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WMU Missions Celebration to honor missionaries, proclaim joy to the nations

March 17, 2025 By Julie Walters

WMU Missions Celebration theme

Birmingham, Ala. | Gather your friends and celebrate God’s work around the world through His people at the WMU Missions Celebration just prior to the SBC Annual Meeting. “We want this to be more than an event,” said Sandy Wisdom-Martin, executive director of national WMU. “We pray for those gathered to depart inspired and challenged to […]

Craft stick houseboat represents joy, impact of working together

November 13, 2024 By Julie Walters

Sandy Wisdom-Martin

Birmingham, Ala. | The joy of working together for the glory of God was on display as a houseboat constructed of nearly 700,000 craft sticks floated on Lay Lake near Birmingham, Alabama on November 7. The boat launch was the culmination of a year-long effort as WMU engaged Southern Baptist churches in making craft stick […]

Missions Celebration to bring ‘Joy’

June 7, 2024 By Julie Walters

Native Praise Choir

“Join us and discover ways God is at work in our midst and around the world as you hear inspiring stories from missionaries and missions advocates who are making Christ known,” said Sandy Wisdom-Martin, executive director of Woman’s Missionary Union. This year’s national WMU gathering will be held in the Indiana Convention Center in the […]

Featured Columns

Chuck Kelley

Blinded by bright spots: Kelley warns of trends we’re ignoring

Chuck Kelley

(Ed. note: One IBSA Annual Meeting keynote speaker has been concerned about the direction of the SBC for a long time. As a professor at New Orleans Seminary, he warned in 1983 that the denomination had plateaued. He pointed to the loss of evangelism among Methodists that led to their decline. “They never mounted a […]

Site where Paul is believed to have baptized Lydia.

Lydia’s quick response

Meredith Flynn

“A God-fearing woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, was listening. The Lord opened her heart to respond to what Paul was saying” (Acts 16:14). The account of Lydia is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment in the middle of the Book of Acts. Her story is only three verses long, but […]

Family reunion

Nate Adams

As I was preparing for my first IBSA Annual Meeting as Executive Director almost 20 years ago, I remember one long-time staff remember exclaiming, “I just love the Annual Meeting! It’s like a big family reunion.” Having just moved back to Illinois three months earlier, I didn’t yet share his enthusiasm. I was still meeting […]

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Unity, cooperation reign at IBSA Annual Meeting

Eric Reed

Springfield | If 1925 was a year to remember, with the birth of a unified missions funding system and the denomination’s first official statement of faith, then 2025 was also a year to remember. Southern Baptists celebrated the centennial anniversaries of Cooperative Program and the Baptist Faith and Message. Illinois Baptists marked the coming 20th […]

News

Trinity Christian College

Trinity Christian College will close

Illinois Baptist Staff

Palos Heights | After 66 years in operation in suburban Chicago, Trinity Christian College will close at the end of the 2025-26 academic year. The school’s final commencement will be May 8, 2026. The liberal arts school offered degrees in 70 programs. It was named among the top schools in the Midwest region by U.S. […]

Pritzker considering suicide bill

Panel at Annual Meeting to address campus ministry

More News Stories

Mission

“While we have not yet arrived at the destination we envision, I believe we are clearly headed in the right direction,” said IMB President Paul Chitwood to trustees in the May 22 plenary session. IMB Photo

IMB trustees appoint new missionaries, elect first woman chair

Leslie Caldwell

Richmond | International Mission Board trustees approved 65 fully funded missionaries for appointment during their May 21-22 meeting near Richmond, Virginia. The missionaries approved for appointment will be recognized during a Sending Celebration on Tuesday, June 10, at 10:08 a.m. CDT in conjunction with the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Dallas. The event will […]

Metro East church plant hosts multiplication meeting

Sallateeska baptism demonstrates SBC connections

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