgia initiative to build 15 tiny homes for survivors of human trafficking will get a financial boost on Sunday from the Atlanta Braves during the franchise’s annual Faith and Family Day. The Braves will present a check to Wellspring Living, the nonprofit organization that the Georgia Baptist Mission Board is partnering with to build the homes south of Atlanta.

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. – Shorter University President Donald Dowless made a strong case on Tuesday for the value of the faithful Christians who are graduating from his school’s nursing program. “One of these nursing students may one day be the last person someone on their deathbed gets to talk to,” he told the Georgia Baptist Executive Committee in a meeting at North Metro Baptist Church in Lawrenceville. “Do you want someone from a Baptist school who has been trained to share Jesus Christ as part of the loving care of that person? That’s what I would want.”

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. – The Georgia Baptist Executive Committee has approved a $32 million Cooperative Program budget, which includes $15.8 million for a wide variety of initiatives aimed at “pushing back lostness” in the state plus $12.8 million for national and international causes. “The generosity of Georgia Baptists is on full display here,” said Georgia Baptist Mission Board Executive Director W. Thomas Hammond Jr.

DULUTH, Ga. – Numbers coming in for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board’s SPARK conference point to what could be the annual event’s largest attendance ever, the organizer said Monday. More than 1,600 Georgia Baptists attended SPARK conferences held at regional sites across the state and nearly 1,000 more logged on for the event’s digital premiere.

DULUTH, Ga. – The Georgia Baptist Mission Board’s Mission Georgia team has scheduled a series of webinars in September to provide information about options available to churches that want to help some of the state’s most vulnerable residents. The webinars are being offered in conjunction with the September emphasis on the Mission Georgia offering, which allows congregations to support efforts to spread the gospel within the state in the same way that the Annie Armstrong and Lottie Moon offerings are used to share Jesus in North America and around the world.

SUMMERVILLE, Ga. – Residents of flood-ravaged northwest Georgia won’t have to worry about food or in the aftermath of last weekend’s severe storms.Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief …

FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. – The death of Queen Elizabeth II, the global icon of calmness and fortitude through decades of political upheaval and social change, has touched hearts around the world, including here in Georgia. In Fayetteville, New Hope Baptist Church Pastor Rhys Stenner called her “arguably the greatest monarch of the last thousand years.”

SUMMERVILLE, Ga. – Residents of flood-ravaged northwest Georgia won’t have to worry about food or water in the aftermath of last weekend’s severe storms. Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers have set up a mobile kitchen with the capacity to serve 3,000 meals a day and they're distributing truckloads of bottled water.

VALDOSTA, Ga. – People who know Jeanette Coody describe her as a charming and self-assured lady with an unflinching commitment when it comes to matters of faith. The Georgia woman who turns 100 on September 19 hasn’t missed Sunday school since she first started attending a class she organized at age 17. “I said, ‘God, if you will allow me to start this program, I will be faithful to it,’” she said. “And I have been.”

SUMMERVILLE, Ga. — Georgia Baptists were dispatching trucks loaded with bottled water on Sunday after heavy rain caused flash flooding in the state's northwestern region, and Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief crews stood ready to deploy if requested by local authorities. Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency Sunday afternoon in Chattooga and Floyd Counties, a necessary first step to funneling state resources to help communities recover.

DULUTH, Ga. – The Georgia Baptist Mission Board will be offering training on Sept. 17 for people who want to get involved with the state’s Disaster Relief ministry. “This is a ministry that allows Georgia Baptists to truly bring help, hope and healing to the hurting,” said Dwain Carter, the state Mission Board’s Disaster Relief director. “It deploys teams of volunteers into disaster zones after tornados, hurricanes, floods, famines, or any other kind of calamity that negatively impacts lives.”

