ONTARIO, Calif. -- Gateway Seminary President Jeff Iorg spoke on the tension of maintaining pastoral integrity, while practicing forgiveness and restoration for leaders who engage in egregious behavior in the school’s first chapel service of the spring semester.  “When a pastor behaves in an unethical or immoral way,” Iorg said, “our response must be biblical, practical, balanced, and measured.”

DALLAS — GuideStone has released one of its most popular publications, the annual Ministers’ Tax Guide. The publications includes tax highlights includes information about annual contribution limits, standard business mileage rates, and key features from The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. It also provides  step-by-step filing instructions for ministers’ personal taxes and comprehensive examples and sample forms.

MACON, Ga. – Melissa Wells, a certified sign language interpreter, was expecting a Deaf co-worker to show up at Tabernacle Baptist Church on a recent Sunday morning, so she  was prepared to sign the songs and sermon.

MARIETTA, Ga. – Training church leaders and volunteers in how to help children and teens suffering from trauma has quickly become one of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board’s most popular ministries. Foster care mobilizer Tera Melber said more than 350 people have undergone the training being offered through Mission Georgia, a Mission Board initiative that seeks to help the state’s most vulnerable populations.

MARIETTA, GA – Corporations rarely cast a twenty-year vision and churches may never look that far ahead, but Dr. John Hull, pastor of Eastside Baptist Church in Marietta is doing just that. A committee or task force is being formulated to do the groundwork to chart a course to make the church as effective and productive as possible in 2043. Pastor Hull has been urging the church to become a maximum church by emphasizing that Eastside exists for the purpose of connecting people to the life-changing message of Jesus Christ.

GHENT, Belgium--A big blue bear sits on a park bench, arm extended to the side as if inviting people to come and talk. Writing on the bench does just that, invites passersby to sit and talk because “Warme William listens.” While people sit and talk with the inanimate bear, an International Mission Board missionary parks a bicycle pushing a small cart, starts a generator and turns on an espresso machine. The missionary is also ready to listen. The big difference is that the missionary can actually hear, build a relationship and most importantly, introduce a loving Savior. The bear can’t do anything.

WAKE FOREST, N.C.--Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary rededicated the academic building on its west quad Tuesday, naming the building in honor of the late Ralph Logan Carson. Carson, who served for 15 years as a professor of Christian theology at Southeastern, is remembered for his integrity, his love for Scripture and the Church, and his passion for the Great Commission. Born blind to a single mother in rural McDowell, North Carolina, Carson first encountered the Scriptures at the Negro Division of the North Carolina State School for the Blind and Deaf, where he lived from 1939 until 1951.

FORTH WORTH, Texas -- Be a servant, remember your calling, be relevant, and keep an eternal perspective, preached O.S. Hawkins, senior advisor, ambassador-at-large, and senior professor of pastoral ministry and evangelism, at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Texas Baptist College chapel on Thursday. 

KANSAS CITY, Mo—During Midwestern Seminary’s Spring Convocation service, President Jason Allen announced a $2,500,000 gift and launched a new institutional initiative in partnership with the International Mission Board, ‘Midwestern Seminary’s Missions Moonshot.’ Specifically, Midwestern Seminary aims to produce 100 new missionaries annually in the years ahead. Allen began the service referencing President John F. Kennedy’s Moonshot Address to rally the American people to put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s.

ATLANTA – Longtime college football coach Tommy Bowden challenged Georgia pastors and politicians on Thursday to always take bold stands for Christ despite the fallout they may face as a result. “You’re in a battle with Washington D.C,” he said. “You’re in a battle with Hollywood. You’re in a battle with print media. You’re in a battle with tele-media. You’re in a battle with social media. I mean, man, if you take a stand for Christ, it is tough.”

ATLANTA – Some 200 people attended the annual Pastors Day at the Capitol on Thursday to hear from advocates working on the frontlines on important biblical, moral and ethical issues at play in the Georgia legislature.

HARTWELL, Ga. – Pioneering church planter Terry Meeks is retiring more than 30 years after joining a group of Hartwell families to launch what would become one of northeast Georgia’s premier congregations. Meeks and the others started Cornerstone Baptist Church in the unlikeliest of places, a defunct funeral home, but it worked out beyond their wildest imaginations.

My beloved spoke words to me this week that cut me to the quick.  I was minding my own business, not bothering anybody, when he announced, “I believe it’s time to take down the Christmas decorations.”  I did not respond.

If you don’t already know this, we have six granddaughters and one grandson, Camden. Camden loves cars, legos, drawing, and his Buddy, which is what all the grandchildren call my husband Wayne. I know he loves me, but honestly he totally prefers Wayne. In fact, I’m pretty sure he has a small obsession with Wayne and I’m pretty sure the feeling is mutual. He will run right past me to get to Wayne. I have stopped getting my feelings hurt because he does want me when he’s hurt, scared, or hungry so I take solace in the small things. Camden is almost seven now but I can remember a time when he was four and was spending the night with us.

