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…]

By Baptist Press and B&R

NASHVILLE — With many in the U.S. expected to give more money to charities this Christmas season, financial experts are advising a biblically based, focused and well-educated approach to charitable giving.

Christians should be careful to give their gifts to charities that have proven to be responsible stewards of God’s resources, said William Townes, Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee vice president for convention finance. [Read more…]

423 Tennessee Baptists among 5,294 SBC messengers conducting business in Baltimore

BALTIMORE — Arkansas pastor and longtime Southern Baptist Convention leader Ronnie Floyd was elected as the denomination’s new president during the June 10-11 meeting at the Baltimore Convention Center.

Floyd was elected over two other candidates — Dennis Manpoong Kim, pastor of Global Mission Church of Greater Washington in Silver Spring, Md., and Jared Moore, pastor of New Salem Baptist Church in Hustonville, Ky.

Floyd received 1,834 or 51.62 percent of the votes cast. Kim received 1,446 votes (40.70 percent) while Moore garnered 210 votes (5.91 percent). [Read more…]

By Carol Pipes
LifeWay Writer

NASHVILLE — Southern Baptists experienced growth in the number of churches affiliated with the convention in 2013, while other key measures declined, according to the Annual Church Profile (ACP) compiled by LifeWay Christian Resources in cooperation with Baptist state conventions.

The number of churches in the Southern Baptist Convention grew by 91 to 46,125, a 0.2 percent increase over 2012. SBC churches also reported 4,789 church-type missions last year, a decline of 203 from 2012. However, some state conventions no longer use the designation of church-type mission, which may have impacted the total. [Read more…]