Author: Jayson Larson

SBC DALLAS 2025: Hispanic Baptists celebrate unity, purpose

DALLAS (BP)—Hispanic Baptists from across the country gathered at First Baptist Church in Dallas on June 8 for the 2025 Hispanic Celebration hosted by the Red Bautista Hispana Nacional (National Hispanic Baptist Network). The evening, which welcomed about 500 Hispanics, was filled with worship, encouragement and a renewed commitment to gospel work.

David Inestroza, director of communications for the network, officially launched its mission, “Unidos Para Su Gloria: Para Que Todos Sepan” (“United for His Glory: So That Everyone Knows”), calling for a $450,000 fundraising initiative over the next two years to support gospel outreach. The “Para Que Todos Sepan” initiative aims to connect churches, share resources and celebrate what God is doing among Hispanics.

Inestroza introduced a new website and recognized leaders in Hispanic ministry, including pastor Amaury Santos, vice president candidate for the Red’s executive committee, and pastor Vernig Suarez, candidate for president. Both ran unopposed June 9.

“We ask you to pray, give, and participate, not just attend,” said Richard Aguilar, director-treasurer of the network’s board.

The First Baptist Dallas Español worship team led attendees in praise, setting the tone for a night of unity and inspiration. A video greeting from Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Dallas, highlighted the church’s ongoing support for Hispanic ministry, which launched in 2023.

SBC President Clint Pressley greeted the crowd, thanking them on behalf of the Southern Baptist Convention. “Our theme this year is ‘Holding Fast,’” Pressley said. “I pray God blesses your efforts to reach the lost with the gospel.”

Charles Grant, associate vice president for Convention Partnerships with the SBC Executive Committee, also offered words of encouragement and thanks.

“Your giving helps support over 3,500 international missionaries and strengthens Baptist work across the country,” Grant said. He also recognized the efforts of Bruno Molina and others who have built bridges between ethnic groups to advance gospel work. Grant encouraged continued collaboration and representation of Hispanics in SBC leadership.

Jonathan Santiago of Send Relief reminded attendees that gospel ministry includes meeting physical needs.

“Our mission is to feed the hungry, care for the immigrant, and support widows and orphans, all in partnership with the local church,” Santiago said.

The event also highlighted women’s ministry and education. Clara Molina announced workshops and emphasized the ministry’s partnership with Mission:Dignity, a ministry of GuideStone Financial Resources supporting retired Southern Baptist ministers. Gus Reyes of Dallas Baptist University recognized a generous $10,000 donation, providing 10 Hispanic students with $1,000 scholarships from Christian Book.

Bruno Molina honored Rudy Gonzalez of DBU with a standing ovation for his leadership and service.

SBC Executive Committee President Jeff Iorg spoke on the importance of Hispanic representation. “Many of you are here because missionaries reached your families,” Iorg said. “Partnership means doing ministry together and sharing leadership.”

Iorg encouraged Hispanic Baptists to pursue roles of leadership and influence across the SBC.

Bruno Molina closed with a message from Hebrews 10, urging attendees to “hold fast” to their faith and mission.

“God calls us to collaboration, not competition,” Molina said. “Being Hispanic and Christian in this time is no accident. It’s a calling.”

The evening concluded with a prayer from Enmanuel Roque, leader of state representatives, asking God to bring unity, protection and revival to churches and communities across the country.

SBC DALLAS 2025: At this high-profile meeting, one team considers its job well done when ‘people don’t notice us’

DALLAS—When tens of thousands of Southern Baptists come to town for their annual meeting, it takes hundreds of local Southern Baptists working behind the scenes to ensure essential services are provided.

Many of those behind-the-scenes workers are from Southern Baptists of Texas Convention churches.

“It takes a ton of volunteers to run one of these annual meetings, some bodies on the ground who know the lay of the land [and who] can help recruit people to meet the specific needs,” said George Schroeder, lead pastor of First Baptist Church in Fairfield.

