WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — With a long agenda for consideration, the Executive Committee of the Georgia Baptist Convention met for its regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday, Sept. 10, at Central Baptist Church in Warner Robins.

CHARLESTON, S.C. — A redeeming shift in its treatment of internationals is happening in Charleston. What was once a major port for enslaved people is now a harbor for diaspora groups, and Southern Baptists are an important part of the culture change.

Country music fans are likely familiar with the 1972 hit single, Delta Dawn, first recorded by Bette Midler but popularized by Tanya Tucker’s rendition at the age of thirteen. The song is about a woman from Brownsville, Tennessee who is so beautiful in her youth that she is given the name Delta Dawn.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Midwestern Seminary welcomed more than 200 guests on Tuesday, Sept. 10, for an on-campus preaching workshop led by Steven Lawson, in partnership with The Institute for Expository Preaching.

FORT WORTH, Texas — Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary continued its emphasis on missions during its chapel service Tuesday, Sept. 11, which featured a panel of SWBTS and Texas Baptist College faculty discussing the seminary’s globally engaged core value.

It’s the sweetest story - if you’re an animal lover. My beloved rescued a dog three weeks ago. In Magoffin County, he saw a lady on the side of the road trying to wrangle a dog. She held a can of dog food in one hand and looked like she needed help.

I will be the first to admit that I am a planner. I like to mentally plan and map out my days and weeks and things that I have to accomplish. Of course, when things don't go the way I have planned it can cause me some anxiousness and a little worry. OK,  maybe more than a little.

WINDER, Ga. — As the residents of Barrow County, and especially the students at Apalachee High School, deal with the aftermath of last week’s school shooting, Georgia Baptist churches are working together to provide support. Mark Marshall, ​senior lead strategist of Church Strengthening for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, told a meeting of the state executive committee in Warner Robins on Tuesday that Georgia Baptists “were on the front lines” of the response effort.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The staff of the SBC’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission heard an official word of affirmation Wednesday morning, Sept. 11, with the release of a statement approved by the full board of trustees in a two-hour executive session Tuesday during the annual meeting in Nashville.

MOUNT VERNON, Ga. — On Monday, Sept. 9, Brewton-Parker College was honored to host Amy Denty, Director of Literacy for the Georgia Department of Education. Local educators and BPC Education students had the opportunity to engage with Denty as she discussed the critical role of literacy in K-12 education and shared current strategies and practices used by educators across Georgia.

ROACH, Mo. — Imagine growing up in another country with different customs, languages and cultures, and then coming to the United States to go to college. Our International Misson Board missionary kids do this every year. Thankfully, because of our cooperative efforts, the IMB pours into these students annually at the MK Re-entry Retreat.

CATLETTSBURG, Ky. (KT) — Before retiring as an air traffic controller, Todd Coleman’s work focused on the physical survival of people traveling by plane. Now as pastor of Burnaugh Baptist Church, he will focus on spiritual survival for eternity that is the result of faith in Jesus Christ.

CLAXTON, Ga. — Worship, praise and prayer rang out as usual on a recent Sunday at Eastside Baptist Church in Claxton, but with a big difference. The nearly 40 people in attendance in the church sanctuary lifted their voices in their native language – Creole.

Texas pastor Michael Criner has been named vice president of the 2025 Southern Baptist Convention Pastors’ Conference, to be held on June 8-9, in Dallas. D.J. Horton, Pastors’ Conference president and senior pastor of Church at The Mill in Spartanburg, S.C., announced Criner’s selection in a press release Monday, Sept. 9, noting that Criner’s leadership will be a tremendous asset to the conference.

BRENTWOOD, Tenn. — After a difficult economic stretch for many churches and pastors, Southern Baptist pastors may feel more comfortable compared to two years ago.

RALEIGH, N.C. — Gathering Monday morning, Sept. 9, for the 18th Annual Southeastern Classic, 50 teams totaling 200 players teed off to celebrate a year of generous giving and support for Southeastern Seminary and its students.

A rare winter weather event occurred a few years ago where I lived, producing more ice than snow. As a result, a tree limb struck a utility line beside our driveway, causing us to lose electricity in bitterly cold weather. It was a strange thing to be without power while seeing our neighbors on each side of us enjoying electricity and warm homes.

One of the most famous lines in the movie “A Few Good Men” is when a character in the movie says, “You can’t handle the truth.” From the time of the ministry of Jesus in the first century, nonbelievers have attacked Christians because of our affirmation of Scriptural truth. In reality, nonbelievers “can’t handle the truth” that Jesus is the living God and the One and only Savior.

FORST WORTH, Texas — Former Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Adam W. Greenway dropped his defamation lawsuit against his former employer without any financial settlement.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill.  — A circuit judge in Springfield has ruled against the Illinois Baptist State Association in a suit to protect IBSA from requirements to provide employees with insurance benefits that cover abortion. The ruling came more than four years after IBSA filed suit, saying the Illinois Reproductive Health Act did not violate IBSA’s religious freedom.

In the summer of 2022, the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade after five long decades. With Roe gone, abortion is no longer protected at the federal level, and states are able to enact meaningful pro-life protections. As a result, lasting pro-life work requires both national and state-by-state strategies.

MT. STERLING, Ill. — Don Hannel had no plans for change. He had pastored his hometown church of Pleasant Hill in west-central Illinois for nearly 19 years. The church was growing. He had a secure ministry. There was no reason to leave.

FORT WORTH, Texas — Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary celebrated and encouraged its core value of being globally engaged last week with a Global Missions Emphasis week, which included a variety of opportunities for students to meet missionaries, hear from evangelism and missions faculty, and learn of opportunities for them join in missions.

Over the past few days, Kirk Baptist Church in Piperton, Tennessee, has had to post words they never wanted to post — that their pastor, Bobby Mullins, was killed in a car accident on Wednesday, Sept. 4, and his wife, Wanda, died in the hospital the following day from her injuries.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Parkway Place Church on Sunday, Aug. 25., celebrated the return to their worship center 17 months after severe weather caused major damage to their facility.  On March 29, 2023, a tornado, categorized as an EF-3 by the National Weather Service, with winds of more than 165 mph, tore through areas of Little Rock, North Little Rock, and Jacksonville leaving devastation in its wake.