For some U.S. adults, many of the terrors connected to Halloween are pure fiction. Others, however, are wary of ghosts, vampires, and visits from dead loved ones. Studies from YouGov and Pew Research found an openness among many Americans to the existence of supernatural beings and events.

ROME, Ga. — Pastors and church staff gathered last Thursday to enjoy a day away from the office and compete with their peers at a disc golf tournament. Nearly 30 participants teed off on the course around Shorter University, competing individually and in pairs.

FRANKLIN, Ga. — Have you ever been geocaching? It is an outdoor recreational activity, in which participants use a Global Positioning System receiver or mobile device to find some object or prize and on occasion the secret cache is something of value. One man reported he found a gold ring. Others have found money and gift cards.

POWDER SPRINGS, Ga. — Michael Boatfield, pastor of Macland Baptist Church in Powder Springs, continues to be invited to speak to athletes in high schools and colleges across the Southeastern states. In the past four years and six months he has seen over 1300 of these athletes invite Jesus into their hearts. Since April 2022 there have been 600 students respond to his appeal to receive Christ as the Savior and Lord of their lives.

JACKSON, Miss. — Nearly 1,400 people heeded evangelist Rick Gage’s appeal to commit their lives to Christ in a Mississippi crusade attended by some 17,000 people over four days. The evangelistic crusade concluded Wednesday night with an estimated 10,000 people packed shoulder to shoulder in an open-air amphitheater.

POWDER SPRINGS, Ga. — Peter Abungu and his ministry helpers in Nairobi, Kenya, have seen nearly 20,000 people surrender their lives to Christ in the past 10 years. That’s an average of 2,000 people a year, and the number is growing daily. That level of effectiveness convinced Burnt Hickory Baptist Church in Powder Springs to help Abungu and the Swahiba Networks Ministries he founded to spread the gospel in one of the poorest places on earth.

SUWANEE, Ga. — A significant number of pastors feel ill equipped to minister to people in their elder years. The Barna Group, a research organization that monitors cultural and religious trends in America, highlighted that finding in an article Wednesday. Thirty-five percent of pastors told Barna researchers that ministering to people 75 and older is an area where they feel the least equipped.

CLAYTON, Ga. — In recent months, volunteers at the Pinnacle Retreat Center have built a new home for the administrator who oversees the property. They have also served in a variety of roles at summer camps to make sure children and teens were well fed and cared for. Karen Pace, a Georgia Baptist Women’s consultant, said their total volunteer time reached 7,400 hours with a dollar value of nearly $250,000 based on the local pay scale.

SNELLVILLE, Ga. — Georgia Baptists will hear sermons from an array of pastors during this year's annual meeting set for Nov. 12-14 at the Church on Main in Snellville. Johnson Ferry Baptist Church Pastor Clay Smith will be first up at the three-day meeting of the Georgia Baptist Convention, the state’s largest religious organization with some 1.4 million people.

HOMERVILLE, Ga. — State Sen. Russ Goodman and his mother, Donna Kane, are safely back in southeast Georgia after having their Holy Land pilgrimage cut short by the gruesome Hamas attack on Israel last weekend. “It was quite an ordeal,” said Goodman, who returned to Homerville on Friday, six days after Hamas militants staged a surprise attack that killed more than 1,300 Israelis, most of them civilians.

DALTON, Ga. — Families at Salem Baptist Church have seen firsthand the positive impacts that fostercare and adoption have had on the lives of vulnerable children. “It changes lives not just in eternity but in the here and now,” said Pastor Darey Kittle, whose congregation includes a dozen families who have opened their homes to hurting children.

SNELLVILLE, Ga. — Three preachers with strong evangelistic credentials will speak at the Georgia Baptist Preaching Conference set for Nov. 13 at the Church on Main in Snellville. The lineup includes Jerry Vines, an elder statesmen in the Southern Baptist Convention who served 60 years as a pastor, including at First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Fla., which, at the time, was the third largest church in the SBC.

SUCHES, Ga. — Standing on a mountainside in north Georgia, Bud Braddock surveys a forest that’s beginning to take on the fiery colors of fall. For 84 years, the retired U.S. Forest Service staffer has been watching the seasons come and go. It’s a makeover he never tires of seeing. “It’s a tough life, but somebody’s got to do it,” he said, feigning hard luck as he stood beneath towering oaks just a mile or so as the crow flies from the Appalachian Trail.

