JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (BP) – Scott Connell and other organizers of the Southern Baptist Church Music Conference felt that 2026 could bring around 500 attendees to the annual event. That was big dreaming, considering that three years ago it was canceled due to lack of interest. The conference came back in…
Disciple-making is the primary call of every pastor, and most recognize this as a skill they should continue to develop as church leaders. According to the latest release in Lifeway Research’s 2022 Greatest Needs of Pastors study, U.S. Protestant pastors say disciple-making and technology are the two areas of skill development they most…
ANAHEIM, Calif. (BP) – Javier Chavez, pastor of Amistad Cristiana Church in Gainesville, Ga., will be a candidate for the recording secretary position at this summer’s Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting. The announcement came March 30 in a statement released by the leadership team of Amistad Cristiana International, Inc., the…
FORT WORTH (BP) – When Ramon Velez came from his native Puerto Rico, it was to seek medical care for his daughter who suffers from a neurological condition. He didn’t expect that God’s path for him would include pastoring a church. Now that church, Una Nueva Familia, is experiencing tremendous…
As the shared compassion ministry of the International Mission Board (IMB) and the North American Mission Board (NAMB), Send Relief is working through a vast network of IMB missionaries, field partners and local churches to care for Ukrainian refugees across Eastern Europe. The IMB’s long-term relationships in Ukraine have aided…
NORTHBOROUGH, Mass. (BP) – The Baptist Convention of New England has changed its name to the Baptist Churches of New England, per a vote by its board on March 17. Founded in 1983, the BCNE’s new name reflects an updated approach to ministry, said its executive director, Terry Dorsett. “While…
A few years ago, I read the SBC president at the time was considering different gavels for presiding at the SBC Annual Meeting. One of the options under consideration was the Armstrong gavel. I sent him an email with this message: This weekend I did a bit of reading on…
Weeks before his trial begins in May, the defense team of controversial megachurch leader Naasón Joaquín García, who is accused of multiple sex crimes, including making sex videos with minor girls from his flock at La Luz Del Mundo, has accused prosecutors in California of fabricating evidence in his case.
Churches in the United States have seen their growth in attendance stagnate over the past six months despite the lifting of various COVID-19 meeting restrictions and safety precautions, according to a Pew Research Center study.
LYNCHBURG, Va. (BP) – Andrew Moroz, teaching and vision pastor at Gospel Community Church, said he is communicating with his loved ones in Ukraine every day as well as assisting his church with Ukraine-related relief efforts. Although Moroz permanently moved with his immediate family to the United States in 1999,…
A megachurch in Oklahoma has dropped "United Methodist" from its name and started fully disaffiliating from America's second-largest Protestant denomination due to what it describes as the United Methodist Church's "slow and steady drift" from its historic Christian mission.
