IBSA News

Illinois Baptist State Newspaper

News

In appreciation of Bill Weedman 1937-2019

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William “Bill” Weedman is being remembered fondly by Illinois Baptists following his death Thursday, September 12, 2019 at a hospice facility in Springfield, Ill. Weedman, 81, retired as IBSA senior associate executive director in October 2006 after 28 years’ service at IBSA. Prior to his lengthy tenure, he pastored churches in Indiana, Kentucky, and Illinois. […]

Mandrell quotes Jesus, Lincoln at LifeWay installation

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Tampico, Ill., native Ben Mandrell was installed as the 10th president of LifeWay Christian Resources and its predecessor, the Baptist Sunday School Board, in a ceremony at the publisher’s headquarters Aug. 26. Mandrell, most recently founding pastor of Storyline Fellowship Church in Arvada, Col., pointed to the cultural challenges faced by Southern Baptists’ main purveyor […]

Hurricane Dorian: Baptists move to respond

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Hurricane Dorian made landfall Friday (Sept. 6) in northeast North Carolina as a Category 1 storm at Cape Hatteras as first responders in the Bahamas still worked to reach survivors after the storm’s devastating visit to those islands. Southern Baptists are working to serve both fronts. As the storm traveled up the east coast, flash […]

Illinois influx? Not everyone is leaving the state

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Three Illinois counties are among the top 40 locations in the nation where young people are moving. American mobility is at its lowest level since 1999. In 2017, the latest reporting year, 32.4 million people moved. Younger people, more footloose than the rest of the population, made up a big chunk of those relocations. You […]

Associational leaders talk partnership, revitalization at annual meeting

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At their annual roundtable meeting this month, leaders of local Baptist associations in Illinois learned what churches around the country value most from their own associations. They also discussed revitalization, an urgent need at a time when many churches across the country are plateaued or declining. Revitalization is one of three key areas in which […]