“Let’s go!” (on mission) doesn’t necessarily have to mean traveling great distances. For Joel Jolly, it meant starting an outreach ministry to meet essential needs of children in his own city and county. When the retired owner of convenience stores and deacon at Edgefield First Baptist learned that some children in Edgefield County did not […]
With a sequential thematic appeal of “Let’s Go,” messengers to the 203rd Annual Meeting of the South Carolina Baptist Convention Nov. 13-14 were exhorted to move beyond giving, praying and sending to personal engagement in missions. Through keynote addresses by International Mission Board President Paul Chitwood, SCBC President Albert Allen, IMB Affinity Global Strategist Gregg […]
The phrase “uncomfortable grace” may be unfamiliar to you — as it was to me — but that doesn’t mean we haven’t experienced it. In the past few weeks, I’ve become increasingly aware of its presence upholding us in very trying times. When our faith feels weak and our knees buckle, God’s gentle mercies often […]
Expressing appreciation for your pastor (and other church leaders), doesn’t have to be a big banquet, a new car, a trip to the Holy Land, or a lawn tractor. Sure, all of these may be good suggestions for entire congregations. But individual members can also express appreciation in a variety of simpler, yet still meaningful, […]
Hilton Head First Baptist is a great example of how a church should show appreciation for its pastor by taking care of one of his family members who is facing a serious health crisis. Pastor Brett Myers’ wife, Kristin, was diagnosed in early 2021 with MGUS (monoclonal gammopathy of unknown significance), a precancerous condition that […]
Few people would be brave enough to step up to a canvas with a piece of chalk and start drawing in front of a room full of carefully watching eyes, especially having never done a chalk drawing before, but Bill Cox did. Fifty years have since passed, and Cox now is celebrating a half-century milestone […]
Their sanctuary is gone — now only a charred shell. A lightning bolt likely ignited the blaze that gutted the building on Sunday, July 2. But “the church is the people,” interim pastor Joe Hayes Jr. maintains, and the spirit of Camp Creek’s members remains undaunted. They will continue to worship on the northern Greenville […]
(Updated 5/30/23) As The Courier went to press on May 18, more than 8,800 messengers had pre-registered for the SBC Annual Meeting in New Orleans to convene June 13-14 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center — already passing the 7,868 registration mark set at the 2012 annual meeting there. Two South Carolinians are on […]
In response to recent concerns regarding the selection of Faith-Based Solutions to develop the “Ministry Check” website that will track sexual abuse in Southern Baptist churches, the SBC’s Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force has announced a decision to “consider alternative pathways” and move away from the division of Guidepost Solutions to create the database. Meeting […]
How far would you go to be baptized? Down the street? Across town? To a neighboring county? To a local lake or river? A teenager from Orchard Park, N.Y., a few miles southeast of Buffalo, recently traveled with his father to Mullins, S.C. — a trip of more than 700 miles — to be baptized […]