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Illinois Baptist State Newspaper

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Reporter’s Notebook

My audience with the Queen

September 8, 2022 By Meredith Flynn

My audience with the Queen

“Would you like to meet her?” The guard at Westminster Abbey approached our group of bedraggled college students waiting for a glimpse of Queen Elizabeth. I imagine our eloquent answer was something like, “Um…OK!” before we ran down the sidewalk to grab a bouquet of yellow daffodils from a train station. (Yellow flowers are her […]

Pastoring people with sexual identity questions

August 30, 2022 By Michael Nave

A screenshot from Cornerstone Church's website that includes similar language to what the author describes.

I’ve had the conversation many times. Sometimes it’s with the person who says, “I think I’m gay.” Sometimes it’s with their friend or their parents. In our culture today, discussions about sexual identity are commonplace. It’s not only in large metropolitan areas. It’s here, it’s more public, and it’s growing among teens and young adults. […]

Discussing abortion with your pro-choice friends

June 23, 2022 By Lisa Misner

Abortion advocates staged demonstrations in major U.S. cities including Chicago on May 14, 2022.

Abortion is a difficult subject to discuss with a friend or family member who is pro-choice, when as a pro-life Christian you perceive that choice as ending the life of another. Here are a few strategies for having a productive conversation: Pray. Ask God to give you wisdom as you speak. Jesus said we are […]

What would Jesus resolve?

July 5, 2021 By Illinois Baptist Staff

Joshua Coleman

There was a moment in the Southern Baptist Convention in Nashville that caught the attention of messengers in the hall and watchers online, not because of its verbal content, but for its optics, as they say. The presiding officer recognized microphone number three. A voice began his introduction, a pastor from Florida. When his image […]

Reporter’s Notebook: Litton strikes pastoral tone early in his presidency

June 23, 2021 By Meredith Flynn

Ed and Kathy Litton

At a microphone in Nashville, Southern Baptists got a first look at Ed Litton’s leadership style. It was during the report of Southern Seminary’s Al Mohler that Litton’s voice unexpectedly filled the room during a Q&A. But Litton didn’t have a question. Rather, he rose to express his respect for Mohler, one of the candidates […]

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Featured Columns

Meredith Flynn

Spectators or participants?

Meredith Flynn

My church is in a season of refocusing on prayer. Every Sunday before the sermon, we break into small groups and pray together. One of the goals of this emphasis, our pastor has said, is to move from being spectators of prayer to participants in it. Last season, the football team I have followed and […]

Nate Adams

Good new days

Nate Adams

We all have “good old days” in our lives. They may be the days when we felt most successful or appreciated, or when things were done the way we agreed with or liked, or when those we respected were in charge. Most of us have good old days in our churches too. Days when our […]

How we can speak to men in the abortion conversation

Justin Mullins

As a pastor, father and follower of Christ, I have often found myself with a heavy heart when I think and pray about abortion. I’m saddened. I’m sickened. I’m burdened for the life of preborn children who are precious in the sight of God. And I have a deep conviction that there’s more that I […]

More Columns

Study shows Hispanic churches are young, vibrant, and growing

Lifeway Research

A new survey of Hispanic churches shows their attenders are younger and more evangelistic than at other Protestant churches—and there are more of them in worship on any given Sunday. Together with two dozen other religious organizations, Lifeway Research polled 692 pastors of churches that are at least 50% Hispanic for the largest survey of […]

News

Hunt sues SBC, EC and Guidepost

Brandon Porter, Baptist Press

Longtime pastor and former SBC President Johnny Hunt has filed suit against the SBC, the SBC Executive Committee (EC) and Guidepost Solutions. The suit seeks unspecified damages related to allegations of defamation and the invasion of privacy based on accusations made against Hunt in the 2022 Guidepost report stemming from an investigation into the alleged […]

SBC aids largest people displacement in history

Stetzer leaves Wheaton to lead Biola’s theology school

More News Stories

Mission

Sallateeska baptism demonstrates SBC connections

Baptist Press

(Ed. Note—In our July issue, we reported that Illinois’s very own Sandy Wisdom-Martin told the story of her brother’s recent baptism during her WMU presentation at the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Anaheim. We thought we you would appreciate this longer account that shows God’s fingerprints through multiple SBC connections. It’s too good to miss.) […]

A first-time ministry to migrant workers is very fruitful

FIRST-PERSON: A once-feared tribe now spreads the Gospel

More Mission Stories

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