By Julie McGowan
Public relations director, International Mission Board

International Mission Board President Paul Chitwood reports on the work of Southern Baptist international missions personnel during the June 11 afternoon session of the 2019 SBC annual meeting in Birmingham, Ala. — Photo by Chris Carter/IMB

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Massive cyclones in sub-Saharan Africa. Political and humanitarian crises in the Americas. Gangs among the Deaf. Police arrests in Southeast Asia. Slander in Central Asia.

Even amid such difficulties, International Mission Board personnel are seeing God create opportunities for people to hear a clear Gospel witness, IMB President Paul Chitwood reported June 11 during the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in Birmingham, Ala. [Read more…]

By Tom Strode
Baptist Press

Curtis Woods (left), chairman of the Southern Baptist Convention Resolutions Committee, and Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, speak during a press conference after the conclusion of the 2019 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting. — Photo by Kathleen Murray

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Messengers to the 2019 Southern Baptist Convention advocated for the vulnerable against abortion, sexual abuse and religious persecution in approving 13 resolutions Wednesday (June 12).

The resolutions also addressed a variety of other noteworthy issues in the convention and the world, including local church autonomy, same-sex attraction, justice, women in the military draft and gene editing. [Read more…]

By Myriah Snyder
Baptist Press

Morgan Bush, a messenger from Alabama, brings a motion during the 2019 Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting June 11 at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex in Birmingham, Ala. — Photo by Matt Miller

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Eighteen of the 23 motions by messengers at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Birmingham, Ala., were referred to SBC committees or entities; five were ruled out of order.

The Committee on Order of Business made the recommendations to messengers during the SBC’s June 11-12 meeting. [Read more…]

By Diana Chandler
Baptist Press

President J.D. Greear introduces a report on June 12 compiled by the Sexual Abuse Advisory Group he initiated with the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. — Photo by Van Payne

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — “Bold resolutions and sweeping statements are not sufficient” to tackle the crisis of sex abuse, Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear said today (June 12) at the 2019 SBC Annual Meeting in Birmingham, Ala.

“Victims have told us, words without follow-up actions are worse than no words at all,” Greear said in what is his latest update on the Sexual Abuse Advisory Study he and the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission initiated in 2018. Victims “want to see … that we care enough about this issue to do whatever it takes to make our churches safe for survivors and safe from abuse.” [Read more…]

By Brian Koonce
Baptist Press

The Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting drew an unofficial total of 8,183 messengers to Birmingham, Ala., outgoing SBC registration secretary Don Currence reported.
— Photo by Matt Miller

BIRMINGHAM. Ala. — The Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting drew 8,183 messengers to Birmingham, Ala., June 11-12, outgoing SBC registration secretary Don Currence said in releasing the unofficial total.

Official attendance numbers will be released later in June, Currence, of First Baptist Church in Ozark, Mo., said. [Read more…]

By Brian Hobbs & Chris Doyle
Baptist Press

Oklahoma pastor Stephen Rummage proclaims the power and promises Christians have in Jesus Christ “because of the cross” in the annual sermon at the Southern Baptist Convention. — Photo by Matt Miller

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Oklahoma pastor Stephen Rummage proclaimed the power and promises Christians have in Jesus Christ “because of the cross” in the annual sermon at the Southern Baptist Convention today (June 12).

Every person “is on one side of the cross or the other — the lost side or the saved side,” Rummage emphasized. [Read more…]

By Julie McGowan
Public relations director, International Mission Board

David and Zoey Lee of Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, were part of a group of 26 new International Mission Board (IMB) missionaries that shared their story with Southern Baptist messengers June 11. “Many missionaries came to Korea and laid down their lives for our people,” David said. “We would not be able to stand here without their obedience to God’s call.” — Photo by Matt Jones

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — David and Zoey Lee know they can go as Southern Baptist missionaries today because Christian believers in the past sacrificed to get the Gospel to their homeland — a truth they shared June 11 during a Sending Celebration to honor the appointment of 26 new Southern Baptist international missionaries.

“Many missionaries came to Korea and laid down their lives for our people,” said David Lee. “We would not be able to stand here without their obedience to God’s call.” [Read more…]

By Tom Strode
Baptist Press

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an expanded version of the story posted on the Baptist Press website on Monday (June 10).

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The sexual abuse crisis in the Southern Baptist Convention calls for lament, honesty, unity and action, panelists said Monday evening (June 10) regarding an increasingly obvious problem in the country’s largest Protestant denomination.

More than 1,250 people registered for “Sexual Abuse and the Southern Baptist Convention,” a conversation co-hosted by the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) and the Sexual Abuse Advisory Study at an exhibit hall in the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex. [Read more…]