With the rise in online church services, many have different opinions on the acceptability or validity of online church attendance for those with the ability to attend in person. Lifeway Research finds pastors and churchgoers split over the question. But other research projects may provide more clarity on tangible benefits that come exclusively from physical attendance.

ROME, Ga. — Shorter University's The Hawkeye magazine received a first-place award in the American Scholastic Press Association's annual contest/review for scholastic yearbooks, magazines, and newspapers. The Hawkeye magazine is a student-produced publication of the Department of Communication Studies; it is produced twice a year (once each semester).  

LaGRANGE, Ga. – Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief crews have begun what is expected to be lengthy deployment helping storm victims clean up after a weekend tornado outbreak. Dwain Carter, director of disaster relief for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, said crews responded in Troup County with chaplains, chainsaw units and a mobile kitchen, plus showers and laundry units.

BOWDON, Ga. – The small town of Bowdon is the latest to experience a localized revival with more than 32 people making salvation decisions on Saturday at a ministry outreach that drew some 900 people. Several local churches worked together to organize the event – dubbed Love Loud Bowdon – that showered people with a variety of gifts ranging from appliances to groceries. “The whole purpose is to show the love of God,” said Mountain View Baptist Church Pastor Scott Estes.

FORT WORTH, Texas — Terri Stovall, dean of women, interim associate dean in the Jack D. Terry School of Educational Ministries and professor of educational ministries, has an adventuresome spirit that is unleashed every time the wind hits her face as she rides her Harley Davidson CVO Tri-Glide motorcycle or a roller coaster. 

Ruth Bell Graham, wife of the highly esteemed evangelist, Billy Graham, was one of the most influential ministry wives in the 20th century. While her husband was regarded as the finest evangelist of the modern era, Ruth Graham would become known as an accomplished writer, speaker, and communicator in her own right.

FORT WORTH, Texas — Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Senior Professor of Student Ministry Richard Ross has known for most of his life what he has been called to do: “by the Spirit, live, teach, speak, and write to see Christ’s kingdom come through teenagers and their parents and leaders, for the glory of God.”  He became a believer and follower of Jesus as a seven-year-old boy and when he was only ten years old, he said he “experienced a call to do Christian ministry as his life vocation.” 

Paul Gregoire, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary registrar for 29 years, passed away Tuesday after a brief battle with cancer. “Paul Gregoire was a faithful servant who embodied what we are about at NOBTS, servants who seek to be faithful to His calling,” said Jamie Dew, president. 

ALPHARETTA, Ga. — One of the keys to the future of the church is reaching the next generation. Over the last year and a half, Southern Baptists have been intentionally focused on sharing the gospel with students. In 2021, the North American Mission Board announced an infusion of $5 million over four years to support evangelistic efforts specifically designed to reach students, and state conventions have been implementing multi-faceted approaches to accomplish the task. Hundreds of salvations have occurred as a result.

ATLANTA — In 1846 the railroad town of Marthasville, Georgia, was booming. The town, formally called “Terminus,” was no longer a terminus. A rail bridge had been completed over the Chattahoochee River and the Western and Atlantic Railroad was pressing westward. The Executive Committee of the Georgia Baptist Convention decided to take an unprecedented move. For the first time in its 25-year history, a specific location would be targeted for planting a church.

Moses is just about to die.  In a few pages, he will climb Mount Nebo to the top of Pisgah and then be buried by the LORD (Deuteronomy 34).  I’ve been dreading it for days.  Reading the Bible chronologically this year, the LORD has breathed new life into the old, old stories I have read so many times.

Helmuth Pehlke, senior research professor of Old Testament at Bibelseminar Bonn, the German-based partnering seminary of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, died March 22. He was 79 years old.

Samuel Shahid, professor of missions in the Islamic Studies program at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary from 1998-2013, died March 2. He was 87 years old.

I’ll make a confession. I am a lover of Post-It Notes. I don’t know why, but I just love them. I think I love the fact that I can put them anywhere and they just stay there. And it’s a bonus that they now come in such beautiful, colorful shades. I use post-it notes all the time. If at any time you come by my desk you will see several with notes on them. This is the way I keep myself organized and also be able to remember things, or at least that’s what I tell myself.

