NASHVILLE (BP) – Richard Ross has decades of experience when it comes to student ministry. And today, he’s observing a troubling trend.

A Disaster Assistance & Response Team of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (SBDR) and volunteers returned from Poland last week to survey ways volunteers from the United States might engage and serve Ukrainian refugees fleeing the invasion of their homeland.

For years, Toby Thorpe and his friends Mike Stanley and Earl McMahon have kicked around the idea of cycling from coast to coast.

NASHVILLE (BP) – Guidepost Solutions is drafting its final report based on an investigation of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee’s handling of sexual abuse complaints, the Sexual Abuse Task Force said in its latest update.

CUMMING, Ga. – More than 1,500 Georgia Baptists showed up for evangelism training over the past three weeks, a signal that the state’s largest religious group is ready to get back to the kind of soul-winning it has historically been known for.

Shelling by approaching Russian troops didn’t stop Baptists in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv from gathering for worship last Sunday.

NASHVILLE (BP) – The team tasked with searching for a new president & CEO of the SBC Executive Committee is asking for prayer. The group also has launched a 21-day prayer initiative and created a day-by-day guide to encourage specific prayers for each day the rest of the month.

CARTERSVILLE – Lottie Moon, a household name among Southern Baptists because of her selfless and sacrificial missionary service among the people of China, has a beautiful new chapel named for her and dedicated in her memory at First Baptist Church in Cartersville.

FUNSTON, GA – Do you want to transform your church business meeting into something refreshing and with deep spiritual meaning? Funston Baptist Church under the leadership of Pastor Ron Shiver has seen a beautiful metamorphosis take place with church business meetings often characterized by tension and division transformed into spiritual gatherings designed to enhance the health of the church.

EASTANOLLEE, Ga. – An outbreak of spontaneous revivals across Georgia is continuing with 17 salvation decisions last week at two Christian learning centers in the northeastern corner of the state.

BLOOMINGDALE, Ga. – A beautiful and athletic DeLynn Blake was playing wall tennis when she caught the eye of a handsome young man named Steven.

CUMMING, Ga. – The war in Ukraine is of deep concern to the people at First Redeemer Church in Cumming. They’re following developments moment by moment because their extended Christian family is right in the middle of the hostilities.

CLAXTON, Ga. – People who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to purchase medical insurance will be able to get the healthcare they need through a ministry launched this week by the Tattnall Evans Baptist Association.

SYLVANIA, GA – Charlie Cooper has announced his retirement as pastor of First Baptist Church in Sylvania and the church acknowledged his decision with a gracious “retirement reception” on Sunday, but don’t you believe that he is retiring from the ministry.

SARALAND, Ala. (BP)—Citing a growing desire to develop a strategy to “bridge our divides and bring about a Gospel-driven unity and reconciliation” and the need to lead as a “pastor rather than from the office of president,” SBC president Ed Litton announced Tuesday that he would not seek a second term as SBC president at the upcoming SBC Annual Meeting in Anaheim, Calif.

DULUTH, Ga. –  The incoming director of Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief describes the volunteers who serve in storm zones across the U.S. and beyond as modern-day heroes.

MACON, Ga. – Georgia Baptist pastors were challenged in a series of sermons on Sunday and Monday to ramp up their efforts to share the gospel, preaching more evangelistically than ever in the perilous times the world is facing today.

LVIV, Ukraine (SWBTS) — “We need a miracle from God,” Yaroslav Pyzh, president of the Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary in Lviv, Ukraine, said from his western Ukraine home in a Zoom interview with Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s news staff on the evening of Feb. 26. As he prays for the miracle, Pyzh is marshaling the people and resources of his school to help refugees of the war.

ATLANTA – Pro-gambling lawmakers continue to push for a constitutional amendment in Georgia that would lift a longstanding ban on horse racing, potentially opening the door to the kind of gargantuan gambling terminals that are popping up in Kentucky and other states that allow pari-mutuel wagering.

ATHENS, Ga. – A fledgling initiative that pairs young church leaders with seasoned veterans is proving successful a month into its launch. The Young Leaders initiative already has enlisted 220 people.

COVINGTON, Ga. – Members of a Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief team have returned from Colorado where they helped wildfire survivors sift through ashes where homes once stood.

ROME, Ga. – In what Shorter University President Donald Dowless described as “a mighty movement of God,” 24 students made decisions to follow Christ in a chapel service at the school on Wednesday.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. – A pioneering church planter who grew one of Georgia’s premier congregations from humble beginnings in a one-room plankboard building says the key was simply trusting the Lord.

GRIFFIN, Ga. – Frank Nuckolls served as a state missionary with the Georgia Baptist Mission Board from 1992 to 2019. At the conclusion of his ministry with the GBMB, God opened the door in July 2019 for him to become the Associational Mission Strategist for the Flint River Baptist Association. Nuckolls reported, “I am blessed to serve this association. It was founded in 1824 and will commemorate its bicentennial anniversary in two years. I am trusting the Lord to give me the privilege of being the AMS here when that milestone is celebrated.”

MACON, Ga. – Church leaders from across the state have been tapped to serve on a task force that will review the distribution of Georgia’s Cooperative Program funding.