Schroeder is chairman of this year’s Local Encouragement Team, formerly known as the Local Arrangements Committee. He, a volunteer himself, leads a team of 12 volunteers, including three representatives from local institutions, who in turn recruit many other volunteers to support the children’s day camp, registration, ushers, greeters, the prayer room, and information booths for messengers and guests.

In the case of registration support, volunteers help the registration committee by stuffing thousands of messenger bags and doing other tasks that allow registration committee members to focus on helping messengers obtain their credentials.

The convention’s day camp for children has trained and paid childcare workers, but again, volunteers enlisted by the encouragement team do the behind-the-scenes work that allows the frontline workers to focus on the kids.

Schroeder formerly served the SBC Executive Committee and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Even as an insider, he never noticed how many people were serving behind the scenes.

“I realize now how many people it takes who aren’t being paid, and who, in many cases are paying their own way,” he said. “I didn’t realize it when I worked for the Executive Committee. You don’t notice how much work they’re doing.”

Keeney Dickenson, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Crockett, is the committee member assigned to manage the convention prayer room. Among other things, this involves making sure the room is equipped with resources for those who wish to pray in groups or alone. Many of these resources are provided by SBC entities, but this year Dickenson has raised funds to allow him to provide a copy of his book about the pastoral prayer life of Charles Spurgeon to volunteers.

Dickenson’s team also provides prayer requests related to the convention’s annual meeting, as well as those from Southern Baptists serving around the world. Prayer room volunteers will be praying for those who made decisions for Christ during the Crossover pre-convention evangelism push. The 2025 prayer room also has provided prayer activities for children.

“We’ve developed a wordsearch puzzle and fact sheet that sends them around to different booths and entities, so they develop their own prayer list in the exhibit area,” Dickenson said. “I’m excited about getting some of the children involved.

“I’m hoping we can create some momentum in people’s prayer lives in their walk with the Lord as they pray,” he added.

Dickenson and Schroeder are among the few team members who don’t live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Even so, they have enlisted members of their churches and families to help.

But the “local” in the committee’s name is significant because the convention has no resources to pay for the required number of volunteers’ travel and housing expenses. Being within a local commute also allows a large area church—this year, it’s Cross Church in North Richland Hills—to commit to enlisting a substantial number of volunteers.

George Clark, a layman and deacon at Cross Church, as well as being an encouragement team member, is helping his church provide all the ushers for the Dallas meeting. The ushers are focused on all kinds of messenger needs and, most visibly, they are the ones who collect the ballots when messengers vote during business sessions.

Still, the work of the team is not high profile, important as it is.

“My hope is that everything runs in a seamless way, and people don’t notice us,” Schroeder quipped. “If that happens, we’ll know that we did the job we’ve been trying to do well.”

SBC DALLAS 2025: Prayer meeting attendees cry out for fresh flow of God’s presence

DALLAS—On the eve of the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting, some 7,500 people packed into an auditorium at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center to ask God for a fresh movement of His Holy Spirit.

Nathan Lino, senior pastor of First Baptist Church Forney, led the time of corporate prayer at the request of D.J. Horton, president of the SBC Pastors’ Conference and senior pastor of Church at The Mill in Spartanburg, S.C.

“Tonight, we want to invite you into an experience of prayer, an experience of worship, and an experience of preaching,” Horton said.

Recording artists Shane & Shane, joined by the praise team and worship choir from Horton’s church, led worship. Shane & Shane launched into their rendition of Psalm 34, followed by “Is He Worthy?” and “Worthy of It All,” with the massive crowd singing along.

After reading Psalm 40:1-3 aloud, Lino asked the congregation to read the on-screen passage to themselves slowly.

“Would anyone like for God to incline to them tonight? And to hear your cry?” he asked.

As for the psalmist, David, “God drew him up from the pit of destruction out of the miry bog and set his feet upon a rock,” Lino said, adding that David received fresh anointing from the Lord, who put a song in his mouth. David’s heart was filled with fresh faith about what the Lord could do.

“Lord, as we draw near tonight, would you please draw near to us?” Lino prayed. He called for the same fresh anointing, faith, and relief God had given David, imploring Him to “use this time for your glory and for our good.”

