MEMPHIS, Tenn. (BP) – Former International Mission Board missionary Wade Akins has announced he intends to nominate fellow former IMB missionary Robin Hadaway for SBC president at the upcoming 2022 SBC Annual Meeting in Anaheim, Calif. Hadaway becomes the third announced candidate for the office. Florida pastors Willy Rice and Tom Ascol have already been announced as candidates. Hadaway began his ministry career pastoring churches in California and Arizona before serving with the IMB … [Read more...]

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (BP) – Willy Rice, pastor of Calvary Church in Clearwater, Fla., will be nominated by Clint Pressley, pastor of Hickory Grove Baptist, for the president of the Southern Baptist Convention this summer at the 2022 SBC Annual Meeting in Anaheim, Calif. The announcement came a day after current SBC President Ed Litton of Saraland, Ala., announced he will not seek a second term. Rice, who has pastored Calvary since 2004, was a member of the church during high school, was … [Read more...]

NASHVILLE – Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers interacted with some of the most lively attendees of the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting here in mid-June: namely, Southern Baptist messengers’ 3-year-old children. The Missouri DR childcare team joined other DR teams from across the nation to offer pre-K childcare for messengers and guests. “It has been a fun, but crazy week. We’ve got a lot of kids, and it’s busy,” Angie Hurd, childcare coordinator for Missouri DR, … [Read more...]

NASHVILLE (BP) – Messengers to the 2021 SBC Annual Meeting overwhelmingly approved a motion calling for a task force to oversee a third-party investigation into allegations of mishandling abuse claims at the SBC Executive Committee. The motion, offered by Grant Gaines, pastor of Belle Aire Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, Tenn., was among 32 motions made by messengers to the 2021 SBC Annual Meeting, June 15, in Nashville, the most in a decade. Gaines’ motion said the task force, which will … [Read more...]

NASHVILLE (BP) – After two amendments, messengers to the 2021 SBC Annual Meeting adopted Vision 2025, a strategic initiative aimed at reaching every person in the world with the Gospel, by vote of acclamation, June 15. Citing eternal lostness and the reality of hell, SBC Executive Committee President and CEO Ronnie Floyd called Southern Baptists to back the initiative “with your lives and ministries and churches,” saying, “This is not just a good thing we should do. It is the most urgent … [Read more...]

NASHVILLE – Joining thousands of Southern Baptists from across the nation, 634 Missouri Southern Baptists gathered in Nashville for the Southern Baptist Convention’s (SBC) annual meeting here, June 15-16. With 15,726 messengers and 3,856 guests, the meeting was the largest SBC gathering in more than two decades. Several Missourians were elected or appointed to leadership within the SBC during the meeting. On June 14, prior to the SBC annual meeting, members of the SBC Executive Committee … [Read more...]

NASHVILLE (BP) – South Carolina pastor Tom Tucker’s reelection, June 14, as vice chairman of the SBC Executive Committee became moot, June 16, when messengers to the 2021 SBC Annual Meeting rejected a motion to nominate him to a second term on the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee elected Tucker to a second term as vice chair during its meeting Monday with the knowledge that while eligible to serve, his term was expiring and he was not among nominees to the Executive Committee … [Read more...]

NASHVILLE – Thirty-one people professed faith in Christ Jesus when students from the nation’s six seminaries proclaimed the gospel in Nashville during the Crossover evangelistic initiative prior to the SBC annual meeting here. Tom Johnston, senior professor of evangelism at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, directed the annual Crossover Seminary Evangelism Class. Thirteen students from Midwestern Seminary were involved this year. Many online students were involved in the program, … [Read more...]

NASHVILLE (BP) – Messengers to the 2021 SBC Annual Meeting approved a broad resolution on the Bible’s sufficiency regarding race and racial reconciliation, June 15, but chose not to explicitly address the contentious issue of critical race theory. Among nine resolutions passed, messengers also endorsed overwhelmingly statements on government policies that included: • A denunciation of any attempt to rescind the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funding of abortion. • Opposition to … [Read more...]