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.

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. – The way Mary Cox sees it, the job of pastor’s wife can be one of the most difficult and most rewarding in ministry. “There are times when not everyone will like what you do, what you say, or even how you dress,” Cox said. “There can be a lot of pressure, but God gives us the strength and grace to push through so that we can enjoy the blessings that come with the role.”

DULUTH, Ga. – Candidates for president of the Southern Baptist Convention have been influenced by a variety of preachers from the modern era, including Adrian Rogers and Martin Lloyd-Jones. They see themselves in biblical characters like Luke, Jeremiah and even Balaam’s donkey. The Christian Index did a Q&A with the candidates on a variety of topics for a series of stories that have been published over the past week. In today’s installment, which wraps up the series, the candidates were asked to answer 10 questions as briefly as possible.

FRANKLIN, Tenn. — In response to a tweet by Guidepost Solutions supporting the LGBTQ+ community, Southern Baptists should “immediately break ties with Guidepost Solutions,” said Randy C. Davis, president and executive director of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board.

MARIETTA – Please meet Hazel Howard, who was born in Rayle, Georgia, was saved at Inman Park Baptist Church in Atlanta when she was 11 years old (Dr. Sam Lowe was pastor), later joined the First Baptist Church in Avondale Estates where she was a member for 56 years, and recently moved to a senior living facility in Cobb County to be nearer her nephew, Dr. Walter McBride and his wife, Beverly.

DULUTH, Ga. – A new television program will remind Southern Baptists of the positive impact their work is having across the nation. The first episodes of SBC Coast to Coast will premiere on ACTS2 next week during its livestream of the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in Anaheim, Calif.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. – Pastor Rhys Stenner recalls the day a small tree in his yard got crushed. A crew of tree cutters had been called in to remove a fallen oak that was leaning precariously against an ash, creating a hazard that had to be dealt with. “I told them, ‘watch out for that little tree; It’s my wife’s favorite,’” said Stenner, pastor of New Hope Baptist Church in Fayetteville. “Well, a branch smashed that little tree, reducing it to basically a stump, a trunk.

DULUTH, Ga. – One candidate would challenge churches to provide the financial support needed to take the gospel to the nations. Another would try to restore civility within the Southern Baptist Convention. And yet another wants to make SBC entities more responsive to churches. Those are some of the reasons the three contenders for the SBC presidency gave for being willing to accept nominations for the voluntary position of leadership in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.

SWAINSBORO, Ga. – Revival arrived in another Georgia town last week when more than 50 people responded to an invitation to receive Christ as their Savior at a four-night crusade in Swainsboro. “There was just an atmosphere that was ripe for salvation,” said Joe Bedgood, the evangelism director in the Emanuel Missionary Baptist Association who helped spearhead the event. “God was glorified; Jesus was exalted, and people were able to hear the word clearly.”

DULUTH, Ga. – The Southern Baptist Convention isn’t as fractured as talking heads on social media might make it appear but, instead, is a family of churches strongly bound together by biblical truth. That’s the combined opinion of the three announced candidates for the SBC presidency.

DULUTH, Ga. – The Southern Baptist Convention’s network of associations plays an important role in the nation’s largest protestant denomination, the three announced candidates for the SBC presidency say. In a Q&A with The Christian Index, they described associations as the entities that help congregations fulfill their missions, create closer ties between sister churches, and provide important training for Christian leaders.

DULUTH, Ga. – All three announced candidates for president of the Southern Baptist Convention want to see the nation’s largest protestant denomination return to its soul-winning roots. In a Q&A with The Christian Index, they spoke of the need for Southern Baptists to resolve scandals that serve as distractions, to return to a healthy fear of God, and to “do something concrete and demonstrative to promote evangelism.” “The president of the SBC can, with God’s help, steer us away from creating new divisive controversies and toward resolution of old scandals,” said Bart Barber, pastor of First Baptist Church in Farmersville, Texas. “By doing so, he can eliminate distractions and obstacles that compete with revival for our prayers and affections."

ATLANTA – Martha Day was moved to action when she realized huge numbers of impoverished mothers-to-be in the U.S. are going without prenatal vitamins. “For women who are struggling to put food on the table, buying vitamins just isn’t always an option,” said Day, co-founder of The Vitamin Bridge, a nonprofit organization that’s supplying prenatal supplements to 28 organizations that minister to expectant mothers.

CARNESVILLE, Ga. – Anyone living within a 7-mile radius of New Bethel Baptist Church has either already had a personal visit from the congregation or soon will. Pastor Joey Gilbert is convinced knocking on doors remains the best way to reach people, especially in the rural South where hospitality almost always assures a warm welcome and an invitation to sit a spell. Gilbert and his congregation are about three-fourths of the way through an initiative to visit every home in their sparsely populated section of northeast Georgia.

ORLANDO, Fla. -  International Mission Board trustees approved 56 new fully funded missionaries for appointment during their meeting Wednesday and Thursday in Orlando, Fla. The meeting was conducted in conjunction with the Celebration of Emeriti event held every five years to recognize retiring missionaries who have completed their service with the IMB. New missionaries approved for appointment will be recognized during a Sending Celebration at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in Anaheim, California

EASTANOLLEE, Ga. – Eight more students made professions of faith during the past week in the Tugalo Baptist Association where churches have opened off-campus Christian learning centers near schools to teach Bible classes. That brought the total number of salvation decisions to 38 since August at the learning centers in Stevens and Banks counties, said Associational Missions Strategist Mike Blount.