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Encouraging Words

Are you weary? Run on.

January 15, 2021 By Aubrey Krol

Encouraging Words

We set up a makeshift pulpit in our dining room. With the camera balanced on cardboard boxes and books, my husband preached while I served as executive producer—a role I gained overnight. Immediately after his sermon, I taught children’s church via video conference from a desk in our bedroom. I also held an open invitation […]

God with us

December 22, 2020 By Sammy Simmons

Encouraging Words

I love people and deeply miss the connectedness that’s hard to have in the middle of a pandemic. I recently had a senior adult lady who I haven’t seen in months come by the church I pastor. My first comment to her was, “Ida, I’ve missed being WITH you so much I would almost hug […]

Hope in the waiting

December 16, 2020 By Ben Jones

Encouraging Words

The details of the Christmas story can enthrall me, drawing my imagination into a cold night in Bethlehem. Mary and Joseph, road wearied and expecting, settled in a gritty stable. The sharp night air mixed with smells of straw and sheep. A million stars in the clear Middle Eastern sky. I love the idea of […]

Loss comes with permission

November 23, 2020 By Chuck Kelley

Encouraging Words

The loss of nearly everything reveals the true value of what you have left. Fifteen years ago, the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina took away homes, family photos, and heirlooms, along with the necessities of everyday life—furniture, dishes, towels, sheets, electronics, toys—gone in an instant. When New Orleans Seminary families dressed in hazmat suits to salvage […]

Casting off and putting on

November 16, 2020 By Meredith Flynn

Encouraging Words

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” (Colossians 3:1-2) With these words, Paul starts a section of his letter to the church at […]

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Featured Columns

Where is God when it hurts?

Tony Martin

This isn’t one of those pieces that ties everything up in a neat spiritual bow. It’s not filled with pat answers or hollow clichés. It’s born out of pain, prayer and the unshakable truth that — even in the flood — God is still present. The recent flooding in Texas has left so many of […]

Doug Munton

Navigating a season of change

Doug Munton

Nothing is scarier than change. (Well, maybe spiders are scarier, but I digress.) But here is the reality we face. Change is happening all the time, whether we like it or not. The real issue isn’t whether things will change, but how we deal with the change that is inevitable. So, let’s talk about navigating […]

How ‘what’ and ‘why’ unify

Nate Adams

The 2025 Southern Baptist Convention is behind us, and with it the meetings, reports, motions, and actions that pleased some and disappointed others. I know that many church members and even pastors rarely or never attend an SBC in person. That was true for me until I was almost 40, so I appreciate the reality […]

More Columns

John MacArthur leaves legacy ‘on a generation of preachers’

Brandon Porter, Baptist Press

Sun Valley, Calif. | Longtime pastor, author and teacher John F. MacArthur died July 14 after a short battle with pneumonia. MacArthur, 86, pastored Grace Community Church in the Los Angeles area for 56 years. “At the center of Dr. MacArthur’s ministry was an unwavering commitment to declare God’s truth, and Pastor John preached the […]

News

Ben Mandrell

Illinois native Ben Mandrell assumes Adrian Rogers’ pulpit

Brandon Porter, Baptist Press

Cordova, Tenn. | Ben Mandrell has been called to be the senior pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church. Mandrell, a native of Tampico, Ill., has served as president and CEO of Lifeway Christian Resources since the summer of 2019. “I cannot tell you how thankful we are for this moment,” Mandrell, 48, said in a statement […]

SBC Worship platform draws thousands of churches in first month, leader says

IRS opens door for pastors to endorse politicians

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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