LOGANVILLE, Ga. — Members of a mission team from First Baptist Church of Loganville remain in the Holy Land but are safe, four days after Hamas militants bombarded Israel with rockets in a surprise attack that also brought gunbattles to its streets for the first time in decades. The church’s co-pastor, Chase Snyder, asked people to pray for the group as they try to arrange a trip home.

NEWNAN, Ga. – The Christian life is not to be characterized by the words “sit, relax, bask, repose, lounge or luxuriate.” The Christian life may be more accurately defined by the word “go.” The Great Commission in Matthew 28: 19-20 begins with the word “go.” We are to be on the go with the Gospel.

SNELLVILLE, Ga. — The next generation of Georgia church leaders are now growing up in the state’s congregations, awaiting a spiritual nudge to step forward. So says Georgia Baptist Convention President Josh Saefkow who has built an annual meeting of the state’s largest religious group around the theme Calling Out the Called.

RICHMOND, Va. — The International Mission Board reported Friday that Southern Baptists have given more than $196 million through the Lottie Moon offering for the year, besting a $190 million goal. “Thank you, Southern Baptists, for your growing commitment to get the gospel to the nations,” said IMB President Paul Chitwood. “Your generous giving through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, along with your ongoing commitment to the Cooperative Program, has the IMB positioned to overcome the staggering impact of global inflation and meet the needs of your missionaries.”

SNELLVILLE, Ga. — Messengers to the Georgia Baptist Convention’s annual meeting will consider updates to their 200-year-old governing documents when they gather in Snellville in mid-November. “A part of this goes back to the fact that some of our core documents really were 200 years old,” said Tim Oliver, chairman of the Georgia Baptist Administration Committee.

SUWANEE, Ga. — One of Mark Marshall’s greatest keepsakes is a notebook filled with letters from church members expressing their love and appreciation for him and his wife. “It was given to me 26 years ago, and I still have it,” said Marshall, a longtime Southern Baptist pastor now serving as assistant executive director of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board.

MOUNT VERNON, Ga. — Brewton-Parker College has received news that it is one of this year’s Strengthening Institutions Program grant recipients from the U.S. Department of Education. The grant totals over $2.2 million awarded over the next five years and will provide the funding needed for the college to begin what it calls its Enrichment, Persistence, and Innovation in Collegiate Community Initiative.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. – Pastors’ wives often face a unique kind of vulnerability. Many of them feel like they are living in a fishbowl or vainly trying to live up to unrealistic expectations. It has been said that being a pastor’s wife can feel like being a solo traveler on a long trip in a foreign country.

SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. – Sometimes churches struggle in their valiant effort to survive. When a church membership ages and there are few or no young couples with children or teenagers, it becomes difficult to attract other young couples. If a church no longer has a critical mass or enough people in attendance in their worship services those who visit the church may not return be inspired or inclined to return.

LITTLE MOUNTAIN, S.C. — When wounded military personnel recovering in the Soldier Recovery Unit at Fort Stewart, Ga., are physically able, they venture into the great outdoors courtesy of a big-hearted veteran from South Carolina who knows the value of fresh air and sunshine to the body and soul. Chuck McAlister, who was stationed in Georgia more than 40 years ago as a young Army officer, welcomes injured soldiers onto a 200-acre sanctuary at Little Mountain, S.C., where they can get away from the sterile confines of hospital rooms and experience nature at its finest.

MONTREAL—Numbers don’t do justice in describing the last two years for Kevin and Casey Kilgore and their family, but it’s a start. In just a little more than 24 months, the Kilgores have surpassed 70,000 miles traveled in their RV. They’ve visited and encouraged 265 pastors and missionaries. They’ve been to 48 out of 50 U.S. states.

TOCCOA, Ga. — As Paul Garrison looks back over a half century of ministry, he sees how the Lord has fulfilled all of his childhood ambitions. With a smile, the Toccoa pastor explains that when he was a toddler, he wanted to be a garbage collector, just like those men he would watch from his window each week. In time, his ambition changed to being a firefighter and later a heart surgeon.