Praying the names of God

Lino invited the audience to stand for a time of praise and thanksgiving beginning with an acknowledgment of the Lord as Jehovah Rapha, the “Lord who heals,” and Jehovah Jireh, the “Lord who provides.” He asked the crowd to first silently, and then audibly, recall times of God’s healing and provision. Sustained silences fell, followed by the low murmurings and softly spoken prayers of thousands of voices. Choruses of “God, you’re so good” and “I love you, Lord,” prompted by Lino, filled the room afterward.

Seated, the congregation entered into a time of personal consecration based upon Matthew 5:3-6, calling for humility, repentance, and surrender.

“We live for the Lord Jesus. We live for the glory of His name. We live for the mission of Jesus,” Lino said. With heads bowed, some couples leaned toward each other, praying before again standing and joining Shane & Shane in a chorus of “You’ve Already Won.”

Asking the audience to form small groups, Lino called for brief prayer for unity and for the Lord to save and baptize more people through SBC churches. Todd Kaunitz, lead pastor of New Beginnings Baptist Church in Longview, led the groups in praying for SBC churches to return prayer to its rightful place in worship services.

“Every major revival we have seen in America has come out of churches returning to becoming houses of prayer,” Kaunitz said.

Prayer for pastors

Lino asked the pastors and their wives in attendance to stand, welcoming Bill Elliff, founding pastor of Summit Church in Little Rock, Ark., to pray for them.

“How many of you pastors would say … ‘I’m dog tired’?” Elliff asked, reminding all that “everything flows from the presence of the Lord”—direction, fullness of joy, and pleasures forevermore.

“I’ve gotten old enough that I just believe that when we pray, God answers. He does stuff,” Elliff said. “I believe if you ask the Lord for a fresh flow of His presence in your life, it would bring you what nothing else can bring.”

Elliff urged attendees to surround the pastors, lay hands on them, and pray for them fervently. Groups quickly formed and voices filled the room.

His voice cracking with emotion, Elliff implored of God, “Lord, we need you. … We need you desperately … daily … deeply. … We don’t have a single plan or idea or scheme that works without you. Be kind to us as you have always been. Your presence is what we need.”

SBC DALLAS 2025: SBTC churches get creative to deliver the gospel to the Metroplex during Crossover

DALLAS—The elderly woman drove by slowly, then turned her car around and entered the parking lot at Inglewood Baptist Church in Grand Prairie on Saturday. Church members there were offering something she knew she needed.

Prayer.

Inglewood was among the 80 or so churches that participated in Crossover Dallas, a weeklong evangelistic outreach held each year just prior to the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting. Across the Metroplex, churches held outreaches ranging from the traditional (block parties) to the unique (pickleball), partnering with the North American Mission Board to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.

At Inglewood, smiling curbside volunteers held signs stating, “Let us pray for you,” and ministered to people in approximately 30 vehicles. The church also hosted a block party nearby, complete with two bounce houses, yard games, and hot dogs.

More than half of Inglewood’s 100 or so attenders—average age 70—helped with the Crossover outreach. NAMB volunteers from other states pitched in, too.

“She just needed somebody to pray for her,” Inglewood Pastor Ricky Guenther said of the woman who had lost her son. “If we had just had her come through, it would have been worth it.”

Pickleball with a purpose

In Crowley, Redeemer Community Church parlayed its popular sports ministry into a pickleball outreach with a purpose. Dexter Laureano, pastor of the largely Filipino American congregation, said the church’s sports ministry began with recreational basketball on Tuesday nights. Adding open play pickleball on Saturday afternoons before a 5 p.m. Bible study made for a natural progression.

Redeemer’s Crossover event began with worship and praise in the gym, followed by a message from Laureano in which he presented the gospel. He encouraged those who had not already done so to follow Jesus, and to those already saved, he urged “sincere witnessing.” He also introduced the man who led him to Christ in 2012, Rodel Chiu.

Chui and fellow pickleball coach Sherrie Panter then teamed with Laureano to offer basic pickleball instruction, followed by group play. After a break for a traditional Filipino meal of sizzling skewered barbequed pork, egg rolls, and pancit (noodles) prepared onsite in a food truck owned by Redeemer members, participants enjoyed more pickleball.

