Bryant Wright, the former long-term pastor of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, faced the issue of pastoral succession. After decades of serving his church, the Lord led Wright to carry out a succession plan. His new book captures that journey from the first conversations about stepping down to the final sermon he preached before becoming president of Send Relief, an international relief organization that partners with local churches to provide help to those affected by a disaster or crisis.

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Georgia Baptists are being called on this year to provide a send-off to potentially dozens of new international missionaries who are being deployed to countries around the world, some to places so dangerous they have to hide their identities. The International Mission Board, which has begun holding “sending celebrations” as part of state Baptist convention annual meetings, chose Georgia to be the launching pad for the latest crop of missionaries.

NASHVILLE (BP) – The weekday preschool ministry at Englewood Baptist Church in Rocky Mount, N.C., feeds approximately 60 children a day, a number that doubles in the fall. Food costs have always been a part of such ministries, but it’s just one of several areas where inflation has commanded more attention.

CARLYLE, Ill. (BP) – Two teenage daughters of an Illinois Baptist pastor and the pastor’s sister were killed in a head-on collision with a tractor-trailer near Breckenmeyer in Clinton County on Friday.

VILLA RICA, Ga. – Kevin Williams is willing to do whatever it takes to introduce children to Jesus. Even if it means kissing a lizard. That’s just what the pastor at First Baptist Church of Villa Rica did, to the delight of the hundreds of kids who gathered for a week of fun, games, Bible lessons, and worship at vacation Bible school.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A year has passed since President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated at his private home. Not only have authorities failed to identify all those who masterminded and financed the killing, but Haiti has gone into freefall as violence soars and the economy tumbles. Many have fled Haiti in the past year, making potentially deadly voyages aboard rickety boats.

Southern Baptist Convention President Bart Barber will be looking for people with “a sense of rightness” to serve on the Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force. “Everyone on this implementation task force needs to be committed to the solution of this problem,” Barber said on the podcast SBC This Week.

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — More than two dozen children have died of hunger in the past two months in a single hospital in Somalia. Dr. Yahye Abdi Garun has watched their emaciated parents stumble in from rural areas gripped by the driest drought in decades. And yet no humanitarian aid arrives.

COLUMBUS, Ga. – Tony Dickerson makes his way into the pulpit, his voice unmistakable in its rhythm and intensity. “I want to tell you friends, God is in this place,” he declares with a boldness that fills the auditorium at Pinehurst Baptist Church. “And don’t you for one minute doubt it. He is here, and we are going to have a meeting with Him.” People settle into their seats, eager to be taken on an adventure through the Bible by the pastor who has been serving the same Columbus church for the past 50 years, an almost unheard of tenure.

As Americans celebrate July 4, thousands of members of the U.S. Armed Services are sacrificing to maintain peace and defend the freedom that the United States and many other nations enjoy, and chaplains are there with them, providing the spiritual support they want and need. In early 2022 the reality of an impending Russian invasion of the Ukraine reverberated throughout the United States Armed Services community and members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. By the end of January, U.S. forces were put on high alert to provide support to NATO allies in Eastern Europe.

DULUTH, Ga. – Abortions continue in Georgia nearly a week after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized the procedure 50 years ago. Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr filed a brief in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday, asking that the state’s law banning abortions after a heartbeat is detected be allowed to take effect immediately. Instead, the 11th Circuit gave lawyers three weeks to file written briefs addressing how the Supreme Court decision impacts the “heartbeat law.”

DULUTH, Ga. – Church leaders in Georgia celebrated Monday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision siding with a high school football coach who kneeled and prayed on the field after games as a great win for all believers. Justices ruled 6-3 in favor of the Coach Joseph Kennedy of Washington state, saying his prayer was protected by the First Amendment.

ATHENS, Ga. – They’re older now with graying hair and laugh lines, but a group of retired missionaries who spent much of their lives delivering the gospel to Uruguay haven’t lost their passion for serving the Lord. Some 25 of them gathered with hugs and handshakes at Sabor Latino restaurant in Athens on Thursday to enjoy some Uruguayan cuisine while reminiscing about the good old days of preaching and teaching in cities and towns in the South American country of 3.5 million people.

DULUTH, Ga. – The fiery preacher who has led the Georgia Baptist Mission Board’s state-level evangelism efforts for the past year is moving to the national stage next month. JJ Washington will start a new job as the North American Mission Board’s national director of personal evangelism on July 18.

Southern Baptist Convention President Bart Barber said Wednesday he intends to appoint members to a task force to implement sexual abuse reforms by the end of July. Barber said a video posted to Twitter that making the appointments will be one of the most important thing he will do this year.

ATLANTA – Abortion rights activists have ramped up attacks on pro-life organizations and individuals as the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to release a ruling that could overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. Some pro-life organizations have had their buildings fire-bombed. Others have been vandalized and had messages spray-painted on their walls.

PALMETTO, GA – Someone has stated, “Retirement is when you stop living at work and begin to work at living.” Cecil and Ann Clegg have found a wonderful place to spend their retirement years and seem to be as happy as clams at high tide. They have chosen one of Georgia Baptists’ retirement communities to live out their golden years.

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Southern Baptists around the world were able to tune into this year’s annual meeting via ACTS2 TV, a creation of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board. Some 5,000 people have signed up for the streaming service, and over the two days of the annual meeting, an average of 2,000 of them were watching the proceeding at any one time.

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Sexual predators have used the Southern Baptist Convention’s decentralized polity “to try to turn our churches into a hunting ground.” So says newly elected SBC President Bart Barber.

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Southern Baptists have chosen a Texan to lead them out of a sexual abuse scandal that has rocked the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. Bart Barber, pastor of First Baptist Church in Farmersville, Texas, was elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention on Tuesday, the first day of a two-day annual meeting being held at the Anaheim Convention Center.

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Southern Baptists voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to implement safeguards to protect against sexual abuse in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. That includes the creation of a system to track abusive pastors and other church leaders.

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Georgia’s Clay Smith told Southern Baptist pastors on Monday that, amid cultural shifts that have made their jobs tougher, it’s more crucial than ever to be faithful to their calling. “As has often been said, we’re now the away team in our world,” said Smith, pastor at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Marietta, Ga. “The fans aren’t wearing our jerseys. They’re not clapping for us. They’re not rooting for us.”

ANAHEIM, Calif. – The strength of the Southern Baptist Convention lies with small churches where Christians serve without fanfare just because they want to please God. So says Mark Clifton, the small-town preacher who serves as senior director of church replanting for the North American Mission Board

VALDOSTA, GA – Perhaps the most strategic ministry in America today is the one focused on the redemption, mentoring and discipling of college students. Many secular colleges and universities are doing more indoctrination than education, suggesting that God is irrelevant to the real business of living. In many ways there is even an insidious danger that comes with secular education.

NASHVILLE (BP) – An increase in attacks on pro-life centers has led those groups to call for prayer and protection. On Tuesday morning, Mountain Area Pregnancy Services in Asheville, N.C., shared pictures of vandalism that had occurred at its offices overnight, including threatening messages spray-painted in red and shattered and broken windows around the building.