GRIFFIN, Ga. – Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers are entering their second week of tornado cleanup. A series of tornadoes touched down in Georgia last week, causing widespread damage, triggering a full deployment. Along with chainsaw crews, Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief sent chaplains and personnel to assess damage and to man a mobile kitchen, laundromat and showers. The crews expect to complete their assignments next week.

Georgia Baptist Convention President Josh Saefkow has appointed a geographical cross section of church leaders to serve on this year’s Committee on Nominations. Stephen Williams of Belmont Baptist Church in Calhoun, in his second year on the committee, will serve as chairman.

GRIFFIN, Ga. – Charles Raburn and his chainsaw were dwarfed by the massive branches of a giant oak toppled by one of the tornadoes that hit Georgia last week. In a breathtaking scene, the Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief volunteer stood high above a soggy lawn in Griffin, among those branches in a tree that measured nearly 20 feed around at its base.

Very early Sunday morning, I burned the hot chocolate.  Two cups of sugar, one cup of cocoa, four dashes of salt, one cup of water, and three teaspoons of vanilla came to a boil and before I knew it, began to smoke.  Burnt cocoa is the worst.  The stench filled the kitchen.  I opened the window to clear the air, then ran to fan the smoke alarm lest it wake my beloved who was still sleeping. 

Have you ever had one of those “seasons” in your life when it seems like things just go from crazy to crazier or hard to harder, and you just don’t understand or can’t begin to explain? Well, if you have not experienced one of these seasons consider yourself blessed.  (I also want to talk to you .)  I feel like I have been in one of these seasons for most of the last year or so. 

ALPHARETTA, Ga. – Kevin and Casey Kilgore had what most would consider normal lives. Kevin had served as an associate pastor at Northside Baptist Church in Tifton, Georgia, for 14 years. They had four daughters—all in public schools, a mortgage—and a cat. The Kilgores imagined spending the rest of their lives serving the Tifton community. But then God said go.

VARNVILLE, S.C. -- Chip Mixon was helping his son build a house, lost his balance, and tumbled off of a scaffold. The fall from a height of more than 10 feet fractured a vertebra in his spine, leaving his legs paralyzed. On that Saturday, Aug. 6, and every day since, Mixon, who leads the praise team at First Baptist Church, Varnville, has come to know the assurance of Isaiah 26:3 — “You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.”

YOAKUM, Texas (AP) — A small plane crashed Tuesday while approaching a Texas airport, killing four members of a Tennessee church and leaving the lead pastor injured, authorities and the church said. The single-engine Piper PA-46 crashed in an open field south of an airport in Yoakum, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Yoakum, a city of about 6,000 people, is about 100 miles east of San Antonio.

BENSALEM, Pa. – More than 5,000 people have come to know Christ in rural villages in Liberia over the past four years thanks to a ministry led by Truett-McConnell University alumnus Henry Peabody.

Endurance, longevity in ministry, and life-long integrity seem to be characteristics of the few — not the many — in church ministry today. The public fall of church leaders due to long-concealed moral failings heightens the urgent need for Christ-like leaders who last. In a recent interview, Jeff Struecker, assistant professor of Christian leadership at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, shared about his most recent test of endurance and his reflections on developing a culture of Christian ministry and leadership that lasts.

GRIFFIN, Ga. – A soggy forecast won’t deter Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief chainsaw crews who are helping tornado victims remove trees from their homes and property. “It’s just rain, nothing severe,” said Jeff Carter, a crew leader who was among the first to arrive in the Griffin area where an EF-2 tornado did widespread damage.

ATLANTA – Southern Baptists make up the largest religious group in Georgia with nearly 1.6 million members in communities across the state, according to the U.S. Religion Census. Southern Baptists outnumber by far the second largest group, Catholics, by 1,584,393 to 898,162, according to the census conducted by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies.

ALPHARETTA, Ga. – A missionary serving with the North American Mission Board died when his small plane crashed in the Appalachian foothills of north Georgia on Thursday. Clint Clifton, who served on the organization’s church planting staff, was returning to his home in Virginia after attending a meeting at NAMB headquarters in Alpharetta.

