ATLANTA — The Republican majority in the state Senate, with help from Democratic colleagues, have pushed through a proposal that could legalize sports gambling in defiance of Georgia’s largest religious organization, which called for the measure to be quashed. The Senate voted 41-12 on Tuesday to pass Senate Resolution 579, another step toward putting a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot for Georgia voters to ratify or reject.

KYIV, Ukraine — For Luba, the pain of the past two years is hard to put into words. Her husband was killed when their house in Bakhmut, Ukraine, was bombed, and Luba was forced to flee her homeland. But thanks to Send Relief partners who helped her along the way, Luba says she now believes in God because she’s seen His love in the people who helped her. 

WAKE FOREST, N.C. — Created in God’s image, humanity was made for flourishing and relationship with him. However, in our cultures and in our own lives, we see confusion about what it means to be human, and we encounter challenges to living faithfully before God in this world.

CLEVELAND, Ga. — Truett McConnell University’s Hans Hut School of Business hosted its second annual Idea Labs contest in early February. Open to all Truett McConnell University students, the contest serves as a platform for budding entrepreneurs to showcase their innovative ideas in pursuit of scholarships and startup capital.

Thirty years is a long time to wait for help. Yet, the Romanian pastor had faithfully prayed since he was 8 years old for someone to come alongside him to serve and love his people.  Meanwhile, Jan McMurphy sat in Olive Branch, Mississippi, wrestling with God about an “itch” for the mission field she couldn’t shake.

CONYERS, Ga. —  More than 400 pastors and other Christian leaders gathered at First Baptist Church in Conyers for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board’s Called to Witness evangelism conference Sunday and Monday.

As a child of the 1980s, I have come to realize my age more frequently. Today’s kids will never know the thrill of going to the video store on the weekend to rent a movie, fighting your sibling for the toy in the cereal box or joining the Columbia House Cassette Club. They were great times, but time does not stand still.

Genesis 21 ends with the comment, “And Abraham lived as an alien in the land of the Philistines for many days.” God does call believers to live as aliens — that is, to live in a counter-cultural fashion. Abraham lived in the context of an unbelieving culture that practiced child sacrifice. Deuteronomy 12:31–32 prohibits child sacrifice.

CONYERS, Ga. — Reaching the lost requires Christians to step outside their comfort zones to reach people who desperately need Jesus, preachers told Georgia Baptists on the second day of an evangelism conference in Conyers. “If we’re going to reach this culture, we’re going to have to go to some places that will make us uncomfortable, and we’re going to have to do some things that make our people become uncomfortable,” said Thomas Hammond, executive director of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board.

CONYERS, Ga. — For  1.4 million Georgia Baptists to be successful in getting the gospel into every home in the state, they simply need to do what should come natural to all believers — tell others about Jesus. That was a theme of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board’s Called to Witness evangelism conference that kicked off  Sunday evening at First Baptist Church in Conyers. “Once you fall in love with Jesus, you can’t contain it,” said Robert Smith Jr., professor of preaching at Samford University’s Beeson Divinity School.

SUWANEE, Ga. — An annual count of baptisms in Georgia Baptist churches has surpassed 20,000 for the first time since 2017. Steve Foster, a Georgia Baptist Mission Board evangelism consultant, said the total as of Friday morning reached 20,280, just 13 short of the 20,293 reported six years ago. The numbers are expected to continue to grow as more congregations complete what's known as the "Annual Church Profile," an annual census of Southern Baptist churches.

CLAYTON, GA — Pinnacle Retreat Center hosted its first open house of the year Saturday, promoting Georgia’s only all-girls missions camp. Tabitha Ferrell, the camp’s director, said the open house is part of Pinnacle’s preparation for summer camp season, which runs from June 10 to July 12. The camp, owned by the Georgia Woman’s Missionary Union, provides opportunities for girls from first grade through high school to learn about world missions.