GRAND BLANC, Mich. (BP) – Rick and Cindy Truesdail’s retirements a few years ago came with plans. They took their camper and drove to Florida, setting up close to the beach. The couple …

DULUTH, Ga. – With the pandemic subsiding and worship attendance on the rise, churches are poised to potentially top the $1.25 million given last year through the Mission Georgia offering. Congregations are gearing up to receive special offerings for Mission Georgia during September, the month designated by the Georgia Baptist Convention for that purpose.

COOK SPRINGS, Ala. (BP) – More than 50 children of missionaries (missionary kids) preparing to enter college in the U.S. this fall gained insights and encouragement for “reentering” well during the annual MK Re-Entry Retreat held at Alabama Woman’s Missionary Union’s WorldSong Missions Place.

GLADEWATER, Texas (BP) – When God called Teddy Sorrells to plant a church in 2020, he expected to be sent to San Francisco or Denver, one of the popular church planting cities. Instead, a quick demographics study led him to plant in the small East Texas town he’d been trying all his life to leave.

DULUTH, Ga. – As a police chaplain and pastor, Terry Rainwater can’t help but be troubled by human trafficking statistics in Georgia. For example, the average age a child forced into prostitution in the state is between 12 and 14. And between 200 to 375 girls are sold or exploited in any given month in the state, primarily in the Atlanta area. Rainwater, pastor of Highlands Baptist Church in Hogansville and chaplain for the Hogansville Police Department, said the statistics shared at a recent training event hosted by the Georgia Baptist Mission Board’s Mission Georgia initiative are overwhelming and the stories behind the statistics are heartbreaking.

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. – Russians and Ukrainians may be at war in Europe, but here in Georgia they're forging strong friendships. At the Russian-speaking Lighthouse Church, people who immigrated years ago from the former USSR were waiting with open arms to welcome Ukrainians who have fled the war zone over the past six months.

DULUTH, Ga. – The Georgia Baptist Mission Board has created a series of videos for churches to use in promoting this year’s Mission Georgia offering, proceeds from which are used to share the gospel in some of the hardest to reach places in the state.

As the school year kicks off at colleges and universities around Georgia, students are greeted by friendly faces and helping hands courtesy of Georgia Baptist Collegiate Ministries. Whether it’s through help moving into a new dorm room at Gordon State, a muffin snack at Valdosta State or a slice of pizza at Georgia Highlands, BCM students are eager to share the love of Christ with fellow students.

POUND, Va. – Eddie Johnson had stopped at Robo’s Drive-In restaurant in rural southwest Virginia for a burger and fries, but he got far more than that. An unexpected encounter with a team of Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief workers at the roadside restaurant would lead to Johnson rededicating his life to Christ and four others accepting Jesus as their Savior.

KABUL, Afghanistan (BP) – Christians in Afghanistan are forced into greater secrecy and largely cut off from humanitarian aid, International Christian Concern  said in its report on the first anniversary of U.S. withdrawal from the Muslim country.

COMMERCE, Ga. – If Pastor Chuck Cook had to put his finger on just one factor that has led to the revitalization of Beaverdam Baptist Church, he would point to a palpable feeling of love that visitors experience when they walk through the doors. “Everyone who visits, they feel that love,” Cook said. “The congregation has such a welcoming nature about them. A high percentage of our first-time visitors come back. They get plugged in. And they invite their friends to come. The excitement is contagious.”

ALONG THE JORDAN RIVER — For the thousands of Georgians who take pilgrimages to the Holy Land each year, one of the highlights is visiting the Jordan River. They may not realize that water usage is up and the water level is down. The environmental group EcoPeace Middle East is sounding the alarm that decades of water diversions for agriculture and domestic use are taking a toll on the river.

NASHVILLE – The U.S. Department of Justice has begun an investigation of the Southern Baptist Convention in the wake of an internal probe that found the Executive Committee had mishandled sex abuse allegations over a period of years. Executive Committee lawyers told The Associated Press that federal investigators have already issued a subpoena. They didn’t specify whether that subpoena was civil or criminal. Meanwhile, the Department of Justice is neither confirming nor denying that it is investigating, saying “grand jury matters are secret.”