ROME, Ga. — Nineteen nursing students crossed a threshold Thursday night in Brooks Chapel, trading classroom seats for the white coats that mark the start of their clinical education. The Ben and Ollie Brady School of Nursing's annual White Coat Ceremony has become one of the school's most meaningful traditions, a public commitment from students to the patients they will soon serve.

CUMMING, Ga. — First Redeemer Church will host Prophecy Summit 2026, October 9–11, bringing nationally known Bible prophecy teachers and bestselling authors Jeff Kinley and Todd Hampson to Cumming for a weekend focused on biblical prophecy, the return of Christ, and how believers should live in light of what Scripture teaches about the last days.

Eleanor Hartley Chesser, 91, of Buford, Georgia, passed away on Thursday, September 17, 2026, peacefully surrounded by the love of her family.

SOUTH CHESTERFIELD, Va. — Southern Baptists gathered Sept. 16 at The Heights Baptist Church in South Chesterfield, Virginia, to celebrate 46 International Mission Board missionaries preparing to take the gospel to the nations.

BUFORD, Ga. — Women serving in churches and ministries across Georgia stepped away from their usual responsibilities Sept. 10-12 for a time of rest, encouragement, and connection at the Georgia Baptist Mission Board Pastor Wellness Women in Ministry Retreat.

BUFORD, Ga. — Stephen Fountain, lead pastor of First Baptist Church Buford, will be nominated to serve as president of the Georgia Baptist Convention at the convention’s annual meeting in November. Jim Perdue, senior pastor of Second Baptist Church in Warner Robins, announced his intention to nominate Fountain, a longtime friend whom he described as a faithful pastor with a deep commitment to the local church, evangelism, and cooperation among Georgia Baptists.

RALEIGH, N.C. — On Monday, Sept. 4, Southeastern Seminary welcomed 49 teams and over 180 players to the annual Southeastern Classic Golf Tournament. Over the past 20 years, the Southeastern Classic has become a highlight of the institutional calendar and Southeastern’s largest fundraising event, raising almost 1.75 million dollars since its inception.

TOPEKA, Kan. – Church Forward, the Kansas-Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists, has announced that John Shields will become the organization’s next executive director-treasurer, effective Nov. 1. Shields currently serves as Church Forward’s director of leadership health.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Southern Baptist Theological Seminary formally installed Andrew T. Walker as dean of the School of Theology during a chapel service Sept. 15 in Alumni Chapel.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Midwestern Seminary has announced the renewal of its For the Church Cohorts program for the 2027–28 academic year, offering 88 incoming residential master’s students a full-tuition scholarship for their first year of study.

For 19 years, MedAdvance has been an annual International Mission Board event that promotes global healthcare strategies to reach the lost. Earlier this month, the conference opened a new chapter.

MONROE, La. — Two days before Serve Tour Monroe began, local news stations were warning outdoor workers about record-setting heat across Louisiana. Then more than 1,000 volunteers showed up to serve. 

FORT WORTH, Texas — The Chinese Baptist Fellowship of the United States and Canada met on the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary campus for their biennial conference Sept. 8-11, hearing from plenary and breakout speakers, including Southwestern faculty members and alumni.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary celebrated a decade of training Spanish-speaking ministers this fall by hosting Reconocidos por la Verdad (“Trusted for Truth”), a conference marking the tenth anniversary of the seminary’s Online Hispanic Program. The gathering marked a milestone for Southern: the first conference in the seminary’s history conducted entirely in Spanish, from worship through every plenary session.

AMERICUS, Ga. — Pastors, ministry leaders, and laypeople from churches across southwest Georgia gathered at Central Baptist Church in Americus for the fourth SPARK church-strengthening conference …

MARIETTA, Ga. — Johnson Ferry Baptist Church will celebrate a major milestone in its Forward Vision this October as church leaders, members, and community partners gather to break ground on a new worship center on the church’s East Cobb campus.

BRASELTON, Ga. — James Oney, pastor of Liberty Baptist Church in Fayetteville, challenged members of the Georgia Baptist Convention Executive Committee on Monday to remain faithful to God’s call by presenting themselves daily as living sacrifices.

Paul McCommon II came to the Georgia Baptist Convention in 1951 as its first music secretary and became one of the pioneers of Southern Baptist church music. Three years later, in 1954, he founded the Sons of Jubal, a ministry he would conduct from its inception until his retirement from the convention in 1985.

SIERRA VISTA, Ariz. – A drive-through prayer ministry started recently at First Baptist Church of Sierra Vista. It’s one of several local and cross-border outreaches in the church less than 20 miles north of Mexico. And starting this fall, the church is to serve as a southern satellite site for the Arizona campus of Gateway Seminary.

This summer, a group of students, graduates, and staff from New Orleans Seminary’s Michael and Sara Moskau Institute of Archaeology participated in an excavation in Italy with the focus of searching for the remains of fallen World War II soldiers.  

One of the more interesting parts of growing older is the role friends play in your life. Young children are quick to tell you who their best friends are. Young adults have circles of people they associate with or share activities with. As a person advances over the years, friends may pass away or relocate while others lose touch and become a memory. Occasionally, someone from our past will resurface only to disappear again.

Paul continues in chapter 2 to discuss circumcision. It is an outward symbol of an inward spiritual relation between the nation of Israel and Jehovah. While the Jews believed they had special standing because of circumcision, Paul flatly refutes that by writing in 3:10, “There is no one righteous, not even one.” He preceded that statement by saying, “both Jews and Greeks are all under sin.”

AI experts are continuing to sound the alarm that growing advances in artificial intelligence could lead to the end of humanity as we know it. Meanwhile, other prominent leaders don’t appear quite ready to hit the panic button.

NASHVILLE (BP) – Former Southern Baptist Theological Seminary professor David Sills has filed a request for a “structured judicial settlement conference” in his lawsuit against the Southern Baptist Convention and other defendants.

GRIFFIN, Ga. — One year after McIntosh Baptist Church faced the possibility of closing its doors, its pastor, Daniel Sanderson, has been named “Replanter of the Year” by the North American Mission Board.