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4 weeks ago | 
baptistpress.com | Vaneetha Rendall Risner |Timothy Cockes |Jayson Larson |Scott Barkley
Metadata:Series: First PersonTopic(s): Discipleship, Mental HealthFormat(s): Text ArticlesShare this post: Editor’s ntoe: The following is an excerpt from “Watching for the Morning,” released by B&H Publishing. Vaneetha Risner suffers from post-polio syndrome. Years ago, I helped organize our church’s VBS and oversaw all the crafts. I spent hours finding ideas, cutting construction paper, and gathering all the supplies. I loved hearing parents’ comments on what their children brought home.
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4 weeks ago | 
baptistpress.com | Timothy Cockes |Jayson Larson |Brandon Porter |Scott Barkley
NEW ORLEANS – The 100th anniversary of the Cooperative Program was celebrated during chapel at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary throughout the spring 2025 semester. A series of videos shared during several chapel services featured NOBTS faculty members discussing the history and importance of the Cooperative Program. Faculty participants included Thomas Strong, Greg Wilton and Chris Shaffer.
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4 weeks ago | 
baptistpress.com | Jayson Larson |Brandon Porter |Karen L. Willoughby |Scott Barkley
When many Christians imagine unreached people groups, they envision dense jungles and dusty trails. They see villages full of sun-baked huts with thatched roofs housing exotic natives in some of the most remote, difficult-to-reach places on the planet. In Europe, those unreached people aren’t hidden and they aren’t hard to reach. There are 820 million of them, and almost none of them know Jesus. Only 1.1 percent of Europe’s residents are evangelical.
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2 months ago | 
texanonline.net | Scott Barkley |Jayson Larson
PASADENA, Texas (BP)—Barry Wilmore attended his first elders meeting in nearly a year at Providence Baptist Church on April 10. His absence was understandable. Wilmore, known by many as “Butch,” had an unexpected extended stay at the International Space Station after the Boeing Starliner carrying himself and fellow astronaut Suni Williams developed issues docking with the ISS. Their plight and return home last month became worldwide news.
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2 months ago | 
texanonline.net | Karen L. Willoughby |Jayson Larson
Executive pastors and administrators are often called to do a little bit of everything, from managing church staff and overseeing day-to-day finances to meeting the HVAC tech at the building on Saturday night to ensure the building is climate-controlled by Sunday morning. It’s a challenging calling that can often leave its servants feeling worn out and disconnected.
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2 months ago | 
texanonline.net | Jane Rodgers |Karen L. Willoughby |Jayson Larson
Many of us have experienced it: the unexpected blessing when someone ahead of you in the drive-thru pays for your coffee or an unknown benefactor covers the cost of your restaurant meal. Unexpected blessings. Random acts of kindness. Since 1995, the U.S. has celebrated a national Random Acts of Kindness Day on Feb. 17. Today, churches are finding that acts of kindness need not be random at all, but rather, intentional acts to share the love of Christ.
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2 months ago | 
texanonline.net | Erin Roach |Karen L. Willoughby |Jayson Larson
Heights Baptist Church is energized to grow the kingdom of God rather than focusing on growing its own congregation. Its pastor, Lee Peoples, says any church, no matter its size or resources, can help start a new church to reach the unreached. “In the book of Acts, you often see the kingdom growing by multiplication, not just addition,” Peoples said. “The blessing has always been as we have sent people out, we turn around and reach new people.
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2 months ago | 
texanonline.net | Michael Visy |Karen L. Willoughby |Jayson Larson
“It’s not personal.”When members leaving the church tell us this, it’s hard not to take it personally. Even as they express their gratitude for your friendship, your ministry, and the church, it hurts when people leave.
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2 months ago | 
texanonline.net | Danny Forshee |Karen L. Willoughby |Jayson Larson
The Empower Conference in February was fantastic. The biblical teaching, worship, and fellowship were outstanding. We had people from our church attend, but next year I want to get the word out and invite more to come and be blessed by this annual evangelism conference. What a blessing to be one of the 2,812 churches in the SBTC!One of my favorite scenes in the book of Acts is when the apostle Paul meets with the Ephesian elders in Miletus while wrapping up his third missionary journey.
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Mar 28, 2025 | 
texanonline.net | Erin Roach |Karen L. Willoughby |Jayson Larson
The church plant Kade Pierce is leading is in its infancy, but already he knows the value of the collective support behind him—and it’s something Southern Baptists across the generations also have realized. “Truthfully, the Cooperative Program is helping me make this happen,” Pierce, pastor of Eastside Community Church in Dickinson, said.
