DALLAS - Registration is open for the annual Employee Benefits Summit, slated for March 26–28 at the Dallas/Plano Marriott at Legacy Town Center. Early bird registration is available for $200 and closes on February 24. Regular registration is $249 and closes on March 13. Information is available at GuideStone.org/EBS. Continuing education credits are available for CPA, CPE, CCA, SHRM and HRCI holders.

WARNER ROBINS, Ga. – Georgia Baptist churches are reporting a significant increase in the number of new believers baptized over the past year, a jolt of good news as pastors, evangelists and others prepare for a pair of upcoming evangelism conferences. A partial count shows 14,333 baptism in 2022, up from 12,865 the previous year.  The latest numbers account for slightly more than half of the state’s 3,400 churches, so the total number of baptisms could be far higher.

MIAMI – Ken Whitten, recently retired pastor of Idlewild Baptist Church in Tampa, Fla., will become national director of pastoral leadership at the North American Mission Board, beginning in March. NAMB president Kevin Ezell shared the news Tuesday at NAMB’s Board of Trustees meeting in Miami. “Ken is humble, intentional and he loves pastors,” Ezell said in comments before the announcement. “Every pastor could use a friend like Ken, and that’s how he will lead in this effort—as a friend and a fellow servant.”

NURDAGI, Turkey — Georgia Baptists who have ministered to earthquake survivors in the past have been moved to prayer for Turkey and Syria where the death count had soared above 17,000 as of Thursday morning. Rescuers were working in freezing temperatures, sometimes using only their bare hands, to dig through the remains of buildings flattened by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake.

SUMNER, Ga. – Gary Thrash knows the burdens pastors carry as they minister to the sick and hurting, cry alongside grieving families, and deal with the sometimes unrealistic expectations of church members, all while trying to make ends meet at home on meager salaries. That’s why the south Georgia deacon feels compelled to minister to the state’s ministers.

WAKE FOREST, N.C.  —  In 2015, Devin Moncada and his wife Evan moved from Pineville, Louisiana, to Wake Forest, North Carolina, for Devin to finish his Advanced Master of Divinity degree. Shaped by professors, neighbors, and classmates, the Moncadas decided for Devin to continue his studies at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and he is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Old Testament while working on campus and pastoring locally. Committed to living on mission in all of life, Devin and Evan and their two kids have made their home a hub for discipling community. For the Moncadas, Great Commission community begins with everyday gospel intentionality.

ALPHARETTA, Ga. – Dozens of pastors came together in late January for a two-day coaching session through the North American Mission Board’s  Leadership Institute. The twice-annual event provides in-person time for pastors and coaches who are participating in year-round cohorts with eight to twelve other pastors led by a more tenured pastor. “There aren’t a lot of places where pastors have people intentionally investing in them to help them think through how to be better shepherds and leaders,” said Jonathan Akin, who oversees the Institute.

OMEGA, Ga. – Forty-one people surrendered to Christ on Friday evening in a rural Georgia community, the latest to experience a revival movement that’s been sweeping across the Deep South state. This time it happened in a fellowship hall at Bethel Baptist Church in Omega where some 400 men had gathered for what was billed as a Beast Feast, a dinner that included a variety of wild game, including deer, hog and quail.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The apologetic landscape has changed and defending Christian morals is one of the chief tasks today, Timothy Paul Jones, professor of apologetics and family ministry at SBTS, said in Southern’s annual Faculty Address. Previous generations asked, “Is Christianity true?” but a primary question being asked of the faith today is, “Is it good?”

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The foundation for Southern Seminary’s curriculum by which it trains ministers may be boiled down to one truth, President Albert Mohler said Thursday in his annual spring convocation address: God has spoken. Speaking on Isaiah 40:1-5, Mohler said that the most important truth humans can know is that “the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” The existence of the self-revealing God is the irreducible foundation for the entire Christian faith. Thus, those truths undergird every class and every program in Southern Seminary’s curriculum.

POWDER SPRINGS, Ga. – Those who knew Bernard Weaver best have hailed him as the quintessential pastor. John Yarborough, veteran Georgia Baptist pastor and current Director of Public Policy at Truett McConnell University, referred to Weaver as a mentor to him. Yarbrough explained, “Bernard Weaver demonstrated how a man called of God to be a pastor should love His people and serve them unselfishly. I have known some great preachers and some effective leaders, but I have never known anyone who could care for the flock of God as effectively and lovingly as Pastor Weaver.”

