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Illinois Baptist State Newspaper

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Reverse mentoring builds us all

May 23, 2024 By Kevin Jones

Kevin Jones

Church planting is filled with highs and lows, joys and frustrations. In every challenge planters face, there are opportunities for God to use his people. Here are two common challenges. 1. Church planters are underfunded. Anyone who is in church leadership knows that finances and budgets are rarely what we would like them to be.  […]

See through leadership: Transparency is key to connecting with younger people

September 29, 2021 By Kevin Jones

Photographing through a Lensball

When a young person is searching for a church, they are wanting something authentic, not religious. They want to see people living out the gospel in all they do—with transparency. The more open we are about our lives, the more willing a person from the next generation is to follow a leader whose character reflects […]

See-through leadership

September 23, 2020 By Kevin Jones

See through leadership

When a young person is searching for a church, they are wanting something authentic, not religious. They want to see people living out the gospel in all they do—with transparency. The more open we are about our lives, the more willing a person from the next generation is to follow a leader whose character reflects […]

Featured Columns

Gerald and Betty Steffy

We need more like them

Brent Cloyd

When Gerald and Betty Steffy came to Fairfield in August 1959, the couple were in their mid-twenties.  Gerald had just completed his theological training, and he was called to serve North Side Baptist Church. Gerald and Betty served churches in Illinois well into their eighties. Gerald died in September 2022, and Betty just a few […]

Ruth and Naomi

Ruth’s surrendered life

Meredith Flynn

Don’t plead with me to abandon you or to return and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live; your people will be my people, and your God will be my God” (Ruth 1:16). A few months after I moved to Illinois, I was assigned to […]

Watching for Baptist smoke

Eric Reed

While the world waited in St. Peter’s Square, watching a nondescript stove pipe protruding from the roof of the Vatican, I was recalling the smoke jokes at the church where I have served as interim pastor. And I’m thinking about our own Baptist conclave coming soon. In Rome, three rounds of black smoke from the […]

More Columns

9 tips for life on mission: Retired missionaries offer advice for next generation

Sue Sprenkle

The 20-something held up a fistful of letters. Inside the old-fashioned style of communication were words of encouragement and advice for the new International Mission Board missionary.  The letters reaffirmed words Zoe Hill heard countless times in person at First Baptist Church Columbia, Mississippi, from retired IMB missionaries Tom and Gloria Thurman:  1. The call […]

News

Victoria Awbrey

Awbrey named to SBC’s Dallas Team

Illinois Baptist Staff

Victoria Awbrey returns to the Registration Committee for the 2025 Annual Meeting in June. She was one of 26 members appointed by SBC President Clint Pressley. The registration committee is called “to supervise the registration of messengers, to oversee the operations of the registration desk, and to rule upon any questions which may arise in […]

Hunt trial on hold for now

‘To preserve unity’ S.C. megachurch withdraws

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Mission

Metro East church plant hosts multiplication meeting

Metro East church plant hosts multiplication meeting

Ben Jones

Pastors and church leaders from around the Metro East area gathered in Collinsville May 17, 2023 for the second Multiply Illinois Hub. These quarterly regional events are designed to encourage and equip those interested in church multiplication. Heights Community Church, planted in 2016, hosted the gathering in their newly renovated home. With the St. Louis […]

Sallateeska baptism demonstrates SBC connections

A first-time ministry to migrant workers is very fruitful

More Mission Stories

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