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

IBSA News

Illinois Baptist State Newspaper

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

Reporter’s Notebook

Reporter’s Notebook: An astronaut’s lesson in church attendance

May 5, 2025 By Eric Reed

NASA photo

What does an astronaut do immediately after nine months in space? Go to church, of course. Butch Wilmore and his Space-X crewmate Suni Williams returned to earth after their epic and unplanned hermitage on the International Space Station March 18, and on March 23 Wilmore was back in church—giving thanks to God for his reunion […]

New signs of the times

March 21, 2025 By Eric Reed

Liam Morrison

Several years ago, I asked our graphic designer to help me with a project. There was such a proliferation of pronouns at the time that I wanted him to take all the new ones and make a word cloud of them. There were 15 on the list. I planned to use the cloud with a […]

Connected despite time and distance

February 24, 2025 By Ben Jones

Connected despite time and distance

Who would guess that in one moment two Illinois churches deciding to cooperate with IBSA would discover a connection dating back nearly 100 years and stretching halfway around the world? But that is exactly what happened in November at the 2024 IBSA Annual Meeting. During a dinner for newly cooperating churches, each representative was asked […]

Separation of church and…debate?

October 7, 2024 By Eric Reed

Eric Reed

A new poll of pastors’ preferences in the upcoming presidential election shows not only the divide between clergy in political terms, but also the difficulty in talking about politics, especially in church. Half of pastors indicated a preference for former President Donald Trump, one quarter (24%) chose Vice President Kamala Harris, but another quarter (23%) […]

Are Southern Baptists becoming a creedal people?

August 8, 2024 By Eric Reed

Apostles’ Creed

My “Wait! What?” moment during the proceedings at the 2024 Southern Baptist Convention was the proposal that the Convention add up to three creeds to the Baptist Faith and Message (2000). Wait! What? Baptists are not a creedal people. Why does anyone want to tack a creed or two or three to our statement of […]

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • …
  • 7
  • Next Page »

Featured Columns

Gerald and Betty Steffy

We need more like them

Brent Cloyd

When Gerald and Betty Steffy came to Fairfield in August 1959, the couple were in their mid-twenties.  Gerald had just completed his theological training, and he was called to serve North Side Baptist Church. Gerald and Betty served churches in Illinois well into their eighties. Gerald died in September 2022, and Betty just a few […]

Ruth and Naomi

Ruth’s surrendered life

Meredith Flynn

Don’t plead with me to abandon you or to return and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live; your people will be my people, and your God will be my God” (Ruth 1:16). A few months after I moved to Illinois, I was assigned to […]

Watching for Baptist smoke

Eric Reed

While the world waited in St. Peter’s Square, watching a nondescript stove pipe protruding from the roof of the Vatican, I was recalling the smoke jokes at the church where I have served as interim pastor. And I’m thinking about our own Baptist conclave coming soon. In Rome, three rounds of black smoke from the […]

More Columns

9 tips for life on mission: Retired missionaries offer advice for next generation

Sue Sprenkle

The 20-something held up a fistful of letters. Inside the old-fashioned style of communication were words of encouragement and advice for the new International Mission Board missionary.  The letters reaffirmed words Zoe Hill heard countless times in person at First Baptist Church Columbia, Mississippi, from retired IMB missionaries Tom and Gloria Thurman:  1. The call […]

News

Victoria Awbrey

Awbrey named to SBC’s Dallas Team

Illinois Baptist Staff

Victoria Awbrey returns to the Registration Committee for the 2025 Annual Meeting in June. She was one of 26 members appointed by SBC President Clint Pressley. The registration committee is called “to supervise the registration of messengers, to oversee the operations of the registration desk, and to rule upon any questions which may arise in […]

Hunt trial on hold for now

‘To preserve unity’ S.C. megachurch withdraws

More News Stories

Mission

Metro East church plant hosts multiplication meeting

Metro East church plant hosts multiplication meeting

Ben Jones

Pastors and church leaders from around the Metro East area gathered in Collinsville May 17, 2023 for the second Multiply Illinois Hub. These quarterly regional events are designed to encourage and equip those interested in church multiplication. Heights Community Church, planted in 2016, hosted the gathering in their newly renovated home. With the St. Louis […]

Sallateeska baptism demonstrates SBC connections

A first-time ministry to migrant workers is very fruitful

More Mission Stories

  • News
  • Mission
  • In Focus
  • Columns

Copyright © 2025 · Website by Megaphone Designs