By Baptist Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio (BP) — Arkansas pastor Ronnie Floyd was reelected without opposition to a second term as president of the Southern Baptist Convention June 16 during the SBC annual meeting in Columbus, Ohio.

Registered messengers totaled 5,277 messengers at the time.

Floyd was nominated by North Carolina pastor J.D. Greear, who said, “God’s hand has been upon Brother Ronnie. I believe he is the man God has raised up to lead us for another year.”

All other SBC officers for the coming year also were elected without opposition.

Kansas pastor Steve Dighton, senior pastoral adviser at the Kansas City-area Lenexa Baptist Church in Lenexa, Kan., was elected as first vice president, nominated by Texas pastor and former SBC president Jack Graham. [Read more…]

By Baptist Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio (BP) — Messengers to the 2015 Southern Baptist Convention adopted nine resolutions — some on culturally divisive issues — with almost no opposition.

All the resolutions offered in the Tuesday afternoon session (June 16) at the SBC’s meeting gained passage by unanimous or nearly unanimous votes. The messengers affirmed biblically based stances on such topics as same-sex marriage, racial reconciliation and the sanctity of human life, as well as religious persecution and pornography. Approved resolutions also called for spiritual awakening and celebrated the 90th anniversary of the Cooperative Program.

Prior to the convention, the Resolutions Committee received only four resolutions, an unusually small number. As a result, the committee initiated more resolutions than normal, but committee chairman Steve Gaines said finding topics proved no problem. [Read more…]

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Prayer needs to be the priority of every Christian’s life, affirmed Tennessee Baptist Steve Gaines of Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova.

In the final message of the afternoon session of the Southern Baptist Pastors Conference June 15, Gaines observed, “a day without prayer is a wasted day.”

Using Mark 11:22-26 as his text, Gaines noted that prayer can still move mountains but it takes more than a “bless me, business as usual” type of prayer. Three things must take place for mountain-moving prayer, he stressed.

“Mountains are moved when God’s people pray with fervency,” Gaines said.

Fervent prayer means prayers that involve risk. Gaines noted that John Knox, a Scottish clergyman and leader of the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s, prayed, “Give me Scotland or I die.” That was a fervent prayer, Gaines observed. [Read more…]

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

COLUMBUS, Ohio – At least 345 individuals prayed to receive Christ as a result of Crossover 2015.

Crossover is an evangelistic thrust held in the city hosting the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. Events were held for several days, but the major thrust occurred on Saturday, June 13.

Rich Halcombe, director of missions for Metro Columbus (Ohio) Baptist Association, told messengers at the annual meeting on June 16 that the goal of Crossover was “to ramp up what God was already doing here.”

“We believe that has happened,” he said. “On Saturday the gospel was shared more on that one day than it has ever been shared in one day in the city of Columbus,” he noted. [Read more…]

By Baptist Press

DALLAS — Churches and ministries that reimburse their employees for individual health coverage may soon find themselves facing stiff penalties of up to $36,500 per employee, per year, under the federal health care law commonly known as Obamacare, as a grace period expires June 30.

The penalties on employers who maintain employer payment plans were to begin in January, but the IRS granted a six-month reprieve.

Organizations that offer GuideStone health plans are not at risk of these penalties. GuideStone’s health plans — both its personal and group plans — are church health plans and are considered group health plans under federal law and thus are not affected by these penalties. [Read more…]