Pathway

Missouri Baptist Convention's Official News Journal

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Messengers choose Tony Wolfe to preach the 2025 SBC convention sermon

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INDIANAPOLIS (BP) – Tony Wolfe, executive director and treasurer of the South Carolina Baptist Convention, was chosen June 12 to preach the convention sermon at the 2025 Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting in Dallas. Messengers to the 2024 SBC Annual Meeting in Indianapolis approved the SBC Committee on the Order of Business’ recommendation. Jarrett Stephens, senior pastor of the multisite Forest Champion Baptist Church based in Houston, Texas, is the alternate. Wolfe, … [Read more...]

Midwestern’s Allen highlights commitment to Southern Baptist churches at SBC Indianapolis

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by Michaela Classen/MBTS INDIANAPOLIS (MBTS) – Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (MBTS) President Jason Allen delivered the seminary report during the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention on June 12. Allen’s address focused on institutional health, mission resolve, and God’s providence during the past year. Allen began by expressing his gratitude for God’s continued faithfulness to Midwestern Seminary, represented in part through increased enrollment for the twelfth … [Read more...]

Messenger motions deal with ERLC, censure, other issues

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INDIANAPOLIS (BP) — Messengers presented 50 motions at the 2024 SBC Annual Meeting and acted on several, rejecting calls to abolish the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) and censure Southern Baptist leaders and approving a motion to unseat messengers from a Virginia church. Abolishing an entity requires two successive two-thirds votes of approval. The crowd in the Indiana Convention Center fell well short of that margin on a motion brought by Tom Ascol, pastor of Grace … [Read more...]

Law Amendment falls short at SBC meeting in Indianapolis

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INDIANAPOLIS (BP) — Voting for a required second year on what has become known as the Law Amendment, Southern Baptist messengers on June 12 failed to meet the two-thirds approval needed for passage of the amendment. The amendment would have defined a cooperating church as one that “affirms, appoints, or employs only men as any kind of pastor or elder as qualified by Scripture.” With 8,298 messengers voting, the 5,099 ballots to pass the amendment reflected 61.45 percent approval, … [Read more...]

Clint Pressley elected SBC president in Indianapolis

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INDIANAPOLIS (BP) – North Carolina pastor Clint Pressley was elected SBC president Wednesday (June 12) in an election that began with six candidates and required two run-off ballots. Pressley, senior pastor of Hickory Grove Baptist Church in Charlotte, N. C., received 4,244 votes (56.12 percent). Spencer, senior pastor of First Baptist Church, Sevierville, Tenn. received 3,305 votes (43.71 percent). A total of 7,562 votes were cast with 13 disallowed. The second run-off was required … [Read more...]

FBC Alexandria ‘no longer in friendly cooperation’ with SBC over views on female pastors

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INDIANAPOLIS (BP) – The SBC voted June 11 to discontinue its cooperative relationship with a Virginia church that has a female associate pastor. The church has ordained at least three women as pastors over more than four decades and told the SBC Credentials Committee it would consider a female as senior pastor. Messengers voted to declare First Baptist Church in Alexandria, Va., not in friendly cooperation with the Convention by a ballot vote of 6,759 to 563 at the Indiana Convention … [Read more...]

Messengers vote to refer sexual abuse reform priorities to SBC Executive Committee

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INDIANAPOLIS (BP) – On Tuesday afternoon, June 11, messengers to the 2024 Southern Baptist Convention in Indianapolis overwhelmingly approved two recommendations brought forward by the SBC Abuse Reform and Implementation Task Force (ARITF). The recommendations hand the priorities identified by ARITF over to the SBC Executive Committee to further implement. The move closes a chapter of Southern Baptist life marked by three consecutive annual meetings where new task forces were appointed … [Read more...]

GCR Evaluation Task Force recommendations approved

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INDIANAPOLIS (BP) — Messengers adopted the six recommendations proposed by the Great Commission Resurgence Evaluation Task Force with one slight amendment during the SBC Annual Meeting’s Tuesday evening session June 11. Recommendation 2, which called for simplifying the Annual Church Profile (ACP), added another point clarifying the request for a church to provide its total amount of Cooperative Program giving. One messenger brought forward an amendment regarding two questions on the … [Read more...]

Pastors’ Conference emphasizes biblical faithfulness

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INDIANAPOLIS (BP) – Faithfulness in prayer, to the next generation, under pressure and to families were among the sermon topics during the SBC Pastors’ Conference June 10 at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis. Benny Wong Early in his ministry, Benny Wong, Chinese-English bilingual director at Gateway Seminary, failed to intercede for his flock as he should have, Wong admitted in the opening sermon Monday. “Since then, I’ve been asking God to help me to grow in … [Read more...]

To maximize churches’ impact, Iorg calls for a ‘quiet’ and ‘efficient’ Executive Committee

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INDIANAPOLIS (BP) – In his first address as SBC Executive Committee president and CEO to trustees June 14, Jeff Iorg presented a mandate to address issues that have been roiling Southern Baptists in recent years. That assignment, he said, was to help the churches partnering through the Southern Baptist Convention maximize their ministry footprint. “We are here to facilitate the work of Southern Baptists and their entities, to manage and – I choose this word carefully – minimize the … [Read more...]

Crossover 2024: Southern Baptists partner to take Gospel to Indianapolis during annual evangelistic outreach

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INDIANAPOLIS (BP) – About 51 percent of Hoosiers, inhabitants of Indiana, say they seldom or never attend church or religious services, according to a recent report by Axios Indianapolis. One local pastor is praying that Crossover will help to turn those numbers around. “We are hoping that Crossover is a spark that will light that fuel of revival and evangelism here in our community, help us build up some of our churches,” said Roger Kinion, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in … [Read more...]

GCR Evaluation Task Force recommendations include shelving of ‘Great Commission Giving,’ simplified ACP

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INDIANAPOLIS (BP) — Final recommendations brought by the Great Commission Resurgence Evaluation Task Force address areas of statistical reporting to and from Southern Baptist churches as well as calls to fulfill a financial pledge to the International Mission Board. Furthermore, the group urges the start of preparations for next year’s release of audio from GCR Task Force meetings held prior to the GCR’s passage in 2010. The six recommendations come weeks after the final report issued … [Read more...]