Why pickleball? Saturday’s crowded gym provided the answer, with Chiu noting how the sport’s popularity lends itself to evangelism opportunities.

“It’s the fastest growing sport. People want to learn it,” Laureano said. “It’s not gender exclusive. Couples, kids, all can play.”

‘You literally exist for Jesus’

Food trucks offering coffee, shaved ice, and tacos dotted the parking lot of Cross Church’s North Richland Hills campus, where nearly 250 students and leaders from 11 churches flocked to one of two Crossover student rallies. Another student rally was held Friday night at First Baptist Church in Rockwall.

At Cross Church, groups clustered around outside tables or engaged in energetic games of nine-square on the asphalt or human foosball in an enormous inflatable. A massive inflatable obstacle course beckoned, as did a smaller castle. Later that afternoon, students headed to the worship center, where they competed for gift cards in a warmup game led by Cross Church Student Pastor Daniel Simmons.

Christian rap artist Dillon Chase of R.A.G.E. Ministries got the crowd moving—literally—as dozens rushed near the stage to dance and sing while Chase, with his daughter Melia as DJ, belted out favorites like “Do It Scared.” Hearkening to his time in Japan on mission, he taught the group Japanese lyrics and shared how Jesus saved him when his family fell apart. Chase’s younger daughter, Sami, hopped on stage to show her dance moves, as well.

After worship led by Cross Church’s North Fort Worth praise team, Shane Pruitt, NAMB national next gen director, delivered a powerful message from Colossians. Pruitt noted that among 8.5 billion people on the planet, one overwhelming question looms: What is my purpose?

“You literally exist for Jesus,” Pruitt said. “We are not created to follow our heart. We need Jesus to give us a new heart. … We may be big sinners, but Jesus is a bigger Savior.”

Fourteen trusted Christ at the rally, according to Simmons.

Jokes for Jesus

Across the Metroplex, North Garland Baptist Fellowship provided yet another unconventional Crossover outreach.

“Welcome to the North Garland Comedy Club!” exclaimed Jason Earls, the church’s pastor, who is also a stand-up comedian. About 175 people consisting of members and guests filled the worship center, which had been transformed by replacing rows of chairs with tables accented with LED candles to mimic the ambiance of a private venue.

Announcing that he had brought in three of the best nationally known comics “within driving distance,” Earls launched into what became two hours of side-splitting, clean humor.

The three guest comics included Reggie French, who started the hilarity with jokes about his recent diabetic diagnoses: “I don’t smoke. I don’t drink. I never did drugs. Now I am done in by a honey bun.” Alluding to his youth, he admitted that his family was poor—“Not dirt poor, but we were dusty.” The lineup also included Isaac Witty and Trey Mark, the latter fresh from a gig on a cruise line.

The energy onstage, the power of humor, and a series of gift card giveaways kept the audience in a festive mood. “I am the pastor of this church. I like to give something to people who visit my house,” Earls said near the end of the event. That final gift was an explanation of the gospel.

“If Jesus saved me, He can save you,” Earls said. “I’m not perfect … but a perfect God called me. I had to make a decision.”

Ending on a heavenly high note

First Baptist Church in Murphy, which has participated in the SBTC’s Regenesis church revitalization process, capped off a week of Crossover events with Summerific Sunday on June 8. This year, the church expanded its usual seasonal outreach by collaborating with Crossover to include a week of door-to-door evangelism and four nights of outreach at two local parks.

Church communications director Megan Phillips, daughter of Pastor Ben Phillips, coordinated events. She praised the assistance of NAMB volunteers who energized the work as the week progressed. A record 146 children, plus their families, participated in this year’s park outreaches, she said. All heard the gospel.

Filling the pulpit on Sunday at First Murphy was the pastor’s longtime friend, Tarvoris Uzoigwe, an apologetics and evangelism associate with the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma. Uzoigwe, or “Coach Tee” as he is known, started his message with videos in which he shared the gospel with two young men. The first, former Arkansas State basketball player Rakeem Dickerson, prayed to receive Christ. The second young man, whom Uzoigwe met at a skateboard park, did not.