It’s February, and summer seems far away. But with how quickly the new year has already flown by, summer will be here before we know it. If your students are attending camp this summer, have you, as the pastor, made plans to attend with them? If not, here are some reasons you should get those dates on your calendar and make plans to go away to camp with your students.

CRESTVIEW, Fla. — Military servicemembers face the brokenness of the world in a way few others do, says Noah Clifton, who is planting Pillar Church of Crestview alongside Alex Chatman in Crestview, Florida. On top of that, the number of deployments, exercises, operations and trainings that call a member out of the home puts families in what Marine and church planter Alex Chatman calls “a pressure cooker.”

ALPHARETTA, Ga. — In a statement posted on Wednesday, Send Relief leaders reaffirmed the relief organization’s commitment, announced in June 2022, to provide up to $3 million in funds for the Southern Baptist Convention’s efforts in sexual abuse prevention and response and compassionate care for survivors, but clarified the funds would not be used to fund an organization outside the SBC.

DALLAS, Ga. — In a classy blue suit, striped tie, and starched white shirt, Donald Voyles has the look of a man who has just stepped out of the board room of a Fortune 500 company. He’s every whit the professional, from his freshly trimmed white hair to his newly polished back shoes. At 89, Voyles may not fit the stereotypical mold of the modern church planter, but the Adrian Rogers-look is paying dividends for a congregation birthed from a back-porch Bible study at his home in suburban Atlanta four years ago.

When the box of Kleenex’s fell behind the dryer, I didn’t think it would be a big deal. Knowing that it would be a fire hazard to leave it, I shimmied up on the dryer as best as a 61-year-old woman could to retrieve it.  My arms were not long enough.  “I will get it,” my beloved called from the other room.  But I didn’t want him to. I wanted to do it myself.  I always have to have help.  Surely, I could just do this alone.

LaGRANGE, Ga. — Georgia pastor Willie Thomas Edmondson is being remembered as a “legend" and a “warrior” as well as a “trailblazer” who served people not only from his church but also from city hall. Edmonson died Friday. In addition to being pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church in West Point, Edmondson also served as mayor of LaGrange.

Have you ever felt like you just had a bad week and you caught yourself complaining? I hope you can say yes to that question because it will make me feel better. I have had one of those weeks. It reminded me of a story about my granddaughter, Lottie, when she was around five.

CONYERS, Ga. — Georgia Baptist Convention President Josh Saefkow is hoping for a big turnout for a pair of evangelism conferences, the first of which begins on Sunday at First Baptist Church in Conyers. “The evangelism conferences help us to grow, to be equipped and to be inspired,” Saefkow said. “A big part of these conferences is to be inspired to go and tell others about Jesus.” Georgia Baptists are going into this year’s conferences with an obvious zeal for sharing the gospel. They’re reporting a 30% increase in baptisms over the past year and a more than 92% increase since 2020.

Shorter University has a history of training quality pianists, and to continue this training, the music department has started the Piano Program Project. This project was started in 2019 as a three-phase project.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — In his report to the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committeeon Monday, Bart Barber outlined new efforts to implement what he believes messengers have called on SBC leadership to do as the 2024 SBC Annual Meeting approaches. Among the updates, the Southern Baptist Convention president announced efforts to implement a new resolutions process. He also noted he will announce members of the resolutions committee by the end of February.

CHULA, Mo. — Amanda Hicks knew there were bees inside the building that once housed Chula Baptist Church. Everyone in the small Missouri town knew that. The old church had been sitting empty for nearly five years, the last of four churches that once served the small community of Chula, Missouri. While it sat empty, bees had made a home inside it, but everyone thought the bees were hiding in the walls.

Leaving behind a legacy is something that all Christians should strive for during their lifetime. Specifically, the love we have should be so unrecognizable to the culture that we shine in the darkness. One couple’s legacy, William Everett and Teresa Bennett, does just that.

If you have been a follower of Christ for a considerable amount of time, have you noticed the temptations and the struggles you encounter are different from when you first accepted Christ? As we grow in our relationship with Jesus, our faith should be marked by a progression of growth and depth.