October 8, 2026
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Incoming Nevada Baptist leader tells GBMB staff, ‘We are your missionaries to the West’

Georgia Baptist Mission Board staff pray over Adam Mallette, incoming executive director/treasurer of the Nevada Baptist Convention, and his wife Heather during a monthly chapel service Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026, in Alpharetta. (Index/Henry Durand)
ALPHARETTA, Ga. — Adam Mallette, incoming executive director/treasurer of the Nevada Baptist Convention, thanked Georgia Baptist Mission Board employees Wednesday for their partnership in gospel work in the West and challenged them to remain faithful to God’s Word and their calling. “We don’t do what we do without the work of Georgia Baptists,” Mallette told employees gathered for the Mission Board’s monthly chapel service. “We just don’t do it.”
Trending stories
(Photo/Screenshot from Fox News)
SBC President Rice urges pastors to engage political issues rooted in theology, morality
CLEARWATER, Fla. — Southern Baptist Convention President Willy Rice is calling on pastors to engage in the political process when public policy questions intersect with biblical and moral convictions.
Stacy Dyer returns to local-church ministry after six years with Morganton Mountaintown
BLUE RIDGE, Ga. — After six years serving churches and pastors across Fannin and Gilmer counties, Stacy Dyer is returning to local-church ministry.
Authorities, below to the right, investigate the scene of a shooting where at least two people died and 35 were injured Sunday morning, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026, in Vienna, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
No arrests announced in shootings that killed 2, left dozens injured at Georgia block party
VIENNA, Ga. (AP) — Authorities in rural southern Georgia were still searching Monday for suspects in weekend shootings that killed two people and left nearly three dozen others injured when gunfire erupted during a sprawling block party to celebrate a homecoming football victory. No arrests have been announced in Dooly County, where the sheriff says more than 50 shots were fired early Sunday in the small city of Vienna as more than 1,000 people were still outside celebrating long after midnight.
(GBMB/Krista Roe)
First Fervent girls’ conference draws nearly 300, emphasizes abiding in Christ
COLUMBUS, Ga. — Nearly 300 attendees gathered for the first Fervent girls’ conference Saturday, Sept. 26, where students were challenged to consider how a relationship with Christ shapes their identity, relationships, and everyday lives.
Jimmy Scroggins, pastor of Family Church in West Palm Beach, delivers the keynote message at the SPARK conference at Crossroads Baptist Church in Valdosta, Ga., Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026. (Index/Henry Durand)
SPARK closes 2026 season in Valdosta with challenge to sow for the future
VALDOSTA, Ga. — The SPARK season drew to a close Sunday, Sept. 27, at Crossroads Baptist Church in Valdosta. More than 560 people registered for the final conference, bringing the total for all six 2026 regional training events to 3,833.
Baptist Life

Love Your Neighbor mobilizes Columbus-area churches for service, gospel outreach

Royce Railey, BCM campus minister at Columbus State University, cooks during a block party hosted by Overcome Ministries as part of the Mission Georgia Love Your Neighbor community outreach event in Columbus, Ga., Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. (Index/Henry Durand)
COLUMBUS, Ga. — Hundreds of Georgia Baptists spread across Columbus and surrounding communities for 23 Love Your Neighbor projects last weekend, displaying the love of Jesus by meeting practical needs, while looking for opportunities to pray with people and share the gospel.

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Shane Pruitt, national Next Gen director for the North American Mission Board, speaks during the Cheaha Area Crusade. (Photo/Go Tell Crusades)
James Howard said he’d been praying for a buddy of his for years. But he didn’t expect it to be the lights from the football field that got him. “He lives right behind the school,” Howard said. “So he called me … he said, ‘What’s going on at the football field? The lights are all going on, the music’s going on,’ and I told him, ‘We’re having church.’”
A family walks down a corridor at Lee Hall as college students begin moving in for the fall semester at N.C. State University in Raleigh, N.C., July 31, 2020. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome, File)
HENDERSONVILLE, Ala. — For many new empty nesters, it can be a jarring moment. You’re walking down a hallway of your home, and an empty room hits you emotionally in ways you didn’t expect.
Terry Lamb. (Photo/via Baptist snd Reflector)
DEL RIO, Tenn. — Terry Lamb opened his front door on the morning of July 11, expecting to see rain. Instead, he saw floodwater creeping toward his house.
NASHVILLE (BP) – Talks are already underway to add more hotel space for next June’s SBC Annual Meeting after nearly 15,500 room nights were booked within the first hour of availability on Monday, Oct. 5.
Georgia
Toi Cliatt, left, and Trina Martin stand outside the home, which in 2017 the FBI mistakenly raided, on April 25, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Sudhin Thanawala, File)