Within 11 months of those videos, both young men had died: Rakeem from a blood clot and the second in a motorcycle wreck. Their funerals occurred on the same day, Uzoigwe said. Only one was in heaven, he added.

Citing the example of Judas Iscariot, Uzoigwe said, “Judas repented … but he did not believe.” Similarly, people can believe but not repent, for “even the demons believe.”

Neither does proximity to Jesus guarantee salvation, Uzoigwe added. Who walked more closely with Jesus than Judas?

“Check your symptoms,” Uzoigwe said, referencing the account of Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16. Uzoigwe cautioned against emphasizing religion over relationship with God. Disconnection, distraction, disbelief, and a lack of discipleship too often interfere with spiritual growth.

As his sermon concluded, Uzoigwe provided an evangelistic object lesson, asking for a volunteer from the audience to help. Ayden, a young man who had been attending the church a short time and who had assisted throughout the Summerific week, jumped up. Following instructions, he grasped Uzoigwe by the forearm, after which Uzoigwe did the same to him while saying, “The reason you are getting to go to heaven is not because you are holding onto Jesus, but because Jesus is holding onto you.”

Moments later, as Uzoigwe issued an invitation to trust Christ, Ayden walked forward again. He had never trusted Jesus, but today he decided to begin trusting Him. As Uzoigwe and Ayden knelt together, students and young adults spontaneously left the pews and surrounded the pair for several minutes as the congregation sat in hushed, prayerful awe.

There could be no better way to end the church’s Summerific week than with a salvation—which is the heart of Crossover.

SBC DALLAS 2025: SBTC pastor among bivos honored at annual meeting

DALLAS—Mitchell Armstrong is a heavy equipment mechanic. He works out of a service truck and spends 90% of his time outside in the sun working on farm equipment, skid steers, forklifts, and the like. It’s the epitome of manual labor, equal parts hot and hard.

He’s also a husband and father to seven kids—ages 16, 12, 10, 9, 5, 4, and 2. There aren’t enough letters on a keyboard to begin to spell out all the responsibilities involved in that. It’s a role that keeps him plenty busy.

And when he isn’t toiling under a tractor or chasing children around all the places children run, he pastors Trinity Baptist Church in Wichita Falls, a short drive from his home in Iowa Park. Trinity has small groups and a worship service on Sunday morning. They’re beginning a new Bible study on Sunday nights, and they also host a prayer meeting on Wednesday nights. In between, he makes hospital and home visits when he can and does as much member care and visitor follow-up as possible on a tight schedule.

Mitchell Armstrong is a bivocational pastor, and this is the life.

“It is one of the most challenging yet joyful things I’ve ever done,” Armstrong said

On Monday, Armstrong was among a group of pastors recognized from the stage during the Southern Baptist Convention Pastors Conference held in advance of the SBC Annual Meeting. He appeared alongside Nathan Lorick, executive director of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. Each bivocational pastor’s name was called, and as the recognition ended, it was announced that each would receive an all-expenses-paid trip to Israel through Signature Tours.

For the SBTC, it was a fitting recognition: more than half of its 2,800-plus churches are led by bivocational pastors.

“Bivocational pastors carry two callings with one heart,” said Shane Kendrix, who serves as the SBTC’s regional associate in Northwest Texas, an area that includes Armstrong’s church. “They faithfully serve both the church and the world, proving that ministry isn’t confined to the pulpit, but lived out wherever God calls you.”

Armstrong is still in awe of God’s calling on his life. He was saved in January 2020 shortly after accepting an invitation from a co-worker to attend a Bible study. Two months later, as COVID was disrupting life across the globe, Armstrong began to experience his own life-changing moment—sensing God’s call for him to pastor.

For Armstrong, it didn’t make sense. The whole world was shutting down, he already had a full-time job and a family of eight at that point, and he didn’t have any formal ministry education. Nevertheless, he began faithfully following God’s call, enrolling in online ministry courses and accepting opportunities to preach and teach at nearby churches.

