NATIONWIDE – So far this year, at least 5,300 Southern Baptist trained Disaster Relief volunteers have responded to 40 natural disasters across the United States, from wildfires in California to storms on the eastern side of the nation. That was before this weekend’s outbreak of severe weather from Kansas to Kentucky, which is expected to continue through Wednesday across much of the nation’s interior east of the Rocky Mountains. “Our job as the body of Christ is to stand up at … [Read more...]
Multiple fellowship groups plan Dallas gatherings
DALLAS – Several groups affiliated with Southern Baptists plan to meet concurrent with the June 8-11 SBC annual meeting at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center. It’s a convenient time to meet, saving money for participants by not having a separate meeting elsewhere, and it’s a great time to mix and mingle – and network – with the most involved (since they attend the SBC annual meeting) Southern Baptists from across the nation. FoNAC’s largest gathering of the year “offers a … [Read more...]
Pastors share how local churches are blessed by supporting Lottie Moon Christmas Offering
NATIONWIDE (BP) – How does giving to missions bless a local church? Pastors say their churches benefit from giving to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering in many ways. Lance Logue is pastor of Highland Baptist Church in Redmond, Ore., where about 720 people attend weekly. “We believe that giving is an act of worship, and it plays a vital role in discipleship,” Logue told Baptist Press. “Generous giving challenges our members to grow spiritually, deepen their trust in God and align … [Read more...]
Park Street Baptist Church in Butte, Mont., is living out Acts 8:4
EDITOR’S NOTE: The pastor’s name has been changed for security reasons. BUTTE, Mont. (BP) – Park Street Baptist Church and the BSU (Baptist Student Union) at Montana Tech University co-mingle to encourage the congregation to tell others about Jesus as they disperse around town, around the country, and around the world. Judson frequently crosses borders into security-sensitive areas, modeling Acts 8:4, “Those who have been scattered preached the word wherever they went.” He does so … [Read more...]
Space Force hymn writer inspired by ‘awe and wonder of God’
FORT MEADE, S,D. (BP) – It was the fourth of a hot, dry July day nearly 150 years after the fact at Camp Sturgis, a frontier Army post in the 1870s, decommissioned in 1944. Today it’s known as Fort Meade and is used as an Army training ground. Officer candidates from across the nation could have taken the holiday to visit the nearby patriotic Mt. Rushmore, or the not-much-further, larger-than-life Crazy Horse monument. Instead they stayed on base to play war games—Civil War-era war … [Read more...]
Oregon church grows through evangelism
EUGENE, Oregon (BP) – Alan Gayle keeps several “hooks in the water,” he says, in his quest to lead the church he’s pastored since 2004, Fairfield Baptist, to share God’s love with the people around them and throughout the world. One of those is a six-week, new-member class Gayle leads every two months. During it (and during church services throughout the year) he talks about the Cooperative Program, the way Southern Baptists work together in missions and ministry in the United States and … [Read more...]
Sammy Tippit’s prayer life undergirds his evangelistic zeal
SAN ANTONIO, Texas (BP) — God still is calling His people to evangelism, and veteran evangelist Sammy Tippit has added identifying and encouraging new evangelists at the same time he continues proclaiming as well as training and equipping those who are drawn to God’s love through Sammy Tippit Ministries’ worldwide evangelistic outreaches. “When I started in COSBE [Conference of Southern Baptist Evangelists] in the early 1970s, there were more than 200 members,” Tippit said. “Now there … [Read more...]
Jefferson City pastor sees CP from both sides
JEFFERSON CITY (BP) – Since 2007, Cornerstone Baptist Church has sent 10 percent of its undesignated offerings to missions through the Cooperative Program, the way Southern Baptist churches work together to spread the Gospel in North America and throughout the world. “We just believe the Cooperative Program is the primary way to reach the world for Christ,” Pastor Brian Credille said. “We are open to doing other things, but I don’t think anything else could take the place of sending career … [Read more...]
Lottie Moon’s home church stays true to her vision
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (BP) – First Baptist Church (on Park Street), where Lottie Moon was baptized, is regaining its health. All it took was a new pastor who said it was too historically significant to wither away, who believed it could become vibrant again, and a congregation that responded to the pastor’s message. “First, I believed it could rebound,” Rob Pochek said. He’s been pastor of First Baptist Church on Park Street since 2016. “If you don’t believe God can breathe life back into … [Read more...]
Montana Baptist church expands reach with CP
EDITOR’S NOTE – The Missouri Baptist Convention currently has a missions partnership with churches in the Montana Southern Baptist Convention. HAVRE, Mont. (BP) – Chris Richards’ job for 28 years was keeping America safe. Since his retirement from the U.S. Border Patrol in 2015, he’s turned his focus to shepherding Immanuel Baptist Church in Havre. And in 2018, he added Chief Cornerstone Baptist Church, 30 minutes south on the Rocky Boy Indian Reservation in north-central Montana. As a … [Read more...]
American Indian embraces culture to lead people to Jesus
MONTANA (BP) – People don’t grow into mature Christians until they serve others. So says American Indian pastor and ministry leader Bruce Plummer, of Sioux, Assiniboine, and Cree heritage. In his multifaceted ministry, Plummer invites mission teams to come to Montana to serve with Montana Indian Ministries: picking up trash and handing out water and coffee in four weeks of powwow ministry, five weeks of Indian camp ministry for children and youth, and construction/maintenance/mercy … [Read more...]
Bruce Plummer Finds God in the Midst of Despair
Bruce Plummer, born on the Fort Belknap reservation, was twenty-one, stumbling drunk, and suicidal in a drenching rainstorm in Portland, Oregon, when with Native American awareness he crawled under a pine tree to avoid some of the wet. That tree was on church property, he realized the next day, as he watched vehicles coming and later going from the parking lot. “For the first time in my life, I heard God. That surprised me,” Plummer said. “He said, ‘Bruce, I want you to go down there and … [Read more...]