INDIANAPOLIS (BP) — This year's SBC Annual Meeting and Pastors’ Conference was responsible for an estimated $20,169,855 economic impact on the host city. With 10,946 messengers representing 3,988 churches and 16,818 total attendees, this year’s gathering was the third largest since 2010.

RIVERSIDE, Ala. — Riverside Baptist Church was destroyed by fire early this morning (June 20) after it was struck by a car that apparently missed a sharp curve outside the church. The driver, a male, was killed but has not yet been identified by officials.

Church planting was part of NewBranch Community Church’s vision from the beginning, says Teaching Pastor Ken Rucker. The question for this Georgia church, which began gathering in 2008, had always been, “When’s the right time to plant?”

Twenty people. No pastor. One nearly empty parking lot. A baptistry that hadn’t been filled in five years. That was what was left of Fishersville Baptist Church by the fall of 2022.

INDIANAPOLIS – In many ways, American culture is becoming more hostile to biblical Christianity, said Jimmy Scroggins as he and Trevin Wax opened the North American Mission Board’s Church-Based Schools Breakfast as one of the ancillary events at this year's SBC Annual Meeting in Indianapolis.

Jane Hwang’s eyes scanned the list of cities. The last job, for student ministry in Tokyo, caught her attention. In the job description, she noted the lack of hope and knowledge of eternal life among the Japanese, and she felt the Lord was leading her to serve in Japan. 

CARTERSVILLE, Ga. — After 30 years of service, Don Startup, worship pastor at Tabernacle Baptist Church in Cartersville, Ga., is retiring. On Sunday, June 16, one week before his final service as worship pastor, the church celebrated Pastor Startup and his ministry.

Repentance is a change of mind and attitude that results in a change of life and actions. Repentance is necessary after hearing and understanding the previous six essential elements of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.

CARTHAGE, Texas — An East Texas church’s year-end surplus enabled Baptist World Alliance partners to deliver thousands of Bibles to people in a rural area of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Listening to the morning sounds in the mountains, I hear birds tweeting and greeting. They call across the hills, “Good morning! It’s time to get up.” God didn’t have to make birds sing. But He did.

Three sentences were jotted on the piece of paper a church member handed Nicholas Peveto after a morning worship service in 2011: “The time is short. You need to go. Trust God.” “Do you know what that means?” the church member asked. “I know exactly what that means,” Peveto answered. 

SPRINGFIELD, Ga. — First Baptist Church of Springfield suffered a tragic loss Monday when one of their VBS directors was killed in a traffic accident. The Effingham County Sheriff’s Department reported on its Facebook page that emergency personnel responded to a two-vehicle crash near the intersection of McCall Road and Highway 21 in Springfield. Two occupants of a pickup truck were taken to the hospital, and the driver of the other vehicle, Laura Devisscher, was killed

In April of 1860, Deacon Benajah S. Sheats, a Baptist layman/farmer from Clarke County, stood to make a motion at the Georgia Baptist Convention meeting in Macon.

COLUMBUS, Ga. – Tony Dickerson is known as a Baptist statesman, an anointed expository preacher, and a loving pastoral shepherd who is about to enter his 52nd year as senior pastor of Pinehurst Baptist Church in Columbus. He is also a proven leader and a genuine man of God.

When Children’s Director JoAnn Mann and her colleagues, most embarking on their first international mission trip, signed up with Send Relief to serve in Puerto Rico, they had no idea that the experience would forge deep connections not only with the family they were meant to assist but also with each other.

NASHVILLE (BP) – Late last Wednesday afternoon, June 12, the gavel dropped at the 2024 SBC Annual Meeting in Indianapolis and thus officially ended the service of those on the Convention’s Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force. However, several weren’t there to see it.

DALLAS — In the New Testament, we find these words: “Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress …” James 1:27 (CSB) On Sunday, June 23, Southern Baptists will again have the opportunity to honor unsung heroes of the faith — namely, retirement-aged Southern Baptist pastors, workers and their widows who served and abundantly blessed others during their years of ministry.

BRENTWOOD, Tenn. — Two years ago, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and the right to an abortion. In the aftermath, many churchgoers say they’ve seen their congregations involved in supporting local pregnancy resource centers.

INDIANAPOLIS (BP) – In anticipation of the 100th anniversary celebration of the Cooperative Program (CP) in 2025, Baptist Press editor Brandon Porter interviewed Tony Wolfe, executive director-treasurer of the South Carolina Baptist Convention, and John Kyle, communications director at the Louisiana Baptist Convention, on the CP Stage in the Exhibit Hall prior to the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention.

LONDON, Ky. (KT) — A small church in the Laurel River Baptist Association had a unique experience earlier this month when a 93-year-old man was baptized. Baldrock Baptist Church Pastor Vince Mullins said Guy Black’s profession of faith leading to his baptism has “so excited our little church.”

Recently, I was watching a college baseball game on television. It did not take long for me to notice something out of the ordinary. There was a green bag beside first base. At first I thought it may have been time to get my eyes checked, but it was indeed an extra bag.

Have you ever thought of your prayer time as providing a potential witness for Jesus? Acts 3 describes a miracle that occurred at a temple gate called Beautiful. In God’s timing, Peter and John found one of the three times of Jewish prayer an opportune time to share the gospel of Jesus.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — YM360 is pleased to announce the launch of GENERATE Conference weekends in seven cities in 2025. GENERATE Conference will provide dynamic worship and Word-filled weekends where attendees will be challenged to know Christ and make Him known.

TOCCOA, GA – James reminds us that pure and undefiled religion will prompt believers to care for widows (James 1:27). The writer of Proverbs penned, “Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed” (Proverbs 19:17).

MARIETTA, Ga. — Dr. Randy Cheek was approaching 70 years old when he was called as senior pastor of Eastwood Baptist Church in Marietta. His first Sunday he preached a message that has become his personal prayer, “Lord, whatever you want, I want.”