GRIFFIN, Ga. – Chainsaw crews from Georgia Baptist churches expect to be busy for three weeks or more helping tornado victims remove trees from their homes and property in Griffin and other hard-hit communities. They began arriving within hours of the tornado outbreak that’s being blamed for two deaths and widespread property damage.

FORT WORTH, Texas -- More than 130 people professed faith in Christ as 84 students enrolled in Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s Introduction to Missiology and Contemporary Evangelism practicums shared the Gospel almost 1,100 times during the fall 2022 academic semester, seminary leadership announced Thursday.

GRIFFIN, Ga. — A giant, swirling storm system left at least seven people dead across the South and spurred suspected tornadoes in Georgia, causing sporadic damage to homes and businesses, uprooting trees, and knocking out electricity across a wide swath of the state on Thursday.  Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief crews were surveying damage as soon as the dangerous weather had passed, preparing to send in chainsaw teams and other volunteers to help with cleanup if needed.

BRUNSWICK, Ga. – Chris Winford started last year with a prayer that the Lord would make him a man of deeper faith. “Little did I know I was about to become a living example,” the pastor at First Baptist Church in Brunswick said. A grim cancer diagnosis caused Winford to trust in the Lord more than ever before. His is an encouraging story of faith and courage amid uncertainty and of a gracious God who provided a happy ending.

January 6th was the 12th day of Christmas, Three Kings Day, Epiphany, and Old Christmas all rolled into one.  This special day celebrates the arrival of the wise men in the Christmas story (Matthew 2).  I’m glad to have a specific time to appreciate those sages who traveled a great distance to find the newborn King. The wise men.  I picture them this minute in velvety robes with radiant smiles.  In my mind’s eye, I see one of them with a white beard.

Mountains can be described as a part of the earth that are very wide, have a tall height, have steep sides, or even are just a large pile of something. Mountains can represent achievement, obstacles, responsibilities, tasks, paths to success or even loss. I heard a long time ago the ways to conquer a mountain are either over it, around it or through it. I have had many mountains in my life, and I feel like God has allowed me to tackle or attempt to tackle all three ways of mountain climbing. I think all are equally hard and lessons can be learned from each way.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Lifeway Christian Resources revealed a new, next-gen curriculum line, Hyfi, on Tuesday at the annual Children’s Pastors Conference. Chuck Peters, director of Lifeway Kids, called Hyfi a needed resource that will help “flip the script” for churches seeking to reach kids and students in an increasingly secularized society. 

TIFTON, Ga. – Penny Chesnut has seen some unusual sights during her four decades serving in Baptist Collegiate Ministries at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College. She recalled the day she walked into the BCM building on the Tifton campus and saw a young man bathing his chicken in the kitchen sink to get it ready for a class project. Then there was the time a student thought the BCM a good place to bleach a deer’s head, again for a class project.

FORT WORTH, Texas -- When Trent Broussard, a Doctor of Philosophy student in the School of Church Music and Worship at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, approached Joseph Crider with his dissertation research topic, the dean of the school encouraged him to pursue his topic of interest. Broussard, who served as a worship pastor for 20 years before beginning as an assistant professor of music and director of choral activities at Williams Baptist University in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas, wanted to research inclusion and accessibility in worship for people with autism.

DULUTH, Ga. – Members of the Georgia Baptist Convention’s Administration Committee chose Milledgeville Pastor Tim Oliver as their chairman on Tuesday. “It’s an honor,” said Oliver, pastor at Lakeside Baptist Church. “I’ve never felt qualified in anything God called me to do, but He has always blessed.” Oliver, who had been serving as the committee’s vice chairman, was the unanimous choice for the top post. He has been serving in ministry for 34 years, the last 20 of which have been at Lakeside.

RINGGOLD, Ga. – More than 50 Georgia Baptist students gathered online over the weekend to get insights about life in ministry through the state Mission Board’s Calling out the Called initiative.

CARTERSVILLE, Ga. – A small church in north Georgia has begun the year in a big way, by baptizing nine new believers. “It’s amazing to see God moving in such a big way with everything we’ve been through in the past couple of years,” said Cassville Baptist Church Pastor Andrew Hackler. “There’s nothing else we can credit this to other than the moving of the Spirit and faithful obedience to what God has called us to.”