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Pope Francis, head of the Catholic Church, died on Monday, April 21, at 7:35 a.m. of a stroke. He was 88 years old and had been ill for some time. His appearance on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica... Continue Reading »
South Carolina Baptists are celebrating an exciting movement of God as churches across the state reported the highest number of baptisms since 2016. According to the 2024 Annual Church Profile (ACP), 12,322 people were baptized this year — an... Continue Reading »
Barry Wilmore attended his first elders meeting in nearly a year at Providence Baptist Church in Pasadena, Texas, on April 10. His absence was understandable. Wilmore, known by many as “Butch,” had an unexpected extended stay at the International... Continue Reading »
North Carolina pastor Clint Pressley will be nominated for a second term as president of the Southern Baptist Convention, Texas pastor Michael Criner announced April 13. “It is my honor to nominate Clint Pressley for a second term as... Continue Reading »
Rarely do we get to see exactly how all of our ministry efforts bear fruit, but on occasion the Lord allows us to see and enjoy the fruits of our labor. These sweet moments of reflection on God’s sovereignty... Continue Reading »
Over 16 churches partnered together to launch SCBaptist’s first Women’s ONE Night event on April 12 at Brushy Creek Baptist Church in Taylors. According to SCBaptist, ONE Night is a “grassroots mass evangelism event designed to engage a specific... Continue Reading »
Most pastors believe their churches will be around for at least another decade, but that’s not the reality for some. According to a Lifeway Research study of U.S. Protestant pastors, 94 percent believe their churches will still exist in... Continue Reading »
As the 2025 legislative session moves quickly toward its expected May adjournment, the priorities of both chambers have emerged. The Senate passed S62, known as the Education Scholarship Trust Fund. The House amended the bill and voted to send... Continue Reading »
Rollen began carrying a sign at major sporting events in the early 1980s that grabbed the attention of the world. The Rainbow Man positioned himself at strategic locations in the background donning a rainbow afro and holding a sign... Continue Reading »
We were broke growing up. My dad pastored very normative-sized SBC churches, and my mom worked off and on to help make ends meet. To be honest, my four older brothers and I never knew we were poor. We... Continue Reading »
Every Sunday when SCBaptists gather in our churches, we celebrate the resurrection. On April 20, we will gather early in the morning outdoors for sunrise services and in our churches for our Easter celebration. What do we celebrate on... Continue Reading »
Sports gambling feeds on greed and thrives on the exploitation of the vulnerable, Baptist pastor and former college football coach RaShan Frost said. “The problem with sports gambling is that it intensifies covetous and idolatrous desires within our hearts,”... Continue Reading »
Editor’s note: This piece is the first in a five-part series in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Baptist Faith and Message. Nearly a century has passed since the Southern Baptist Convention adopted the Baptist Faith and Message... Continue Reading »
Every church aims to welcome guests in some way. Those efforts may just look different in different churches and may have changed over the last decade. According to a Lifeway Research study of U.S. Protestant pastors, more than 99... Continue Reading »
On March 30, more than 1,100 students and leaders gathered at First Baptist Rock Hill for ONE Night, a collaborative evangelism event hosted by South Carolina Baptist churches. The event resulted in over 120 students making decisions to follow... Continue Reading »
Historic rains have left communities recovering from floodwaters and at least two fatalities following days of torrential rains, Kentucky being among the hardest hit. Gov. Andy Beshear confirmed those fatalities April 7 along with one missing person report. Over... Continue Reading »
Nominations to be considered at the 2025 SCBaptist Convention Annual Meeting are due no later than midnight on May 31, 2025. The nomination process utilizes the DocuSign platform. Once submitted, the forms are automatically routed to the appropriate Convention... Continue Reading »
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday (April 2) in a case that will decide the fate of South Carolina’s effort to defund Planned Parenthood by barring abortion clinics in the state from participating in Medicaid programs. The case,... Continue Reading »
NewSpring Church of Anderson, which meets on 13 campuses across the state, has withdrawn from the Southern Baptist Convention, according to a recent letter addressed to the SBC Executive Committee. “After prayerful consideration, we’ve decided to withdraw from national... Continue Reading »
The U.S. Navy Band performed to a packed house of 1,500 attendees at Charleston Southern University’s Lightsey Chapel Auditorium on Sunday, March 30. The band performed a wide-ranging selection of music, from classic patriotic tunes such as “God Bless... Continue Reading »
A devastating 7.7-magnitude earthquake killed more than 2,000 people in Myanmar and Thailand on Friday, March 28. Collapsing mosques killed hundreds of Muslims at Friday prayers, The Associated Press reported, while about 150 monks were apparently killed when a... Continue Reading »
Pastors and other church leaders are breathing a sigh of relief after rains have helped bring the largest mountain wildfire in South Carolina’s history under control. The Table Rock Fire was 30 percent contained as of March 31, reported... Continue Reading »
More than 100 people and at least 10 local church pastors gathered in the parking lot of “Hometown,” (a grocery store that no longer exists) to pray for rain. According to officials, more than 10,000 acres have burned in... Continue Reading »
A preliminary schedule for this year’s SBC Annual Meeting in Dallas June 10-11 was released Tuesday (March 25) by the Southern Baptist Convention’s Committee on Order of Business. The meeting will begin with 15 minutes of worship and prayer... Continue Reading »
Southern Baptists have been engaged in bringing relief to survivors of Hurricane Helene since the storm made landfall last Sept. 26. As the six-month mark of the storm approaches, the focus has shifted to helping their neighbors and communities... Continue Reading »
