INDIANAPOLIS — During the 2024 SBC Annual Meeting, NOBTS President Jamie Dew led a panel on the CP Stage discussing what the Cooperative Program means for seminary education.  Dew compared the impact the CP has on the six Southern Baptist seminaries with the impact it has on the convention’s missionaries.  

SARVER, Pa. (AP) — Hundreds of people who gathered to remember the former fire chief fatally shot during an assassination attempt at a weekend rally for former President Donald Trump were urged to find “unity” as the area in rural Pennsylvania sought to recover from the assassination attempt.

MOUNT VERNON, Ga. — Brewton-Parker College celebrates with Dr. Sampyo Hong, professor of Physical Sciences, who secured a grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation to provide students with the opportunity to work alongside experienced scientists doing cutting-edge research.

It’s been written that Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company, once hired an expert to gauge the efficiency of his company.  A few weeks later, the man presented a very positive report, except for one thing. “It’s that man down the hall,” the expert reported. “Every time I go by his office he’s just sitting there with his feet on his desk. He’s wasting your money.” “That man,” answered Ford, “once had an idea that saved us millions of dollars. At that time, I believe his feet were planted right where they are now.”

Praying for God’s will is the best thing.  The wisest thing.  The hardest thing.  One of the most difficult lessons of my life.  It happened on July 20, 1994-30 years ago, this week.  It was a Wednesday.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — President Joe Biden tested positive for COVID-19 while traveling Wednesday in Las Vegas and is experiencing “mild symptoms” including “general malaise” from the infection, the White House said.

I love being around water. I love everything about it. I especially love the beach! I love the sound of the ocean, the smell of the ocean, the wind and the waves. The crazy thing is I don’t like to get “in” the ocean. I am just an observer.

Teams of Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers headed west to Iowa last week to assist residents dealing with damage caused by record flooding. Severe storms in late June dropped torrential rains on Iowa, causing major flooding as dams failed and rivers overflowed their banks. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds estimates that more than 5,000 homes were damaged by the storms, including at least 2,000 that are likely irreparable.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military-built pier to carry humanitarian aid to Gaza will be dismantled and brought home, ending a mission that has been fraught with repeated weather and security problems that limited how much food and other supplies could get to starving Palestinians.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Another wave of severe storms pummeled a wide swath of the United States and Canada, leading to flash floods and water rescues Wednesday in the Ozark Mountains, dropping a tornado that ravaged a town in upstate New York and stranding drivers in high water around Toronto.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Attorneys for a Georgia inmate sent to death row 25 years ago are accusing a prosecutor of hiding a deal that they contend casts doubt on the credibility of a crucial trial witness. Warren King was sentenced to death in September 1998 after an Appling County jury convicted him of murdering Karen Crosby, a convenience store clerk who was fatally shot during an armed robbery in southeast Georgia.

ALTO, Ga. (AP) — Sheriff's deputies who were serving a warrant in another county shot and killed two people in northeast Georgia on Tuesday. The Forsyth County Sheriff's Office said deputies were serving an arrest warrant on a sex offender for violating the conditions of his probation in the Banks County town of Alto.

Fewer Americans see religion as an important aspect of their lives, and it shows in their beliefs and actions. A Gallup survey finds U.S. adults are less likely to identify with a religion, say religion is very important to them, belong to a congregation, or attend worship services.

The trio struggled up the stairs of city hall in an Armenian village. The mother heard a medical team from the United States was seeing patients for free. She would do anything to have these doctors look at her 20-year-old son with cerebral palsy — like carrying him, with help from a neighbor, almost a mile from her home.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Homeland Security's inspector general said Wednesday it has opened up an investigation into the U.S. Secret Service’s handling of security for former President Donald Trump on the day a gunman tried to assassinate him at a Pennsylvania rally.

RICHMOND, Va. (BP) — The Southern Baptist Convention’s expanding diversity became a passion for Minh Ha Nguyen, leading to his work in establishing and updating a cutting edge portal and resource that has greatly influenced the SBC’s work to share the Gospel among its ethnically diverse community.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A judge's stunning decision to dismiss the classified documents case against Donald Trump brought an abrupt halt to what experts have considered the strongest and most straightforward of the prosecutions of the former president.  Special counsel Jack Smith's planned appeal of U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon's order is expected to tee up a court fight that might reach the U.S. Supreme Court.

Dozens of aging bridges in 16 states will be replaced or improved with the help of $5 billion in federal grants announced Wednesday, the latest beneficiaries of a massive infrastructure law.

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Hamas-led armed groups committed numerous war crimes during the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that precipitated the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip, according to a global human rights group report released Wednesday.

BANGKOK (AP) — Initial autopsy results showed traces of cyanide in the blood of six Vietnamese and American guests at a luxury hotel in central Bangkok and one of them is believed to have poisoned the others over a bad investment, Thai authorities said Wednesday.

PARIS (AP) — After months of anticipation, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo took a dip in the long-polluted Seine River on Wednesday, fulfilling a promise to show the river was clean enough to host open swimming competitions during the 2024 Olympics — and the opening ceremony on the river nine days away.

CIUDAD NEZAHUALCOYOTL, Mexico (AP) — Last year, the Hernández Pacheco family began to notice a number of Haitians arriving at an apartment across the street from their medical clinic on the outskirts of Mexico City.

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Authorities in Bangladesh urged all universities to close on Wednesday, the day after at least six people died in violent protests over the allocation of government jobs and police raided the headquarters of the main opposition party.

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — At least 72 people, including nine soldiers and a soldier's wife, were killed when armed men attacked a village in western Congo, local authorities said, as violence intensifies between rival communities.

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s new Labour Party government promised to calm the country’s febrile politics and ease its cost-of-living crisis as it set out its plans for “national renewal” at the grand State Opening of Parliament on Wednesday.