MARIETTA – Brandon Nichols is a church planter who thinks like a missionary, has a heart of compassion, a deep sense of God’s calling upon his life, and his finger on the pulse of the moment. Nichols is pastor of Mercy Hill Church in Marietta, a work he started in 2016. He is a native of Warner Robins, and a graduate of the University of Georgia and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Prior to coming to the north side of Atlanta to plant a church, Nichols was the student pastor at Central Baptist Church in Warner Robins. He began giving some thought to planting a church in 2013, knowing that starting something new would not only require a spirit of adventure, but would likely be fraught with formidable challenges

In the 1920s, an agricultural depression gripped the nation. During those lean economic times, America’s record companies struggled to expand their markets and sales. They began sending recording crews across the country to set up temporary studios to record regional musicians. This was how the Carter Family was discovered in a recording studio in Bristol, Tennessee. It’s the story of other musicians from across the county, from the blues of Memphis, Chicago jazz, and gospel musicians from across the south.

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – Hundreds of Southern Baptist student ministry leaders came together in the Chattanooga Convention Center for the annual Youth Ministry Conclave to refocus, reset and recharge as they prepare to further their ministry to students across the nation. “Conclave is a partnership of multiple state conventions,” said Chris Trent, next gen catalyst for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board. “Every year, it feels like worship is special because it provides that opportunity where leaders can be in the room, but they don’t have to worry about [leading] anything.”

The Georgia Baptist Foundation has launched an initiative to help church members donate timber to support the work of local churches. “The concept of selling the land that has been in your family for decades may be unsettling, but there are many other ways to steward the land resources that God has blessed you with by supporting your church,” said Johnathan Gray, the foundation’s president and chief executive officer. “Many Christians would make gifts of timber if they had an organization to help them do so – especially in Georgia with its 24 million acres of timberland, 92% of which is owned by private landowners.”

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Hispanic churches in the United States face unique challenges but are finding success in building community within their congregations and reaching those outside their walls. Lifeway Research partnered with two dozen denominations and church networks to include what is likely the largest number of Protestant Hispanic congregations in the U.S. ever invited to a single research study. Sponsored by Lifeway Recursos, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse, the study surveyed 692 pastors of congregations that are at least 50% Hispanic.

FORT WORTH, Texas -- When Mary’s House recently opened its doors to provide a fully furnished residence for a missionary family, it marked a dream come true for Woman’s Missionary Union of Texas and the World Missions Center at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. In 2019, Brent Ray—then director of the World Missions Center—contacted Texas WMU to discuss his idea of providing an on-campus home for international missionary families on temporary stateside assignment. He envisioned a cozy home where missionaries-in-residence could find rest and renewal, while also inspiring seminary students with their testimonies of service on international mission fields.

JONESBORO, Ga. – More than 400 Georgia Baptist students participated in REEL Fest, an event sponsored by the Georgia Baptist Mission Board that allows the next generation of worship leaders to hone their musical and singing skills. REEL Fest, short for Refocusing Energy on Exalting the Lord, is a high-energy worship event that draws students from sixth grade and up from across the state.

Intelligent.com has ranked Shorter University No. 1 in the nation on its list of Best Online Sports Management Degree Programs for two consecutive years. Shorter University’s score of 99.11 was the highest earned by any program at any institution. Shorter University President Dr. Don Dowless said, “Our Sport Management programs are consistently featured among the nation’s best; we are proud of the arduous work of both faculty and students that make these recognitions a reality. The University is blessed to have dedicated faculty members committed to providing excellent training to equip future generations for Christ as they successfully move forward in their spiritual, academic and career accomplishments.”

DULUTH, Ga. – Georgia Baptist churches have good reasons for submitting Annual Church Reports. And the Georgia Baptist Mission Board is reminding congregations how the information collected benefits everyone.

Everyone around the small town of Lake Arthur, Louisiana calls Jered Thomas “pastor.” As of January 1, they also call him "chief." Thomas, a student in New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary’s Leavell College, ran in November for police chief and won with 84 percent of the ballot count, a total of just over 600 votes. But his election as police chief doesn’t mean he is giving up being the full-time pastor of First Baptist Church, Lake Arthur. “I’m not going anywhere,” Thomas reassured his congregation when he announced his run for police chief last fall.

DULUTH, Ga. – Churches gave more than $1.4 million over the past year through the Mission Georgia offering that provides funding specifically for sharing the gospel in Georgia, a state with more than 9 million unchurched residents. Georgia Baptist Mission Board Chief Operating Officer David Melber said that was an increase of more than $100,000 over the previous year.