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Building the cheerful giver

July 26, 2021 By Heath Tibbetts

You know God’s in the middle of something when your church experiences both its lowest year of attendance and highest year of giving at the same time. This was our experience in 2020, and the realization caused me to take stock of how he brought us here. Truly, I believe God is the great provider […]

IBSA President urges prayer and hope ahead of SBC

June 8, 2021 By Heath Tibbetts

Heath Tibbetts

IBSA President Heath Tibbetts’ statement offers encouragement and hope to Baptists discouraged by the ongoing discussion of controversies leading up to the June 15-16 Southern Baptist Convention in Nashville. A video version of the message is available on Tibbett’s Facebook page. As President of IBSA, I’m encouraged by weekly conversations with church leaders around our […]

Sweat hour of prayer

October 19, 2020 By Heath Tibbetts

Your pastor is sweating a lot, and I don’t just mean during that sermon or business meeting. He’s sweating out the moments you can’t see. Your pastor is sweating in prayer for you. He’s also sweating out whether it’s perceived in this time of low-contact church life. When I accepted the role of IBSA Vice […]

Responsible Christian citizenship: Responding to Coronavirus

March 16, 2020 By Heath Tibbetts

Coronavirus

Christians should be the best citizens. We should vote, pay our taxes, and do all we can to live lawfully. Countries that do not oppress their citizenry should find the Christians among them to be the very best examples of compliance and involvement. So how should churches respond as some government officials have called upon […]

Prayer meeting faltering? Let it go.

February 13, 2020 By Heath Tibbetts

Heath Tibbetts

I didn’t kill our Wednesday night prayer gatherings, but I didn’t keep them alive either. Our youth and AWANA programs engage lots of students and require numerous volunteers. It never made sense that our churchwide prayer meeting was at a time that so few could attend. Praying with fellow believers was always encouraging, but I […]

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Featured Columns

Nate Adams

Hope set high

Nate Adams

Have you ever set out with high hopes, only to find things not working out as you expected? Should that happen even in church and in ministry? Last summer our son Noah and his family moved from the Chicago suburbs where he was a pastor to the front range of the Colorado mountains and a […]

Meredith Flynn

Brighter Day: Small seasons

Meredith Flynn

My family will soon celebrate the end of an era for our youngest daughter. Molly and her classmates will walk across the stage and receive their diplomas, marking the end of preschool and the beginning of their elementary years. Some preschools even dress graduates in miniature caps and gowns. Ours does not, but Molly will […]

Handling history

Nate Adams

A little more than a year ago, a main sewer line backed up into the basement of the IBSA building here in Springfield. Though the primary blockage turned out to be well outside our building, the plumbers also discovered a break in a secondary line. It was directly beneath the section of basement where IBSA’s […]

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Banding together for Bibles

Illinois Baptist Staff

“Everyone agreed—it was worth the time and effort to make Bibles available to anyone who needed or wanted one,” Pastor Brian Fuller said. Fuller spent much of the 1980’s and 90’s as a Contemporary Christian music (CCM) artist. Now as pastor of First Baptist Church of Woodlawn, Fuller recently picked up a mic again for […]

News

Green arrested on grooming charge

Illinois Baptist Staff

Keith D. Green, a substitute teacher from Ashmore, was arrested May 17 by Mattoon Police on a charge of grooming. Green briefly served as pastor at two Illinois churches more than four years ago. Mattoon Community School District #2 notified police of the allegation that Green had contacted a female under age 17 using an […]

Effective teachers ask: What do learners need?

Former IMB missionaries encourage churches to go global again

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Mission

Annie Armstrong

How SBC missions have been influenced by Annie Armstrong

Sandy Wisdom-Martin

A few years ago, I read the SBC president at the time was considering different gavels for presiding at the SBC Annual Meeting. One of the options under consideration was the Armstrong gavel. I sent him an email with this message: This weekend I did a bit of reading on Annie Armstrong and was inspired […]

On mission again

New partnership targets biblical literacy

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