• 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
    • Thriving
    • Church Planting
    • Mission
    • Next Step
  • In Focus
  • Columns
    • Nate Adams
    • Eric Reed
    • Meredith Flynn
    • Table Talk
    • Reporter’s Notebook
    • Encouraging Words

Missions

How sharing Christ overseas changed a church

November 6, 2020 By Sammy Simmons

This January, I got to watch God move again in a way that brings so much joy to this pastor’s heart. I was on the dusty, noisy street on the edge of a slum in Nairobi, Kenya, with two Kenyans who served as our translators and two church members from Immanuel in Benton, Brad and […]

Pray and prepare: IBSA launches affinity networks to aid churches in missions planning

November 3, 2020 By Meredith Flynn

Pastor David Seaton’s church planned to send a volunteer team to Southeast Asia in 2020. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, shutting down most international travel and putting long-planned mission trips on hold. “We want the people of God to take the story of God to people who don’t know it yet,” said Seaton, a pastor […]

Churches make room for students displaced by pandemic

October 21, 2020 By Meredith Flynn

Across Illinois | Pastor Jason Plumer walks around the tables in his church’s fellowship hall, stopping every few seconds to talk to small groups of students eating an after-school snack of cereal or carrot sticks. His church’s after-school program, Tending the Vine, runs four afternoons a week for kids who need a place go after […]

The next missionaries

October 9, 2020 By Illinois Baptist Staff

“What is the future of missions?” The question, posed by International Mission Board President Paul Chitwood during a recent online workshop, is challenging for a number of reasons. U.S. church attendance is down, as is the number of Americans who identify as Christians. And young believers are increasingly skeptical of traditional mission practices. Among engaged […]

Churches adapt fall missions plans

October 7, 2020 By Meredith Flynn

Sterling | Emmanuel Baptist Church has played a major role in IBSA’s Children’s Missions Day for the past several years, hosting projects in their community and encouraging kids to get involved. When the spring event was canceled due to COVID-19, children’s ministry leader Ashley Covell got creative. The missionaries could “earn” their Children’s Missions Day […]

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • …
  • 17
  • Next Page »

Featured Columns

A prayer of thanks

A prayer of thanks

Meredith Flynn

(Editor’s note: For decades, Chicago Tribune columnist Joan Beck memorialized each year with a poetic column of thanksgiving. The verses below are our attempt to follow her example and remember the blessings of 2023.) As we gather together to count the Lord’s blessings, 403 years after the first Thanksgiving Day, we wonder at the beauty […]

Nate Adams

IBSA Annual Meeting: Don’t come alone!

Nate Adams

I hope many hundreds of Illinois Baptists are planning to load up the car or church van and drive over to Marion for the IBSA Annual Meeting next month. If that describes you, or you’re at least considering the possibility, let me urge you to do something that could make the trip especially worthwhile: Don’t […]

Mastering a new rhythm

Meredith Flynn

At our 6-year-old’s first drum lesson, her teacher asked how long she’d wanted to play percussion. “I was born wanting to,” Molly replied, as I mentally scribbled down the story we’ll tell when she wins her first Grammy. Drums are fun to play but also frustrating, her teacher warned her. Finding the rhythm can be […]

More Columns

Lottie Moon Christmas Offering & Week of Prayer December 3-10, 2023

IMB.org

This year’s Week of Prayer  and Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions will be observed Dec. 3-10. In this season, Southern Baptists are encouraged to consider the power of “Impacting Lostness Together.” The goal for the 2023-2024 offering is $200 million. Last year’s offering totaled $194,314,716 (as of Sept. 28), surpassing the $190 million […]

News

Kevin Carrothers

BCHFS: Redemption and transformation

Lisa Misner

“Matthew 9:36, that’s a verse that’s become very important to me.” So said Kevin Carrothers, Executive Director of Baptist Children’s Home and Family Services (BCHFS), as he delivered his report to messengers at the IBSA Annual Meeting in reference to his first months in the role. Reciting the verse, its relevance became clear, “When he […]

BFI: Can you see eternity from here?

Rosalynn Carter, former first lady, dies at 96

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 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 skyline […]

Sallateeska baptism demonstrates SBC connections

A first-time ministry to migrant workers is very fruitful

More Mission Stories

  • News
  • Mission
  • In Focus
  • Columns

Copyright © 2023 · Website by Megaphone Designs