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Illinois Baptist State Newspaper

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Nate Adams

Mom’s ministry

March 3, 2025 By Nate Adams

Romelia Ann Hooks Adams

I’ve now written a column in The Illinois Baptist for 19 years. But my father Tom Adams wrote a continuous column in this same paper for the previous 34. Dad went to be with the Lord one month after I started my service with IBSA. But I have always felt that I stand on the […]

Why we’re here

February 7, 2025 By Nate Adams

3:16 on 3/16

When I served at the North American Mission Board, one of my responsibilities was World Changers, a ministry that mobilized thousands of students each summer to help rehab substandard housing for residents in a hundred different cities. The projects gave students and their adult leaders many opportunities to interact with the residents they were serving, […]

The winds of 2025

January 2, 2025 By Nate Adams

The winds of 2025

Somehow 2025 seems a more consequential new year than usual. Maybe it’s because it feels like just yesterday that people were simultaneously hyping the year 2000 and dreading Y2K. Now, suddenly it seems, we’ve reached the quarter century mark. And a generation of young adults weren’t even born at the turn of the century—a phrase […]

Get-up-and-go

December 16, 2024 By Nate Adams

Nate Adams

Having attended Southern Baptist churches all my life, the Christmas season always brings to my mind the name of Lottie Moon and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. Lottie, of course, gave her life as a missionary to China and as a passionate advocate for international missions. Last year when our family gave to international missions […]

Books of Reports

November 5, 2024 By Nate Adams

2024 IBSA Book of Reports

When messengers from our IBSA churches gather for the 2024 Annual Meeting at Ashburn Baptist Church in Orland Park November 12-13, they will receive something we call a Book of Reports. In addition to a program for the meeting itself, it will provide numerous documents that overview the cooperative work and ministries of our network […]

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Featured Columns

Mark Emerson

Worth every effort

Mark Emerson

When the news came, I was tired—Day 4 of VBS tired. Tired had been the theme of every drive home with my wife that week. Somewhere along the way I had finally asked the question only the overly weary ask: “How long are we going to keep this up?” Months of planning had become weeks […]

Loophole

Messengers close loophole

Eric Reed

It seemed like no big deal at the time. Messengers quickly voted for a change to the Baptist Faith and Message in 2023, there was no great debate. The motion came up and it kind of slid through—and that’s the problem. In 2026 they voted to prevent that from ever happening again. At the 2026 […]

A Committed Church: 2 Timothy 2:1-4

Maurice Gaiter

In a recent trip to Haiti, I heard a Haitian pastor illustrate to his congregation the need for total commitment to Christ. A man wanted to sell his house for $2,000. Another man wanted to buy it, but because he was poor, he couldn’t afford the full price. After much bargaining, the owner agreed to […]

More Columns

Good signs (so far)

Illinois Baptist Staff

Springfield | In church life, some summers are marked by a slump—in giving, attendance or attitude. But not this year, and especially not for IBSA. With the new administration now entering its second quarter, there are notable signs of positive attitudes in the network of churches. Some observations are anecdotal, with stories coming from the […]

News

IMB Photo

IMB missionary dies while serving in the Philippines

IMB.org

Esther (Sook Hyung) Kim, a Southern Baptist missionary to Philippines, died July 16 after suffering a heart attack. She was 64. Kim was attending a team meeting when she began to feel ill and went to a local hospital for care. Hospital staff revived her after she collapsed on site, but she did not regain […]

Young returns to IBSA team

World Cup scores for digital witness

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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