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When God’s at work the cowboy way

July 7, 2025 By Lisa Misner

Eldorado FBC

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

July 1, 2025 By Lisa Misner

Crystal Lake Campus Baptism

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

June 25, 2025 By Lisa Misner

Illinois Super Summer

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 […]

Wolfe: What God does in and through us

June 16, 2025 By Lisa Misner

Tony Wolfe

The great expanse of the Mississippi River served as a metaphor for Southern Baptist’s missions and ministry through the Cooperative Program over the last 100 years as Tony Wolfe delivered the Convention Sermon on Wednesday morning (June 11) at the Southern Baptist Convention in Dallas. Growing up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the executive director-treasurer of […]

SBC: New and familiar faces elected

June 10, 2025 By Lisa Misner

Pressley reelected

Dallas | Clint Pressley was reelected to a second one-year term as president of the Southern Baptist Convention on the first day of the Annual Meeting in Dallas June 10. And his new first vice president is an evangelist familiar to many because of triumph over significant disabilities. One candidate elected without opposition was presented […]

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Featured Columns

Where is God when it hurts?

Tony Martin

This isn’t one of those pieces that ties everything up in a neat spiritual bow. It’s not filled with pat answers or hollow clichés. It’s born out of pain, prayer and the unshakable truth that — even in the flood — God is still present. The recent flooding in Texas has left so many of […]

Doug Munton

Navigating a season of change

Doug Munton

Nothing is scarier than change. (Well, maybe spiders are scarier, but I digress.) But here is the reality we face. Change is happening all the time, whether we like it or not. The real issue isn’t whether things will change, but how we deal with the change that is inevitable. So, let’s talk about navigating […]

How ‘what’ and ‘why’ unify

Nate Adams

The 2025 Southern Baptist Convention is behind us, and with it the meetings, reports, motions, and actions that pleased some and disappointed others. I know that many church members and even pastors rarely or never attend an SBC in person. That was true for me until I was almost 40, so I appreciate the reality […]

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John MacArthur leaves legacy ‘on a generation of preachers’

Brandon Porter, Baptist Press

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 […]

News

Ben Mandrell

Illinois native Ben Mandrell assumes Adrian Rogers’ pulpit

Brandon Porter, Baptist Press

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

IRS opens door for pastors to endorse politicians

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

More Mission Stories

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