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SBC

ERLC trustees name presidential search team

August 14, 2025 By Scott Barkley

ERLC

Nashville, Tenn. | Trustees for the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission selected seven from their group today (Aug. 14) as the team to search for the entity’s next president. A chairman will be named in the coming weeks, said an ERLC press release. Those serving on the team are: Traci Griggs, host of “Family Policy […]

Leatherwood resigns ERLC presidency

July 31, 2025 By Eric Reed

Brent Leatherwood

Nashville, Tenn. | Brent Leatherwood resigned as head of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) on July 31. The decision to leave was his own, board members said, as they accepted his resignation in a special called meeting in Nashville. The trustees moved immediately to name ERLC Vice President and Chief of Staff […]

Illinois native Ben Mandrell assumes Adrian Rogers’ pulpit

July 14, 2025 By Brandon Porter, Baptist Press

Ben Mandrell

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

July 14, 2025 By Diana Chandler

Shane & Shane

Dallas | SBC Worship, a new collaboration between The Worship Initiative and a broad swath of the Southern Baptist family, has attracted thousands of churches in its first month of operation at sbcworship.com, Robbie Seay told Baptist Press. “It’s been great,” Seay, the Worship Initiative’s executive vice president of leader development and content, told Baptist […]

Tenn. Court to hear SBC appeal

July 3, 2025 By Baptist Press

Stock photo

Nashville, Tenn.  | The Tennessee Supreme Court will hear the appeal of the Southern Baptist Convention in a case connected to an inquiry by the SBC Credentials Committee. Preston Garner, a longtime worship pastor and school music teacher, and his wife, Kellie, filed a defamation suit in 2023 against the SBC, Guidepost Solutions, and others. […]

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Featured Columns

Chuck Kelley

Blinded by bright spots: Kelley warns of trends we’re ignoring

Chuck Kelley

(Ed. note: One IBSA Annual Meeting keynote speaker has been concerned about the direction of the SBC for a long time. As a professor at New Orleans Seminary, he warned in 1983 that the denomination had plateaued. He pointed to the loss of evangelism among Methodists that led to their decline. “They never mounted a […]

Site where Paul is believed to have baptized Lydia.

Lydia’s quick response

Meredith Flynn

“A God-fearing woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, was listening. The Lord opened her heart to respond to what Paul was saying” (Acts 16:14). The account of Lydia is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment in the middle of the Book of Acts. Her story is only three verses long, but […]

Family reunion

Nate Adams

As I was preparing for my first IBSA Annual Meeting as Executive Director almost 20 years ago, I remember one long-time staff remember exclaiming, “I just love the Annual Meeting! It’s like a big family reunion.” Having just moved back to Illinois three months earlier, I didn’t yet share his enthusiasm. I was still meeting […]

More Columns

Unity, cooperation reign at IBSA Annual Meeting

Eric Reed

Springfield | If 1925 was a year to remember, with the birth of a unified missions funding system and the denomination’s first official statement of faith, then 2025 was also a year to remember. Southern Baptists celebrated the centennial anniversaries of Cooperative Program and the Baptist Faith and Message. Illinois Baptists marked the coming 20th […]

News

Trinity Christian College

Trinity Christian College will close

Illinois Baptist Staff

Palos Heights | After 66 years in operation in suburban Chicago, Trinity Christian College will close at the end of the 2025-26 academic year. The school’s final commencement will be May 8, 2026. The liberal arts school offered degrees in 70 programs. It was named among the top schools in the Midwest region by U.S. […]

Pritzker considering suicide bill

Panel at Annual Meeting to address campus ministry

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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