At one point, that included leading his grandfather’s adult Sunday school class at First Baptist Church Iowa Park. As Armstrong stood at the front of the class and taught God’s Word, he looked into the eyes of people who had prayed for his salvation many times before at the request of his grandfather.

“Isn’t that amazing?” Armstrong said. “It’s so awesome how God works.”

In October 2023, while attending a work training in Tennessee, Armstrong was contacted by FBC Iowa Park’s lead pastor, Josh Fields. Trinity Baptist Church in Wichita Falls was interested in Armstrong submitting a resume for their pastor position that was soon to be vacant when their current pastor retired. At that point, Armstrong was focused on finishing his theological education first, but he walked through the door God seemed to be opening. A couple months later, in January 2024, Armstrong was called to be Trinity’s pastor.

Fields said Armstrong “has gone from being a friend to a gospel partner.”

“I’m thankful to the Lord that Mitch has been able to begin fulfilling his calling … and I look forward to seeing how God continues to use him in the years to come,” Fields said. “Even though he no longer sits in the pews of [our church], he is a brother in the gospel and our mission remains mutual—to make disciples.”

Bivocational pastoring is a fulfilling calling, Armstrong said, that isn’t without its challenges. Spare time is rare, and the work can often feel isolating with little margin to connect with other pastors. At the same time, working outside the church gives him opportunities to share Christ with people with whom he might not otherwise have contact. And being stretched thin, he finds, only gives God more opportunities to show what He can do in any circumstance.

“When you’re a bivocational pastor, you see God do things in ways you didn’t think were possible,” Armstrong said. “He will show you a way in a way that keeps you humble. He opens doors. He gives you the time. Just when you think it can’t be done, He makes a way. … He does things in His time and He puts things together and it happens and all you can say is, ‘Wow, God is awesome.’”

New book celebrates Southern Baptists’ Great Commission cooperation

BRENTWOOD, Tenn.—In 2023, the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee assembled a small team to help prepare for the centennial anniversary of the Cooperative Program in 2025. Tony Wolfe, executive director-treasurer of the South Carolina Baptist Convention, was part of that team and suggested commissioning a book as part of the celebration.

Wolfe was then tasked to serve as an editor of the volume, which became known as “A Unity of Purpose” to be published by B&H Publishing Group. Last year, W. Madison Grace II, provost and vice president at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, joined as co-editor. For Wolfe, the book’s purpose is to be a theological, historical, and missional celebration of the Cooperative Program’s past, present and future.

But for him, the book and the Cooperative Program itself are personal. “The earliest days I can remember included celebration of CP-funded overseas missionaries and state convention discipleship ministries,” Wolfe said. His father serves as a Southern Baptist pastor. He followed in those pastoral footsteps before stepping into denominational leadership roles.

Now, Wolfe wants to help Southern Baptists better understand the funding mechanism that has served as a unifying force and disciple-making multiplier for a century.

What was the heart behind the creation of the Cooperative Program 100 years ago?

Wolfe: In 1925, Southern Baptists were emerging from a five-year, $75 million campaign that overpromised but underdelivered on unified funding for the entirety of their Baptist work. Direct appeals from Baptist institutions and the mounting debt of those institutions were choking out effective ministry and wasting precious resources. But money was not the real problem—strategy was. A model for a unified funding strategy had been tested and proven in the Kentucky Baptist Convention. SBC leadership looked to this model while they developed the Cooperative Program as a comprehensive, unified funding strategy for the entirety of SBC enterprises.

How has the Cooperative Program impacted the world?

The Cooperative Program has carried the Great Commission work of Southern Baptists all over the world. The gospel has been proclaimed in the remotest corners, and churches have been planted in the darkest places. Entire families and tribes have repented from sin and called on Jesus Christ for salvation. Generations of Southern Baptist pastors, church leaders, and missionaries have been theologically trained and sustainably mobilized. Widows and orphans have been cared for. The hungry have been fed and the thirsty have drunk clean water—all while being pointed to the bread of life, who is also the living water.