International Mission Board trustees approved the appointment of 46 new full-time, fully funded missionaries, while also honoring the service of 87 missionaries and staff during their meeting this week in Richmond, Virginia. Chuck Pourciau, trustee chairman and lead pastor of Broadmoor Baptist Church in Shreveport, Louisiana, presided over the two-day meeting.

Churches across the Southern Baptist Convention are struggling to find worship pastors, but shifting from traditional church music degrees to biblically grounded worship may be part of the solution, one seminary professor said. Joseph Crider, dean of the school of church music and worship and a professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, said the shortage of music and worship pastors is at a level he has not seen in many years.

FORSYTH, Ga. – Georgia Baptist Mission Board Executive Director Thomas Hammond is reminding associational missionaries of the need to stand with pastors who are facing the hardships that come with life in ministry. “These days are difficult,” Hammond told associational missionaries gathered at Maynard Baptist Church in Forsyth on Tuesday. “We need each other like never before.”

DALLAS — GuideStone Funds, the nation’s largest faith-based mutual fund family, introduced Thursday two new impact funds: the Impact Equity Fund and the Impact Bond Fund. The funds will offer investors a diverse, returns-oriented portfolio based on the biblical values of the sanctity of life, stewardship of God’s creation, and human dignity and advancement.

ORLANDO, Fla. — In their first meeting of 2023, the Lifeway Christian Resources Board of Trustees heard how the organization plans to leverage recent growth momentum and better serve the church in coming years. During the meeting on Monday and Tuesday of this week, key leaders at Lifeway shared encouraging financial news and updates on new and upcoming ministry initiatives. Southern Baptist Convention President Bart Barber participated in the biannual meeting and expressed gratitude to the organization for its commitment to serving congregations.

BLACKSHEAR, Ga. – Spontaneous revivals that sparked salvation decisions across Georgia in 2022 have carried over into the new year with 19 people making professions of faith at a venison supper in Blackshear. Another 28 people recommitted their lives to Christ at the event, said Justin Gambrell, pastor at First Baptist Church in Blackshear.

On Sunday mornings, I worship in a warm, cozy sanctuary.  I lift my frequently offkey voice in songs of praise.  I sing words that tell of chains being gone, of freedom, of God making a way, of His blessings.  I sometimes raise my hands, though am more prone to do it at home.  I wear bright colors of my choosing.   

One of my least favorite things to do is to load and unload groceries. When you have seven people in your household, including four under the age of 13, you can have a lot of groceries and a ton of snacks in those bags. Thankfully I have four “little” helpers to assist in unloading groceries. They like to pick what they think is the heaviest bag and prove how strong they are by being able to carry it into the house. Now, this can get a little scary when the six-year-old tries to handle two gallons of milk. We just pray she makes it to the kitchen and then someone always praises her for carrying such a heavy load and quickly removes the bags from her possession.

Trust in pastors has fallen for the third straight year to an all-time low, according to a new Gallup survey. Only 34% of Americans rate the honesty and ethical standards of clergy as high or very high. That’s a 2 percentage point drop since the previous historic low of 36%.

NEW ORLEANS – Registration is now open for churches to pre-register messengers for this year’s Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, set for June 11-14 in New Orleans.

SUWANEE, Ga. – The Georgia Baptist Mission Board has entered into a “revolutionary” ground lease deal with private investors to construct new facilities for Baptist Collegiate Ministries at five state universities with the possibility of expanding to additional campuses in the future.

ATLANTA – Georgia Tech is known for its elite Engineering College and continues to be one of the top public institutions in the nation. Based on information dated September 18, 2021, only 21% of applicants were admitted to Georgia Tech. Out of 40,852 who applied, only 8,719 were accepted. When leading academics become Christians their influence for good and God can be significant.

He stood six foot six, wore a size 13 shoe, his head was crowned with a full shock of gray hair and his beard would make a Viking proud.  Joseph H. “Bear Joe” Lunsford was a man of the mountains, and a mountain of a man. Born in Suches, Union Co., Georgia in 1853 at the southern base of Blood Mountain, his life spanned more than eight decades and his legacy was left in stone. Bear Joe Lunsford spent his life in the mountains as a farmer and lay preacher.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (KT) - Eleanor Gorin, born on March 5, 1921, grew up in the first house built on Cherokee road in Louisville and received Christ after meeting Corrie Ten Boom, the famous Holocaust survivor. It was the late 1960s, in the middle of the Jesus movement, when Gorin says “the Holy Spirit jumped across the water,” all the way to the Isle of Bermuda, where she and her husband were living at the time. There, Gorin became involved in a seven-person prayer group of “hungry, thirsty, cultural Christians.”