NASHVILLE (BP) – Messengers to the SBC Annual Meeting in Dallas have returned home with stories and news from the 167th annual meeting. Baptist Press and the SBC Executive Committee have created a pack of slides and a video to help share the highlights with the local church.

DALLAS – A podcast for and about Native Americans that premiered this spring was announced at the recent annual meeting of the Fellowship of Native American Christians.

GADSDEN, Ala. (BP) — Alvin Johnson has a calling. Two, actually. He loves both and sees God work in their respective settings.

We call it “Spice of Life,” and it’s a family favorite. Wait. Let me start at the beginning… Way back in the early 1990s, Baptist Student Union teams came to our church at First Baptist, Belfry.

I love the beach! (I may have said this a time or two before.) I love listening to and watching the ocean and the waves. There is just something about it that to me is so calming and relaxing. I’m not so much a “get in the ocean girl” but rather a “watch the ocean girl.”

SPARTA, Ky. (KT) – Steve Ellis retired from his secular job and as a full-time pastor seven years ago, but he has since found his niche as an interim pastor and supply preacher. Ellis, who is 70, has held five interim assignments since 2018 and has preached in more than 80 different churches.

DALLAS (BP) — Georgia ranked fourth this year among states for the number of registered messengers for the Southern Baptist Convention's 2025 Annual Meeting in Dallas.  Unsurprisingly, the host state Texas, which is home to two state conventions comprising thousands of churches, drew more than three times as many messengers as any other, the latest registration statistics show.

Psalm 96 celebrates God’s reign over the entire earth. Because of the nature of God, He alone deserves worship and praise. In many ways, Psalm 96 is an evangelistic or missionary psalm. Notice the commands in verses 2 and 3: Sing, bless, and proclaim His salvation from day to day.

Who remembers driver’s education classes? It was one class that came with a reward. I recall the excitement everyone shared in class about one day obtaining their own driver’s licenses. A license meant freedom, camaraderie, and exploration.

McMINNVILLE, Tenn. — “For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me in. I needed clothes, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you looked after me. I was in prison, and you came to visit me.”

DALLAS — Georgia was well represented at the national Royal Ambassador Pinewood Derby held June 9, just before the 2025 Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting in Dallas. Among the participants was Mack Kenney, whose family are members at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Marietta.

FRANKFORT, Ky. (KT) – A tragic bus crash involving a Kentucky church claimed a husband and wife and left another person in critical condition Sunday morning. 

Byron Twigg, age 83, of Statesboro, passed away Tuesday, June 10, 2025. A beloved husband, father and grandfather. Byron was born May 31, 1942. He received his Doctorate in Theology from Luther Rice College and Seminary in Stonecrest, GA. He was a Southern Baptist minister for over 50 years, with his most recent congregation at Clito Baptist Church in Statesboro, GA, where he became a source of guidance, inspiration and support for countless individuals and families.

DALLAS — Clothed in his decorated, dress blue uniform, Gen. Doug Carver led a host of chaplains to the platform Tuesday during the opening ceremony of the SBC Annual Meeting. Carver led the messengers to celebrate freedom and honor service members, recognizing the important role chaplains play in Christian ministry.

DALLAS (BP) – Southern Baptist Convention President Clint Pressley spoke with reporters about unity, transparency and gospel mission during a press conference held minutes after 167th SBC Annual Meeting.

Truett McConnell University is facing adversities with faith and facts. Considering the recent challenges, the University Board of Trustees have wisely engaged the services of an independent investigator to gather information concerning actions or inactions by the University surrounding sexual abuse allegations.

BOGART, Ga. — In a society that too often highlights the faults of fathers, Southern Baptist author and pastor Josh Smith encourages churches this Father’s Day to empower and remind them of the gift of fatherhood.

DALLAS (BP) — The 10,599 messengers who registered for the 2025 Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting this week in Dallas topped the 9,632 who registered the last time the SBC gathered here in 2018, unofficial counts show.

DALLAS — Imagine if every person in your church was sharing the gospel and discipling others — how would that change your church? Sandy Wisdom-Martin, executive director of national Woman’s Missionary Union, said that question is their “why.”

When our daughter comes home, we laugh, reminisce, eat delicious food, laugh more, make fun of each other… And then she tells us everything we have that is past its expiration date. Apparently, my beloved and I only look at the date on the milk.

WAKE FOREST, N.C. — Southeastern Seminary and Judson College are pleased to announce Rhyne Putman as professor of theology and to welcome him and his family to the Southeastern community.

DALLAS — In the Old Testament, we find these words: “God in his holy dwelling is a father to the fatherless and a champion of widows.” Psalm 68:5 (CSB). On June 22, Southern Baptists will once again have the opportunity to support retired pastors, church workers, and their widows — faithful servants who dedicated their lives to ministry.

DALLAS (BP) — Messengers to the 2025 Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting approved a $190 million 2025-26 Cooperative Program allocation budget Wednesday, giving the Executive Committee a one-time $3 million special allotment for legal costs arising from investigations into its handling of sexual abuse claims.

DALLAS (BP) — In the latest attempt to abolish or defund the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, nearly 57 percent of messengers voted to keep the entity. 

DALLAS (BP) – A proposed amendment to the SBC Constitution stating the office of pastor should be held only by men was rejected by messengers, receiving approximately 60 percent of the vote, but not reaching the required two-thirds marker.