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Bumpy flight rules

March 29, 2024 By Meredith Flynn

Meredith Flynn

Our city’s small airport recently added direct flights to two vacation hotspots in Florida. It’s a big deal here in Springfield, being able to fly straight to Orlando or Tampa in a couple of hours. How perfect, I thought as I booked the flight that would take me to a work conference. What I hadn’t […]

Signs of our times

January 11, 2024 By Meredith Flynn

Meredith Flynn

It took a harshly worded bumper sticker to remind me that my children can read now. Four years ago, during the last contentious election cycle, we could blissfully drive by all the stickers and campaign signs without giving them a second thought. Now, though, signs calling out one candidate in favor of another raise questions—difficult […]

War and Christmas

December 13, 2023 By Meredith Flynn

Meredith Flynn

A few years ago on Christmas Eve, I heard the song “This is War” by Dustin Kensrue. The lyrics highlight Jesus as warrior, come to earth to do battle with sin and death. No moonlit manger scene here, just the cosmic war for the souls of men and women. I get it, I thought when […]

Rosalynn Carter, former first lady, dies at 96

November 20, 2023 By Meredith Flynn

Rosalynn Carter

Rosalynn Carter, the first lady who prioritized humanitarian causes in the U.S. and abroad, died Nov. 19 at the age of 96. According to a release from the Carter Center, she died peacefully, with family by her side. Her husband, Jimmy Carter, served as President of the United States from 1977 to 1981. Much of the […]

A prayer of thanks

November 20, 2023 By Meredith Flynn

A prayer of thanks

(Editor’s note: For decades, Chicago Tribune columnist Joan Beck memorialized each year with a poetic column of thanksgiving. The verses below are our attempt to follow her example and remember the blessings of 2023.) As we gather together to count the Lord’s blessings, 403 years after the first Thanksgiving Day, we wonder at the beauty […]

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Featured Columns

Paul Cooper

What’s greater than independence? Hebrews 10:19-25

Paul Cooper

We got news from my sister in New Mexico, and my brother, Dave, immediately called me. He wanted to see her, but the 20-hour drive was too hard to do alone. It would be easier with his brother. We could share the load. Even so, we would spend more than half our time on the […]

George

Our nation’s half-celebration at 250

Eric Reed

During these red, white, and blue months, YouTube keeps sending me a video clip. It’s King George’s solo from the musical “Hamilton.” Amid endless rapping and stamping of boots and swishing of tailcoats by Founding Fathers, a lone figure walks slowly to center stage, decked in satin knee breeches, ermine cape, and a crown. And […]

Our new open door

Scott Foshie

Could it be that Jesus has opened wide a new door of shared ministry and missions for Southern Baptists to walk through together? That’s the question that continues permeating my mind after our time together in Orlando. We need to remember we ‘have but little power’ in ourselves. Southern Baptists have always found themselves called […]

More Columns

Mindy Cobb’s endless summer

Illinois Baptist Staff

Mindy Cobb moved to Chicago with her husband, Lindsay, nearly 50 years ago to be a part of a church plant and hasn’t looked back. In Longevity, a collection of essays by Nathan Carter, Cobb shared she originally planned to give God one summer of her life, but he wanted the whole thing. Out of […]

News

Illinois State Capitol

New Illinois laws raise concerns for Baptists

Lisa Misner

Springfield | The spring session of the Illinois General Assembly passed multiple bills that conflict with the biblical values of Illinois Baptists. Some were signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker in late June: – HB 4834, the Prescription Monitoring Program, removed testosterone, estrogen, mifepristone and misoprostol from the Illinois Prescription Monitoring Program. The law […]

World Cup visitors, America’s 250th celebration reminders of ‘how good we have it’

New team leaders

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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