Appeals court says Atlanta family cannot take the government to trial for a mistaken FBI raid

ATLANTA (AP) — An Atlanta family cannot take the federal government to trial for a mistaken FBI raid on their home in 2017, but they can seek to hold the agent who led the SWAT team liable, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

No. 2 pencils and a mock SAT test form are arranged for a photo in Phoenix, Sunday, Aug. 23, 2026.(AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills, File)

Georgia’s public school class of 2026 scored higher on SAT

ATLANTA — Georgia’s public school class of 2026 did better in math and a little worse in reading and writing on their SAT tests than students who graduated the year before.
Authorities investigate the scene of a shooting where at least two people died and 35 were injured Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026, in Vienna, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

2 shot dead and dozens injured at neighborhood block party shooting in southern Georgia

VIENNA, Georgia (AP) — Two people were shot to death in a hail of gunfire, and nearly three dozen others were injured at a homecoming weekend block party early Sunday morning in southern Georgia, according to state law enforcement officials.
A sign stands outside the Paulding County Watson Government Complex in Dallas, Ga., during early voting Oct. 24, 2024. (Index/Henry Durand, File)

Georgia voters will see pen and paper at polls

ATLANTA — Attentive Georgia voters will notice something different when they go to their polling places on Election Day: pen and paper.

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Nation
This satellite image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Tropical Storm Isaias off the eastern coast of Mexico on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration via AP)

Isaias becomes the first hurricane of the Atlantic season as it heads toward the US Gulf Coast

Isaias strengthened into the first hurricane of the Atlantic season late Wednesday as it surged towards the U.S. Gulf Coast, the National Hurricane Center said.

Emergency vehicles arrive at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution after the execution of Christa Pike was halted Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Christa Pike is awake after failed execution as her attorneys seek more information

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Death row inmate Christa Pike has regained consciousness after Tennessee’s failed attempt to execute her by lethal injection last week, and her attorneys are set to head to court Wednesday to seek more information about what went wrong.
Actress Eva Marie Saint attends the 20th Annual Art Directors Guild Excellence In Production Design Awards held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, Jan. 31, 2016, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)

Obituary: Eva Marie Saint, star of 'North by Northwest' and 'On the Waterfront,' dies at 102

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Eva Marie Saint, the pale, willowy actor who won an Academy Award for her first movie, “On the Waterfront,” and starred opposite Cary Grant in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller “North by Northwest,” has died. She was 102. Saint, whose acting work lasted well into her 90s, died at her home in Los Angeles on Tuesday, confirmed family representative Jeff Sanderson.
A Cornell University police car is parked on campus at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Cornell building is sprayed with graffiti blasting school's response to gang rape complaint

THACA, New York (AP) — Cornell’s main administration building was splashed with graffiti and a glass door was broken overnight as the university faces anger over allegations of sexual assault at a fraternity house.

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World
Raz Zarfati, whose brother Ron Zarfati was killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led terror attack on Israel, attends a memorial marking the third anniversary of the attack at the Nova music festival site near Kibbutz Reim, southern Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Israelis mark three years since Oct. 7 attack with mourning, remembrance

REIM, Israel (AP) — On a field where music festival revelers were gunned down by Hamas-led terrorists three years ago, Israelis on Wednesday embraced and wept for those lost in an attack that plunged the Middle East into war.

Usha Khatri shows a photo of her husband Indra Bahadur, who has been missing since last month's flood, outside Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, in Kathmandu, Nepal, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. (AP photo/Upendra Man Singh)

Nepal ends search for thousands of flood victims leaving some angry and others relieved

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — The families of thousands of people who remain missing in Nepal weeks after catastrophic floods devastated the country have expressed mixed feelings after the government said this week that it is stopping the search for victims.
Locals and rescuers carry out an injured man from a residential building destroyed in a Russian missile strike on Pryluky, Ukraine, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Russian strikes on Ukrainian cities kill at least 21 in a major attack that Kyiv saw coming

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian missiles and drones pounded Kyiv and a dozen other Ukrainian regions overnight into Wednesday, killing at least 21 civilians, including four children, and wounding around 60 in Moscow's latest devastating barrage, Ukrainian officials said.
Portraits of Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai are shown on the screen as they are awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden, on Oct. 7, 2026. Photo: (Fredrik Sandberg/TT News Agency via AP)

Nobel Prize in chemistry awarded to Kagan and Soai for research solving 'mirror image' mystery

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai won the Nobel Prize in chemistry Wednesday for their efforts to resolve mysterious mirror images in chemical molecules, a discovery that transformed modern medicine.

