The 2025 Mission Illinois theme emphasizes the importance of Illinois Baptists engaging their home-state mission field. The offering and week of prayer, held annually each September, set a statewide goal of $350,000 which is used to invest in churches and leaders throughout the state, equipping them to meet needs and become missionaries to their own […]

Texans rally for relief efforts, prayer after Hill Country tragedy
Kerrville | In the wake of the catastrophic flooding of the Guadalupe River and as the death toll continues to rise, teams from the Southern Baptists of Texas Disaster Relief and the Baptist General Convention of Texas (Texans on Mission) arrived onsite in the Texas Hill Country. “A feeding team with a QRU (quick response […]

When God’s at work the cowboy way
Pam Harbison’s students at First Baptist Church Eldorado were learning about a Cowboy Church in Cody, Wyoming for their June Missions Journey: Students study. The kids were enjoying it, but she wished there was a way they could really experience the cowboy life. “I am one of those who believe in visual or living stories,” […]

Church replant builds on legacy
DeWanna Oliver and her husband Joe, a retired Illinois Baptist pastor and IBSA zone consultant, were members of First Baptist Church Crystal Lake for six years. After the pandemic, Oliver said the church had been “steadily losing ground, running around 12 or 13 people at best. Our pastor had retired. But we were in good […]

IBSA Camps update: 34 professions of faith made
Springfield | More than halfway through the 2025 IBSA Summer Camp season God is blessing Illinois Baptists. Of the six camps that have been completed or are taking place this week, each one of them was or is up in attendance. Even better, 34 professions of faith in Christ have been reported! “So far, we […]

Missionary couple sees fruit after 15 years
In their 15 years of faithfully sharing the gospel, Matt and Audrey Chism only baptized three people — their daughters. The Chisms were ready to call it quits. So much so that Matt told Audrey he was not going to talk about Jesus at all when they went to a woman’s house for a meal. […]

SBC 2025: Back where we started
Dallas | Messengers to the 2025 Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting in Dallas June 10-11 arrived at the probability that motions from the floor on women and the pastorate, financial transparency, and the fate of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission would dominate the discussion. In the business sessions, they did. But in the end, […]

SBC: Hitch up, head home
Dallas | The curtain dropped Wednesday afternoon on the 2025 Southern Baptist Convention in Dallas, after four days of frenetic activity. Sermons were preached. Songs were sung. Missionaries were celebrated. Swag was stuffed in bags. Ballots were hoisted, and decisions were made. Some likely didn’t fare as well as they had hoped, but all left […]
Abuse in the SBC
With SATF recommendations approved, the hard part begins
“The recommendations before you are not from Guidepost, they are from the task force,” Bruce Frank, chairman of the Sexual Abuse Task Force told messengers as they prepared to vote on a set of history-making recommendations at the SBC Annual Meeting June 14-15 in Anaheim, Calif. The task force was assigned and authorized by action […]
IBSA President on abuse response: From difficulties to determination
A 288-page report on any subject is daunting, but as a Southern Baptist, pastor, and president of IBSA, I felt a responsibility to keep the report open all last week and slowly read through it. I made notes and wrote down personal thoughts, and as I reviewed them afterwards, I was surprised to discover a […]
Former Illinois pastor accused; two relationships occurred in youth ministry in 2002
Former Illinois pastor Wes Feltner is accused by two women of abusive relationships, one of them sexual, when he was their youth minister in Indiana 17 years ago. The charges came to light as Feltner is lead candidate for the pastorate of First Baptist Church of Clarksville, Tennessee. The story was reported by the Clarksville […]
Longtime Chicago pastor resigns; sexual abuse prior to ministry among reasons
Charles Lyons resigned as pastor of Armitage Baptist Church in Chicago following what church leaders called a “corrective leave of absence” that began in October 2018. Read…
Resources
- Protect your children, protect your church https://www.ibsa.org/3327-2/
- Caring Well https://caringwell.com/
News Stories

John MacArthur leaves legacy ‘on a generation of preachers’
Sun Valley, Calif. | Longtime pastor, author and teacher John F. MacArthur died July 14 after a short battle with pneumonia. MacArthur, 86, pastored Grace Community Church in the Los Angeles area for 56 years. “At the center of Dr. MacArthur’s ministry was an unwavering commitment to declare God’s truth, and Pastor John preached the […]

Illinois native Ben Mandrell assumes Adrian Rogers’ pulpit
Cordova, Tenn. | Ben Mandrell has been called to be the senior pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church. Mandrell, a native of Tampico, Ill., has served as president and CEO of Lifeway Christian Resources since the summer of 2019. “I cannot tell you how thankful we are for this moment,” Mandrell, 48, said in a statement […]

SBC Worship platform draws thousands of churches in first month, leader says
Dallas | SBC Worship, a new collaboration between The Worship Initiative and a broad swath of the Southern Baptist family, has attracted thousands of churches in its first month of operation at sbcworship.com, Robbie Seay told Baptist Press. “It’s been great,” Seay, the Worship Initiative’s executive vice president of leader development and content, told Baptist […]

IRS opens door for pastors to endorse politicians
This week, the IRS and the National Religious Broadcasters, along with two Texas churches, participated in a joint filing asking a federal court to prevent the government from enforcing the Johnson Amendment which prohibits tax-exempt organizations from endorsing or opposing political candidates. This shift for the IRS signals that religious organizations may endorse or criticize […]
BF&M 2000

BF&M Article VI: Live, local, and late-breaking
Article 6 in the Baptist Faith and Message is the only one that has been amended since the Convention adopted the full revision in 2000. The change left some wondering, “How did that happen?” and “Is that allowed?” The revision came by a motion from the floor at the 2023 SBC Annual Meeting in New […]

BF&M Articles IV and V: God’s plan from the beginning
It’s telling that the original 1925 Baptist Faith and Message addressed the important topic of salvation with not just one or two articles, but with six. These were titled: The Way of Salvation, Justification, The Freeness of Salvation, Regeneration, Repentance and Faith, and Sanctification. Two additional articles were titled God’s Purpose of Grace (or election), […]

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 […]