SBC President Clint Pressley announced Friday, March 21, that Jonathan Coleman will chair the Registration Committee for the 2025 SBC Annual Meeting in Dallas in June. Coleman, pastor of Harvey Baptist Church in Stephenville, Texas, was a member of... Continue Reading »
Sixteen children from Millbrook Elementary School, Aiken, came to know Jesus this spring. They heard the gospel from a group of Good News Club volunteers from Millbrook Baptist Church. “The response has been wonderful. The children have been great”... Continue Reading »
“There was just something in my brain that kept me going.” Those are the chilling words of Kavita Fisher, a 41-year-old mental health professional who struck it big in online gambling, winning close to $500,000. According to the Wall... Continue Reading »
Deadly weekend storms across several southern states and into the Midwest prompted a widescale response on the part of Send Relief and Southern Baptist Disaster Relief. Tornadoes, dust storms and wildfires are reported to be responsible for at least... Continue Reading »
I met one of the million at the pickle ball courts. Don was curious about the college pickle ball tournament that was occurring in his neighborhood in Myrtle Beach. It wasn’t normal to see this many young people, laughing... Continue Reading »
In my late 20s, I was called to pastor a small, rural church in deep East Texas. Having come from years of associate pastoral ministry in more urban contexts, the first thought that crossed my mind was how “behind... Continue Reading »
The local church has always been a major part of my life. I remember those days when we filled out cards in Sunday School that asked if we read our Bible daily, studied our Sunday School lesson, witnessed to... Continue Reading »
Baptists on Mission is receiving $3 million in state government funding to assist with ongoing rebuild efforts in western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene, N.C. Gov. Josh Stein announced Jan. 31. The announcement of the $3 million grant for... Continue Reading »
On March 4-6, 217 newly endorsed church planters from 30 U.S. states, four Canadian provinces and Puerto Rico gathered at the North American Mission Board’s building in Alpharetta for Send Network Orientation, an event that kickstarts planters’ journeys by... Continue Reading »
Charleston Southern University has named Chaplain Monty Self the new director of the Dewey Center for Chaplaincy. Prior to CSU, Self served at Baptist Health, a 12-hospital system in Arkansas, where he was a senior staff chaplain and a... Continue Reading »
This year, South Carolina Baptist Disaster Relief was recognized with the Disaster Response Volunteer Group of the Year from the 2025 South Carolina Governor’s Volunteer Awards. The awards celebrate the contributions of volunteers, both individuals and organizations, from across... Continue Reading »
The U.S. Department of Justice informed Southern Baptist Convention attorneys today (March 12) that its investigation into the SBC and its entities is closed. No sexual abuse-related charges were filed. “Earlier today, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern... Continue Reading »
The average Southern Baptist church calls the South home, but the only region of the country where those congregations are growing is the Northeast. Churches are baptizing more people, but most churches remain small and fewer attendees are involved... Continue Reading »
Charleston Southern University has launched a new scholarship program for Pell-eligible students pursuing STEM degrees, nursing, accounting, aeronautics, kinesiology, or education. The Palmetto Academic Excellence (PAE) Award, like Charleston Southern’s innovative Buc Promise program, covers tuition for all four... Continue Reading »
Trent Fetherston had a reputation — the kind of reputation a man will get in an everybody-knows-everybody kind of town like Bar Nunn, Wyo., when he spends what seems like thousands of consecutive happy hours with a drink in... Continue Reading »
Baggs, Bairoil, Glendo, Granger, Medicine Bow, Meeteetse — race past them at the posted interstate speed limit of 80 miles per hour, and one after another, every tiny town in Wyoming can easily look like the same blink-and-you’ll-miss-it blur... Continue Reading »
They didn’t want to do it, but they had no choice. Ecuadorians Eduardo Vera and his wife, Juliana, walked more than 1,900 miles with their family, pushing Juliana’s elderly father almost the whole way on a rusty, discarded tricycle... Continue Reading »
North Greenville University announced Michael Bryant as the new dean of NGU’s College of Christian Studies on Feb. 20 in a press release. He will replace the founding dean, Walter Johnson, who retired after the spring of 2024. This... Continue Reading »
Texas pastor Juan Sanchez is urging Southern Baptists to re-visit an amendment at the annual meeting this June that addresses the definition of pastor/elder/overseer in the SBC Constitution. Virginia pastor Mike Law originally presented an amendment to Article III... Continue Reading »
“You must be out of your mind.” No one said it. But it had to be what most reasonable people were thinking when they heard what Christian and Laura Rowland had decided to do. “When our church in Texas... Continue Reading »
Brittany Brown will never forget the evening of Nov. 19, 2005. But her memories of that night, the night she gave birth to her second child, are anything but typical. “Being a military wife, you deal with things other... Continue Reading »
Lent may be on the calendar, but it’s not on the radar of most Americans. A traditional 40-day window of fasting before Easter, Lent is observed by around a quarter of U.S. adults, according to a Lifeway Research study.... Continue Reading »
We, the undersigned, are Southern Baptist pastors and leaders who love our family of churches and who are grateful for the hard-won complementarian commitments expressed in the Baptist Faith & Message (BF&M). A recent decision by the SBC Credentials... Continue Reading »
The bathroom smells like shrimp, the office is packed with preschoolers, and up on stage, all the Neverland props from the previous night’s very-off-Broadway performance of Peter Pan have been shoved to one side. But it’s not the environmental... Continue Reading »
Leo and Miosha Robinson know what people think. And it hurts. “It really gets to me when I tell people we’re from Flint,” Leo says, “They’ll say, ‘Oh, you must hate it there,’ or ‘You must not be able... Continue Reading »
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