The hands and feet of the Cooperative Program are the faithful, everyday Southern Baptists giving sacrificially through local churches that are giving sacrificially through the CP. However, the face of the Cooperative Program is the spiritually lost Hindu, the emotionally struggling pastor’s wife, the church leader desperate for theological training, the neighborhood in crisis from disaster, the trafficked teenage girl in an overpopulated city, and the engineer or schoolteacher called to vocational missions. Only the ledgers of heaven can record the extent of Southern Baptists’ global Great Commission impact effected through their Cooperative Program these past 100 years.

What do you think people don’t understand about the Cooperative Program?

Sometimes Southern Baptists don’t quite grasp how dependent upon the Cooperative Program is the entirety of our convention’s work. While the CP doesn’t populate 100% of the budgets for each supported entity, each SBC entity is dependent upon the CP in various ways including: direct funding (the CP supplies 100% of the budget for at least two national entities and most state conventions); entity interconnectedness (seminary-trained students mobilizing with the IMB); and organized representation (nominations for trustees, boards, and committees), convention polity (annual motions from the floor), and timely distribution of funds (CP and designated offerings) managed by the administrative work of the Executive Committee.

Why is this book called A Unity of Purpose?

In 1925, at the SBC’s Annual Meeting when the Cooperative Program was unanimously approved by messengers, M.E. Dodd was the chairman of the committee that brought the CP to the messenger body for a vote. In his address, he said, “Your Commission believes that the very time has come when this entire convention should commit itself, with a unity of purpose and consecration never known before, to the common task of the enlistment of our people and the working out of this plan. We need to see that any other course means only chaos and ruin.”

The CP is the most obvious and most strategic outworking of the “unity of purpose and consecration” that Southern Baptists share. To categorize the Baptist Great Commission impulse as a “unity of purpose” is simply to restate its original declared agenda, from the 1845 Constitution, to “elicit, combine, and direct the energies of the whole denomination in one sacred effort, for the propagation of the gospel.” Our one sacred effort is a unity of purpose. It keeps us moving forward together through crises and disagreements of many kinds in urgent, sacrificial, strategic Great Commission cooperation.

How have you seen God’s grace to Southern Baptists through the writing and editing of this book?

As the book manuscript floated around the country for review, we began to hear Southern Baptists using common language to describe the Cooperative Program as they celebrate the CP’s past, present, and future. Language creates culture, and A Unity of Purpose is giving Southern Baptists language of theological justification, historical celebration, and missional focus surrounding our Great Commission cooperation.

Prayerfully, this common healthy language will begin to facilitate a culture of excitement and expectation among us. A book can capture words and convey thoughts, but only God can multiply His grace through a shared language to unite hearts and voices in renewed commitment to one sacred effort. I believe He is already using this book, at least in some way, for that purpose.

Why is a 100-year-old funding mechanism still important today?

The genius of the CP is not in its historical precedent, but its biblical foundation and philosophical timelessness. The CP is a mechanism that maintains and extends the united efforts of tens of thousands of autonomous churches; it is an elective giving pathway that underwrites the entirety of a voluntarily shared missional ecosystem, all built upon biblical foundations for inter-congregational cooperation. Because Baptists share strong convictions against ecclesiastical hierarchy, if they are to advance the Great Commission together, they must also share strong convictions for pooling resources and relationships for their common mission.

In 1925, from the outgrowth of these timeless principles, the CP became the unified giving plan for Southern Baptists to support the entirety of their missional enterprise. The CP is still relevant and still important because it’s the most natural and most effective outworking of the shared and confessed Baptist theological impulse for convictional Great Commission cooperation between locally autonomous churches.

What are the main challenges facing the future of the CP?

Every challenge we face today is just a contemporary expression of perennial challenges in our convention of autonomous churches and institutions.

