WARNER ROBINS, Ga. – The Georgia Baptist Mission Board has expanded the SPARK discipleship conference to include in-person training at five regional locations across the state next month. The initial one will be on Aug. 6 at Second Baptist Church in Warner Robins where Woodstock First Baptist Church lead pastor Jeremy Morton will be the keynote speaker.

AUGUSTA, Ga. – For some 40 years, Georgians have been listening to the preaching of Tony Evans on the radio. In November, they’ll be able to hear him in person. Evans, the familiar voice on the Urban Alternative radio program that’s carried on more than 1,400 stations, will be among the speakers at the Georgia Baptist Convention’s annual meeting November 13-15 at the Marriott Convention Center in Augusta.

DULUTH, Ga. – The writer who turned the Rocky Mountains into a metaphor that is helping a generation of church leaders rethink ministry will be one of the speakers at the Georgia Baptist Mission Board’s SPARK Conference next month. Tod Bolsinger, a former California pastor now serving as vice president of Fuller Theological Seminary, has provided hope to pastors facing seemingly impossible barriers with his book Canoeing the Mountains.

Bryant Wright, the former long-term pastor of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, faced the issue of pastoral succession. After decades of serving his church, the Lord led Wright to carry out a succession plan. His new book captures that journey from the first conversations about stepping down to the final sermon he preached before becoming president of Send Relief, an international relief organization that partners with local churches to provide help to those affected by a disaster or crisis.

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Georgia Baptists are being called on this year to provide a send-off to potentially dozens of new international missionaries who are being deployed to countries around the world, some to places so dangerous they have to hide their identities. The International Mission Board, which has begun holding “sending celebrations” as part of state Baptist convention annual meetings, chose Georgia to be the launching pad for the latest crop of missionaries.

NASHVILLE (BP) – The weekday preschool ministry at Englewood Baptist Church in Rocky Mount, N.C., feeds approximately 60 children a day, a number that doubles in the fall. Food costs have always been a part of such ministries, but it’s just one of several areas where inflation has commanded more attention.

CARLYLE, Ill. (BP) – Two teenage daughters of an Illinois Baptist pastor and the pastor’s sister were killed in a head-on collision with a tractor-trailer near Breckenmeyer in Clinton County on Friday.

VILLA RICA, Ga. – Kevin Williams is willing to do whatever it takes to introduce children to Jesus. Even if it means kissing a lizard. That’s just what the pastor at First Baptist Church of Villa Rica did, to the delight of the hundreds of kids who gathered for a week of fun, games, Bible lessons, and worship at vacation Bible school.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A year has passed since President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated at his private home. Not only have authorities failed to identify all those who masterminded and financed the killing, but Haiti has gone into freefall as violence soars and the economy tumbles. Many have fled Haiti in the past year, making potentially deadly voyages aboard rickety boats.

Southern Baptist Convention President Bart Barber will be looking for people with “a sense of rightness” to serve on the Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force. “Everyone on this implementation task force needs to be committed to the solution of this problem,” Barber said on the podcast SBC This Week.

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — More than two dozen children have died of hunger in the past two months in a single hospital in Somalia. Dr. Yahye Abdi Garun has watched their emaciated parents stumble in from rural areas gripped by the driest drought in decades. And yet no humanitarian aid arrives.

COLUMBUS, Ga. – Tony Dickerson makes his way into the pulpit, his voice unmistakable in its rhythm and intensity. “I want to tell you friends, God is in this place,” he declares with a boldness that fills the auditorium at Pinehurst Baptist Church. “And don’t you for one minute doubt it. He is here, and we are going to have a meeting with Him.” People settle into their seats, eager to be taken on an adventure through the Bible by the pastor who has been serving the same Columbus church for the past 50 years, an almost unheard of tenure.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Hershel W. “Woody” Williams, the last remaining Medal of Honor recipient from World War II, will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol, U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin announced at a memorial on Sunday where Williams was remembered for his courage, humility and selflessness.

As Americans celebrate July 4, thousands of members of the U.S. Armed Services are sacrificing to maintain peace and defend the freedom that the United States and many other nations enjoy, and chaplains are there with them, providing the spiritual support they want and need. In early 2022 the reality of an impending Russian invasion of the Ukraine reverberated throughout the United States Armed Services community and members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. By the end of January, U.S. forces were put on high alert to provide support to NATO allies in Eastern Europe.

DULUTH, Ga. – Abortions continue in Georgia nearly a week after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized the procedure 50 years ago. Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr filed a brief in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday, asking that the state’s law banning abortions after a heartbeat is detected be allowed to take effect immediately. Instead, the 11th Circuit gave lawyers three weeks to file written briefs addressing how the Supreme Court decision impacts the “heartbeat law.”

DULUTH, Ga. – Church leaders in Georgia celebrated Monday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision siding with a high school football coach who kneeled and prayed on the field after games as a great win for all believers. Justices ruled 6-3 in favor of the Coach Joseph Kennedy of Washington state, saying his prayer was protected by the First Amendment.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court released a long-anticipated ruling on Friday that will ultimately put an end to abortions in in roughly half the states, including Georgia. "God has heard and answered our prayers on behalf of the most helpless of human beings," said W. Thomas Hammond, executive director of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board. "With this ruling, the Supreme Court has corrected a heart-wrenching injustice. Regrettably, it has taken nearly 50 years for this day to arrive, and at a cost of more than 63 million innocent lives.

ATHENS, Ga. – They’re older now with graying hair and laugh lines, but a group of retired missionaries who spent much of their lives delivering the gospel to Uruguay haven’t lost their passion for serving the Lord. Some 25 of them gathered with hugs and handshakes at Sabor Latino restaurant in Athens on Thursday to enjoy some Uruguayan cuisine while reminiscing about the good old days of preaching and teaching in cities and towns in the South American country of 3.5 million people.

DULUTH, Ga. – The fiery preacher who has led the Georgia Baptist Mission Board’s state-level evangelism efforts for the past year is moving to the national stage next month. JJ Washington will start a new job as the North American Mission Board’s national director of personal evangelism on July 18.

Southern Baptist Convention President Bart Barber said Wednesday he intends to appoint members to a task force to implement sexual abuse reforms by the end of July. Barber said a video posted to Twitter that making the appointments will be one of the most important thing he will do this year.

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.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s weakened coalition government decided Monday to dissolve parliament and call a new election, the country's fifth in three years. The vote, expected this fall, could bring about the return of a nationalist religious government led by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or another prolonged period of political gridlock. The previous four elections, focused on Netanyahu's fitness to rule while on trial for corruption charges, ended in deadlock.

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.

DALLAS (AP) — After Opal Lee led hundreds in a walk through her Texas hometown to celebrate Juneteenth, the 95-year-old Black woman who helped successfully push for the holiday to get national recognition said it's important that people learn the history behind it.

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.