• Contact
  • Return to IBSA
  • Advertise Through Us
  • Subscribe
  • E-Reader

IBSA News

Illinois Baptist State Newspaper

  • Quick Links
    • E-Reader
    • Subscribe
    • Advertise
  • News
    • IBSA
    • SBC
    • Culture
    • Illinois Churches
  • Stories
    • Church Planting
    • Mission
  • In Focus
  • Columns
    • Scott Foshie
    • Eric Reed
    • Meredith Flynn
    • Table Talk
    • Reporter’s Notebook
    • Encouraging Words

Eric Reed

Pastors need safe spaces

September 13, 2019 By Eric Reed

Depression often goes unshared in isolating vocation My mother, a fine Christian woman, committed suicide just before the Fourth of July in 1991. When that anniversary came around this year, less than a year after my wife died from cancer, it hit me pretty hard. It was almost like going through the events of those […]

Millennials’ LGBT unease grows

July 17, 2019 By Eric Reed

An eight-mile trip into the countryside ended at an old barn which had been converted into a restaurant. “The food’s good here,” one of the travelers said as we set out after the Sunday service on winding rural and sometimes gravel roads. The former feed store set in cornfields was everything Cracker Barrel would hope […]

Grilled, not toasted

May 31, 2019 By Eric Reed

Two things surprised me about my ordination: the interview was not nearly as painful as I anticipated, and it was scheduled 90 minutes prior to the evening service where I was to be set apart for God’s use. What if I fail the test? I thought. My mother drove 10 hours to attend the service. […]

Ultimately, it’s a local church decision

March 4, 2019 By Eric Reed

It’s just the Wild West out there right now,” a colleague declared of the Twitterverse, as Baptists registered their opinions on new reports of sexual abuse and the failure of Southern Baptists to stop perpetrators’ movement among churches. Then the Internet mostly applauded the recommendations by SBC President J.D. Greear’s study committee to address sexual […]

Church life in shrinking Illinois

February 20, 2019 By Eric Reed

Hard times hit the publishing industry in the early 2000’s. The president of Christianity Today International, for whom I worked at the time, called the confluence of 9/11, falling ad sales, and the rise of the internet “whitewater.” Apparently he enjoyed rafting, but he knew the river crashing against the rocks as placid waters turned […]

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • …
  • 12
  • Next Page »

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

  • News
  • Mission
  • In Focus
  • Columns

Copyright © 2026 · Website by Megaphone Designs