MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (BP) – As a kid, Asleigh Wilson certainly had no plans to work in missions, but through Calvary Baptist Church and the Baptist Campus Ministry at Middle Tennessee State …

HOUSTON (BP) – Fanny Baltanado planned to spend just six months visiting her new granddaughter in Texas when the unanticipated COVID-19 pandemic thwarted her return to Nicaragua. She would need to find a church home near Humble, Texas. An adult English as a second language class attracted Baltanado in March to Cross Community Church, where she became a regular attendee and in August, helped the church teach ESL to local Hispanic elementary students in a back-to-school camp.

GARRETT, Ky. (BP) – Garrett First Baptist Church participated in a Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief program called Ready Church earlier this year. While no one could be completely prepared for the worst flood in Kentucky history, Pastor Blaine Deploy said he was glad the church went through Ready Church. Garrett FBC, located in Floyd County, wasn’t impacted by the flooding, the pastor said, but added, “It touched the threshold.”

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. - Under the leadership of pastor Frank Cox, North Metro First Baptist Church will move to a new location for the second time. Most pastors would not have the grit or grace to even contemplate such a monumental endeavor, but Cox has been the pastor for 42 years and has rightfully won the favor and support of his congregation.

FUNSTON, Ga. – Funston Baptist Church believes that everyone is important in God’s economy. They love people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds. Pastor Ron Shiver has led the church to minister to individuals representing all demographics. That was true in this summer’s Vacation Bible School.

Here in Georgia, we are unchanging in our resolve to keep the gospel as our main focus. Resourcing and equipping churches to reach the 8 million lost people in our state is the mission we act upon every single day. That's what's on your heart, and that's what's on our heart, because that's what's on God's heart. This mission is why Georgia Baptists acted quickly to address critical issues over the past few years.

DALLAS (BP) – For Johnnie Bradley, pastor of Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church for the past 16 years, the struggles of the pandemic meant increased opportunities to share the Gospel by expanding the church’s longtime outreach to the needy.

The U.S. Department of Justice has initiated a probe of the Southern Baptist Convention that includes multiple national entities, denominational leaders said. “Individually and collectively each SBC entity is resolved to fully and completely cooperate with the investigation,” SBC leaders said in a joint statement released late Friday.

JONESBORO, Ga. – A 10-year-old American Indian boy who came to faith in Christ last week in Montana has inspired a mission team from Jonesboro’s First Baptist Church with his enthusiasm for reaching others with the gospel. The boy they knew as Billy was one of 33 people who the Jonesboro mission team led to Christ last week at the Fort Belknap reservation. Delaney Gosart dabbed tears during a church gathering Wednesday as she talked about Billy’s contagious enthusiasm for serving “Creator Sets Free,” his tribe’s translation for Jesus.

HURON, S.D. (BP) – A recent sermon at Huron Baptist Church included a concept held in high regard by pastor Ian Harp and his peers. It’s a concept that applies both to the life of a minister as well as to the farmers who populate his church, town and surrounding area. Prayer and patience.

Calling it a “historic new initiative,” Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Adam W. Greenway announced in a video released Thursday that beginning with the fall 2022 semester, the Fort Worth institution will provide a full tuition scholarship to all International Mission Board missionaries enrolled in the seminary’s master’s degrees and doctoral programs.

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Alden Harris sees the professional disc golf community as his mission field. Harris, 21, a member of First Baptist Church Woodstock, Ga., is a rising star in the world of disc golf and on the first weekend of August won the prestigious Mid America Disc Golf Open Silver Series at the Harmony Bends Disc Golf Course in Columbia, Mo.

Noah knew a thing or two about floods.  Chapters 6-8 of Genesis document the true story.  When the door closed on the ark, he was surely flooded with a wave of emotion. There are many kinds of floods that don’t involve water. Kentucky was flooded with shock and heartache just over a month ago when three well-loved police officers and a K-9 officer were killed in a mass shooting. A mom I care about has been flooded with grief.  She just buried her 17-year-old son. 

DECATUR, Ga. (BP) — Church planter and pastor Emory Berry Jr.’s passion for serving the educational community has its roots in his second-grade public school teacher of decades ago, Lilly …

NINEVAH PLAINS, Iraq (BP) – Christians largely remain displaced from the once vibrant Nineveh Plains eight years after the Islamic State decimated the region, a Christian charity working in the area said. Of the estimated 100,000 or more Christians who fled their homes in the 2014 invasion, perhaps 20,000 have returned since repatriation efforts began in 2017, Max Wood, chairman of the nondenominational American Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East, told Baptist Press.

DOUGLAS, Ga. – A discipleship expert who has written several books on the subject will be speaking at the latest regional SPARK total church conference being held Saturday at First Baptist Church in Douglas. Bill Wilks is founder of D-Life and author of four D-Life Journals, D-Life Online and his most recent book, The Greater Work – Disciple-Making. Anytime. Anywhere.

CLAREMORE, Okla. (BP) – For Joshua Clayton, talking to people about Jesus has always been a part of who he is, even while playing video games or creating online content. He now uses these two passions together in his new role as “online missionary,” at Claremore First Baptist in Okla.

TIFTON, Ga. – TJ Mauldin is one of those rare individuals who can sing like he belongs on a record label and preach so vividly that Bible passages come to life. That’s how people describe the 37-year-old who has been called as the new lead pastor at First Baptist Church in Tifton. Mauldin arrived at the southern Georgia church 11 years ago as a 26-year-old, part-time contemporary worship leader strumming an acoustic guitar, but Pastor Wayne Roe and others quickly recognized that he was an incredibly gifted preacher, too.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Idols don’t always come in the form of carved statues or reside in places of worship. Many pastors believe modern-day idols can be benign-looking desires with significant influence on people in their congregations.

NASHVILLE (BP) – In the midst of the back-to-school season, Southern Baptist churches are loving and serving the students, teachers and schools in their communities. Churches are meeting needs in a variety of ways including hosting back-to-school bashes, offering free school supplies and giving away free backpacks.

FORTH WORTH, Texas - More than 100 Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Texas Baptist College students and family members benefited from this year’s annual Supply Day, held Monday at …

NEW ORLEANS (BP) – New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and Leavell College recently announced an increase in the missionary scholarship for active International Mission Board personnel and returning International Service Corps personnel and Journeyman missionaries to cover 75 percent of tuition and fee costs.

AUGUSTA, Ga. – This year’s Georgia Baptist Convention annual meeting is being moved from Augusta’s Marriott Convention Center to nearby Warren Baptist Church, a move that will provide significant cost savings. “We’re grateful for the hospitality of the people at Warren Baptist,” said Georgia Baptist Mission Board Executive Director Thomas Hammond. “They have everything we’re looking for in an annual meeting venue – a spacious sanctuary, plenty of meeting rooms and ample parking.”

Sumo wrestling might be considered an unusual sport for an American, but for Andrew “Stonewall” Roden, whose Alabama roots go back to the Revolutionary War, it was literally taking a different traveling route that led him to the sport. “God led me here — this is what God wants,” he says confidently.

CHICAGO (BP) – The freedom of churches and other religious organizations to make employment decisions based on their beliefs has again gained support in the federal court system. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago dismissed July 28 a former guidance counselor’s lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Indianapolis and a Catholic high school.