GAINESVILLE, Ga. – Georgia is seeing revival on college and university campuses where 119 students have made salvation decisions since early January. Beverly Skinner, collegiate ministry catalyst for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, said the new believers were introduced to Jesus by young Christians involved in Baptist Collegiate Ministry who have shared the gospel with 3,965 of their fellow students between early January and mid-March.

PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. – Localized revivals that have been happening in congregations across Georgia have now reached the state’s Deaf ministries where five people are set to be baptized in coming weeks. While not the largest number of salvation decisions seen this year among any particular faith community, it is a significant number in a state where 3.1 percent of the population live with hearing impairment.

VALDOSTA, GA – Joseph York, the 20-year-old son of the Tommy and Greta York, walked down the aisle during the recent Bible conference at Northside Baptist Church in Valdosta. He made a commitment to Christ and became a candidate for baptism. Tommy, who serves as a deacon and Sunday School teacher at Northside had the privilege of baptizing his son on the following Sunday and explained that the baptismal candidates were lined up so far that it created a traffic jam at the baptistry.

Southeastern Seminary and the Southern Baptist Convention of Virginia partnered last week to provide pastors and church leaders throughout Virginia with seminary-level training close to home.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Southern Seminary President Albert Mohler has appointed noted ethicist Jason Thacker as assistant professor of philosophy and ethics at Boyce College. Thacker, one of the foremost scholars on the intersection of faith and technology, currently serves as Research Director for the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission, where he will continue to serve as a Research Fellow after joining the Boyce College faculty.

SUWANEE, Ga. – Pastors are feeling increasingly dissatisfied with their jobs and more than 40 percent have considered leaving the ministry in the past 12 months. That’s according to data released this week by the Barna Group, a research organization that monitors trends related to values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. 

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Churches are better prepared for financial rainy days than they were prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. A Lifeway Research study on the financial health of U.S. Protestant churches found more congregations have more than two months of cash reserves compared to a previous study in 2016. Additionally, most churches have undergone a financial audit in the past two years, and fewer than 1 in 10 have had someone embezzle funds from the congregation.

ALPHARETTA, Ga. – Wars, natural disasters and famines have been displacing tens of millions of people around the world in recent years, and Southern Baptists have been strategizing together to find ways to minister to them. During a “Reaching the Nations” event in mid-March at the North American Mission Board, Send Relief hosted the Diaspora Missions Collective as ministry leaders from across Southern Baptist life discussed ways to best connect diaspora peoples to the gospel who have arrived in North America and in other parts of the world.

FORT WORTH, Texas — Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s World Missions Center hosted the first Sending Church Conference last week. Churches from Texas and Oklahoma desiring to learn how to send missionaries learned through large group and breakout sessions from former missionaries and state convention staff. Ian Buntain, director of the World Missions Center and associate professor of missions in the Roy J. Fish School of Evangelism and Missions, opened the conference by welcoming the attendees, who represented over 20 churches. Buntain referenced how his life was personally changed by the work done by Southern Baptists when he said, “my eternal life was forever changed because Southern Baptists exist to send.” 

BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – Brent Leatherwood pledged Monday that the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission stands ready to represent Southern Baptists well in an America beleaguered by darkness and division. “We will build and reconstitute this team to meet the demands of the times we find ourselves in, fulfill the assignment given to us by our churches over a century ago, and do all we can to bring honor and glory to the name and saving grace of Jesus Christ,” Leatherwood said at an installation service hosted by Brentwood Baptist Church.

AUBURN, Ga. – The Georgia Baptist Mission Board’s church strengthening team will be crisscrossing the state in May with a series of regional roundtables that will focus on the triumphs and trials church leaders are encountering as they work to reach their communities and the world with the gospel. "We anticipate engaging with new and old friends to listen and learn from one another about how God is moving throughout our state,” said Levi Skipper, the Mission Board’s lead strategist for church strengthening.