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Perspectives
Adam Dooley
Last week, Tennessee attempted to execute convicted killer Christa Pike, who lured her classmate, Colleen Slemmer, into a wooded Knoxville area to torture and murder her in 1995. After being on death row for more than 30 years, authorities finally attempted to carry out her sentence on September 30. By now you have heard that things did not go as planned.
Jill Johnson
I love the beach. I am not necessarily fond of getting in the ocean, but I love everything else about it.
Todd Gray
Short-timer’s syndrome, according to one online definition, is “a psychological and behavioral state where a person loses motivation, focus, or emotional investment in their current role as their departure date approaches.” 
Mike Griffin
REMINDER: Early voting for the November 3rd Election opens this Tuesday, October 13th, and runs through October 30th. You can check on your voter registration, polling location, and more at the Secretary of State's My Voter Page (https://mvp.sos.ga.gov/s/).
David Chancey
​Jesus said, “I have come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). The Greek word translated “abundant” means “exceedingly, very highly, beyond measure.” Jesus referred to the full and meaningful life that comes from having a personal relationship with Him.

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Business
The U.S. Department of Agriculture seal is seen on a podium during a news conference in Washington on July 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

More than 160,000 pounds of meat bearing false USDA inspection labels recalled

NEW YORK (AP) — More than 83 tons of meat are being recalled across the U.S. because the products were not properly inspected by federal authorities and were shipped out with falsified inspection stickers, the Department of Agriculture said.

A hiring sign is displayed at a grocery store, in Schaumburg, Ill., Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Claims for unemployment benefits drop to 197,000, the lowest since mid-July as layoffs remain rare

WASHINGTON (AP) — Fewer people applied for U.S. unemployment benefits last week, as U.S. jobless claims remain at historically low levels and most Americans enjoy job security.

Major tire company to expand in northwest Georgia

ATLANTA — A global leader in tire production will invest $1.2 billion to expand in Georgia, bringing 1,000 jobs by 2033, according to Gov. Brian Kemp’s office.
The OpenAI logo is displayed on a cell phone in front of an image generated by ChatGPT's Dall-E text-to-image model, Dec. 8, 2023, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)

OpenAI flags concerning new AI behavior and vows to track it more closely

OpenAI has disclosed six reports of “unexpected or concerning” behavior in artificial-intelligence models as the debate on AI safety becomes increasingly heated.
Shoppers browse the produce section at a local store Aug. 13, 2026, in Woodbury, Minn. (AP Photo/Ellen Schmidt, File)

Retail sales rise a better-than-expected 1.2% in August

NEW YORK (AP) — Consumers may be griping about higher prices at the pump and elsewhere, but they keep spending, helping to power the economy, according to the latest government snapshot.

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Sports
Georgia defensive back Ellis Robinson IV (1) intercepts a pass in front of Vanderbilt wide receiver Junior Sherrill (0) during the second half, Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026, in Athens, Ga. (AP Photo/Colin Hubbard)

An October treat as No. 2 Georgia and No. 6 Alabama renew their great rivalry

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — It should be no surprise that Georgia and Alabama are among the last unbeatens in the powerhouse Southeastern Conference. It's been that way for years — decades, really.

Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer reacts to a call during a game in Starkville, Miss., Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/James Pugh)

Tropical storm threat churns planning for Georgia-Alabama game with Trump set to attend

Tropical Storm Isaias could make landfall on the U.S. Gulf Coast as a hurricane this weekend, hours before No. 2 Georgia plays at No. 6 Alabama in a major college football game on Saturday night that President Donald Trump is planning to attend.
Los Angeles Dodgers' Andy Pages hits a two-run single off Atlanta Braves pitcher Didier Fuentes, bottom left, during the seventh inning of Game 4 of the National League Division Series, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Colin Hubbard)

Pages delivers go-ahead single in 7th as Dodgers beat Braves 4-1 to clinch NL Division Series

ATLANTA (AP) — Andy Pages drove in two runs with a bases-loaded single in the seventh inning to give Los Angeles the lead, and the Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 4-1 on Wednesday night to clinch their NL Division Series.
Los Angeles Dodgers' Enrique Hernández connects for a two-run home run in the fourth inning of Game 3 of the National League Division Series against the Atlanta Braves, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Yamamoto is dominant again as Dodgers ride homers from Hernández and Freeman to 3-1 win over Braves

ATLANTA (AP) — Yoshinobu Yamamoto felt the trust from Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts when he remained in a crucial NL Division Series game after a stressful fifth inning. “I’d like to continue living up to the highest expectation,” Yamamoto said through a translator.

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