The drizzle coming down couldn’t dampen the excitement inside the newly remodeled sanctuary Easter morning as Gospelife Church in Washington celebrated their grand opening. Over 150 people gathered to worship. They celebrated the resurrection of Jesus and of this body that was previously known as First Baptist Church. After reading about the resurrection from 1 […]
Priority 2025: God is up to something
Decatur, IL | Light rain and gray skies didn’t put a damper on the start of Priority. Smiling women waving signs reading, “Hooray, you’re here,” greeted the registrants as they arrived in the parking lot of Tabernacle Baptist Church. The setting for this year’s Priority may have been different than planned, but the scene was […]
Chatham Baptist ministers to community following tragedy
Chatham | The church just across the street stepped up to minister to families when an SUV drove through the site of an afterschool program Monday afternoon, first through a fence, then through the building. Four children were killed, and six others were injured in the village of Chatham at the YNOT Outdoor Kids Camp. […]
SBC Preview: 2 major celebrations, 1 less session
Many facets of the SBC Annual Meeting in Dallas will focus on Southern Baptists’ shared mission, including centennial celebrations of both the Cooperative Program and the Baptist Faith and Message as well as a sending celebration for a large number of new missionaries. “We have arranged our business sessions around the celebration of the 100th […]
Small church gives big through the state mission offering
Louisville, Ill. | “As I saw that number go up every week for the Mission Illinois Offering, I would just look at everybody and say, let’s just keep going.” A belief that God—and his people—can do something bigger led Hoosier Prairie Baptist Church to a record total for last year’s state missions offering, Pastor Sam […]
ReFocus experience helps churches look to future
Carlinville | “Our future looks better that it did,” said Pastor John Shelton. “Time will tell what happens, but I think we have a sense of excitement.” The Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Piasa pastor was expressing his feelings about participating in a ReFocus Discovery Cohort at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Carlinville on February 22. […]
SBC Preview: Baptist messengers will go head-to-head with big challenges
Dallas, Texas | The schedule for the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting seems a bit streamlined this year, especially after the extra business session was added in 2024 to handle multiple reports from task forces and a record number of motions from the floor. But considering the possible issues elbowing into the lineup, this round-up […]
IBDR on alert for major flooding in S. Illinois
Southern Illinois | Recent heavy rains have drenched southern Illinois causing rivers to swell, threatening to overflow their banks. Now, the National Weather Service is forecasting major flooding along the Ohio and Big Muddy Rivers affecting Shawneetown, Murphysboro, and Cairo, with moderate flooding expected in Carmi. The forecast caused Illinois Baptist Disaster Relief (IBDR) State […]
News Stories
SBC’s membership decline continues amid other areas of growth
In 2024, the Southern Baptist Convention baptized more new members than in any of the previous seven years but still saw an 18th consecutive year of overall membership decline. The 12,722,266 members of Southern Baptist congregations mark a 2% decline from 2023, according to the Annual Church Profile (ACP) compiled by Lifeway Research in cooperation […]
Priority relocates
Springfield | Significant vandalism to the elevators and sprinkler system forced the temporary closure of the Wyndham Springfield City Centre March 28, which was scheduled to host the IBSA annual women’s conference, Priority April 25-26. The Wyndham cancelled all its events for the month. IBSA Leadership Director Carmen Halsey-Menghini and her team shifted into high […]
Mobilizing for evangelism in the Metroplex
Organizers of Crossover 25 are urging Southern Baptists nationwide to pray as preparations ramp up for this year’s evangelistic outreach on June 2-8.Held annually in the host city of the SBC Annual Meeting, Crossover brings churches together to share the gospel with residents during the week before the meeting. This year, organizers are asking Southern […]
SBC25 events in Dallas
Several events are scheduled in conjunction with the SBC Annual Meeting in Dallas. Here are some: IBSA Reception Join other Illinois Baptists and friends for a come-and-go dessert reception celebrating 100 years of the Cooperative Program and the Baptist Faith and Message. Monday, June 9 from 8-9:30 PM Convention Center room A115. SBC Pastor’s Conference […]
BF&M 2000
BF&M Article III: Made in God’s own image
At the time the first Baptist Faith & Message was adopted in 1925, the big headlines included gangster-massacres, Prohibition, and the Scopes Monkey Trial. Billed as the trial of the century only two decades into the century, a schoolteacher in Dayton, Tennessee was brought to court for teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution. In that environment, […]
BF&M Article II: An expansive, yet precise view of God
The Baptist Faith & Message has always expressed our belief that God is three-in-one. But the brief five lines found in Article II of the 1925 BF&M gave only the most basic explanation of the Three. Attributes and activities of each were sprinkled throughout the other 24 articles (now condensed to 18). But beginning with […]
1. The Scriptures: The same, but different
The fact that Article 1 expresses the belief that the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, is divinely inspired, true, trustworthy, and reveals God to humans is not uncommon. Many denominations’ statements of faith express this. There are two emphases that set Article 1 apart as a uniquely Southern Baptist expression of belief in the […]
Our new series on The Baptist Faith & Message
In 2025 Southern Baptists are celebrating an important anniversary. In addition to the creation of the SBC’s Cooperative Program, the Baptist Faith and Message was also adopted in 1925. At the time, many SBC churches held to the New Hampshire Confession of Faith, but the convention had not created or adopted its own statement. Concerned […]