Kathleen Mallory: A ‘Lingering Fragrance’ in Missions History

Over the last 20 years, when Rosalie Hall Hunt wrote books about missions trailblazers like Fannie E.S. Heck, Ann Judson and Hephzibah Jenkins Townsend, a name that kept coming up in her research was Kathleen Mallory. Hunt said that Mallory, the longest-serving executive leader in the history of Woman’s Missionary Union, remains a “steady echo” […]

Floyd, others push $175 million Lottie Moon Christmas Offering goal

Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee President Ronnie Floyd is encouraging Southern Baptists to help the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering ‘for International Missions exceed its $175 million goal for 2020. “As we begin this new fiscal year, we need to do everything we can to position our International Mission Board financially so we can send out […]

Rebekah Naylor named first female distinguished professor at SWBTS

Rebekah Ann Naylor, a longtime medical missionary to India, has been appointed distinguished professor of missions in the Roy J. Fish School of Evangelism and Missions at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. She is the first woman ever to hold such a position at the seminary. In 1973, Naylor was appointed by the Foreign Mission Board […]

IMB urges caution while encouraging sustained commitment to missions

International Mission Board senior leaders are urging Southern Baptists to use extreme caution if they are considering overseas missions travel for the remainder of 2020. As many countries continue to require quarantines or have not yet opened their borders, travelers could face unexpected circumstances, including quarantines upon reentering the U.S. The future threat and spread […]

IMB temporarily relocates personnel due to COVID-19

As airlines reduced flights and countries around the world went into lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some International Mission Board missionaries found themselves unexpectedly back in the United States. In an email to all overseas personnel, IMB President Paul Chitwood wrote that if any felt God leading them to leave their current country due […]

Missionary Addie Cox ‘lit a fire’ in author with her stories of China

When Bonnie Gates Windle was a teenager in the 1950s in Pickens County, Ala., a “small lady with white hair” would visit her church and tell spellbinding stories about her years as a Southern Baptist missionary in China. The speaker was Addie Cox, a fellow Alabamian who served as a teacher and evangelist in China […]

Pray for the Persecuted Church

Worldwide, the Christian church continues to be persecuted. Statistics often differ, but they clearly show a pandemic of a different nature. According to the World Watch List from Open Doors, eight Christians died every day in 2019 for their faith in Christ. Jesse French, founder of Operation Orange Ribbon, a South Carolina-based ministry dedicated to […]

Black missionary changing view of Christianity

Jerry Bates* attracts a lot of attention in Central Asia. As an American, he doesn’t quite fit in. As a Christian who is African-American, he topples the worldview of many of the Muslims he meets. Bates says when people in Central Asia ask about his religion, they expect him to profess Islam because he is […]

Unique doors open to black missionaries overseas

College junior Lauren Dugas had never met an African-American missionary prior to this year’s Black Church Leadership and Family Conference. Neither had many of the other 900 men, women and children from predominantly black Southern Baptist churches who spent the week at LifeWay’s Ridgecrest (N.C.) Conference Center. Of the 4,900 Southern Baptist workers serving overseas […]