SBC 2018 Dallas theme: ‘Testify! Go. Stand. Speak’
DALLAS (BP)—“Testify! Go. Stand. Speak.” will be the theme for the 2018 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting June 12-13 at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas, SBC President Steve Gaines has announced. Evangelism is the urgency of the theme anchored in Acts 5:20, Gaines, pastor of Cordova, Tenn., Bellevue, told Baptist Press. “Fulfilling the Great Commission has always been at the heart of who Southern Baptists...
Greear, Hemphill rally prayer, civility amid transitions
NASHVILLE (BP)—Amid two Southern Baptist Convention entity leadership searches and upcoming national SBC elections, both SBC presidential candidates have issued a joint call for prayer, grace and civility. J.D. Greear and Ken Hemphill, both tapped as 2018 nominees for SBC president, made the joint appeal as the International Mission Board (IMB) and the SBC Executive Committee (EC) are tasked with finding new entity leaders. In the...
‘Worshiping Jesus,’ Shane Hall defies cancer’s toll
OKLAHOMA CITY (BP) — Misty Hall thought her husband Shane was uncomfortable. Confined to bed in their Oklahoma City home in the presumed last days of his battle with stomach cancer, he asked her to raise his hands. “I’m worshiping Jesus,” he explained. As the two of them listened to Charles Billingsley’s “I’ll Run to You,” the 46-year-old pastor mouthed every word Billingsley sang:...
Football prayer complaint leads to employee training
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (BP)—A public school system has agreed to update employees on applicable constitutional law after a special interest group complained of a Southern Baptist pastor’s impromptu prayer over an injured player at a high school football game. The Hamilton County Department of Education (HCDE) will “provide additional training to its employees on the application of the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses in public...
Violence brings cry for ‘true way of our Lord’
NASHVILLE (BP) — The collision of fear and mistrust have driven the violence upon violence that killed two black civilians and five police officers in three separate states in as many days, Southern Baptist pastor Lee Wesley told Baptist Press. “There is a fear on the part of police officers when they go into the black community, and that fear heightens their approach to these problems,” said Wesley, whose pastorate...