First, division and dissension within the convention are not new, but today’s social media culture exacerbates them. Secondly, the downward trajectory of CP-giving over the last 20 years is concerning, but several times throughout history, we’ve had to climb out of financial holes and embarrassing shortfalls. Thirdly, talks of entity consolidation, doctrinal clarity, and financial accountability are pressing upon our cooperation in this generation, but these are not new to Southern Baptists who, for 180 years, have expanded and combined entities, clarified and confessed doctrinal positions, and reframed and reformed fiduciary responsibilities. All things considered, if the question is, “Can we recover extravagant CP giving in our generation?” the only answer is: “If we will, we can.”

As Southern Baptists gather to celebrate milestone, SBTC embraces ‘a profound responsibility’

MEMPHIS, Tenn.—It was not only a commemoration, but a renewed call to action.

Southern Baptist Convention leaders from across the country gathered Tuesday, May 13, to mark the 100^th anniversary of the 1925 SBC Annual Meeting. Messengers at that meeting adopted two foundational structures that have defined Southern Baptists since—the Baptist Faith & Message and the Cooperative Program, the latter of which funds worldwide missions.

Seventy-three pastors and leaders celebrated the anniversary by signing a Declaration of Cooperation thanking Southern Baptist churches for a century of generous giving, commending “all who promote, support, and renew their commitment to the Cooperative Program among our family of churches, mission boards, seminaries, entities, local Baptist associations, and state conventions,” according to a report in Baptist Press.

Southern Baptists of Texas Convention Executive Director Nathan Lorick was among those who signed the declaration. Other SBTC pastors who signed included Eddie Lopez, First Baptist Church Forney’s En Español pastor who also serves as the SBC’s second vice president, Caleb Turner, senior pastor of Mesquite Friendship Baptist Church, and Hyoung Min Kim, senior pastor of Saebit Baptist Church.

Speaking about the adoption of BF&M and CP, Lorick said, “Both of those decisions have had a profound impact on the gospel’s advancement not only in our nation, but around the world … and now we share a profound responsibility to carry forward this legacy.”

Lorick said the 1925 SBC Annual Meeting had a tremendous impact on the SBTC’s founding in 1998, noting it laid the groundwork for the “missional cooperation and theological agreement” that unify more than 2,800 churches today.

“Considering this centennial anniversary year, I am thanking God for our Bible-believing and missions-sending Southern Baptist legacy and family,” he said.

During the event’s keynote address, SBC Executive Committee President Jeff Iorg called CP a “never-before-attempted method” of funding shared ministry and mission efforts. A century later, what was once an unknown has become a “practical, proven” method to tell the world about Jesus.

“My appeal today is to reaffirm our commitment to cooperation and the Cooperative Program in its simplest form—a shared funding mechanism for state and regional conventions and the national convention to substantially provide the funding needed for all our work,” Iorg said.

When SBTC churches give through the Cooperative Program, 45% of undesignated receipts are used to mobilize SBTC churches and 55% is forwarded to the SBC to fund entities including the North American Mission Board and the International Mission Board.

Lorick encouraged churches to continue to give through CP “to send the gospel to the nations.” He also reiterated a three-pronged way churches have been encouraged to mark the 100^th anniversary of CP:

Pray, asking God how they might give to mark the milestone year;
Plan a Cooperative Program Sunday on Oct. 5 to emphasize the impact of CP giving; and
Post stories on social media sharing how God has used CP to bless them using #cp100story.

Information from Baptist Press was used in this report.

In the UK, a promising development: more young people are interested in Jesus, the Bible

NASHVILLE (BP)—A curiosity about Scripture and God may be one of the leading factors behind a study that claims a “quiet revival” is expanding among young people in the United Kingdom, said an International Mission Board leader.

“In churches across society something amazing is happening, challenging long-held predictions about the future of Christianity in the 21st century,” said the report produced by the UK-based Bible Society. “Where once we saw aging congregations and a steady decline in attendance, we see dramatic growth, led by the young.”

That growth is showing among several key findings from the study.

An increase in church attendance among 18-24-year-olds from 4% in 2018 to 16% in 2024, with young men’s attendance jumping from 4% to 21%.
Among churchgoers, 67% read the Bible at least weekly, up from 54% in 2018. Bible reading has doubled from 6 to 12% in England and Wales.
A more diverse church has emerged, with 19% of churchgoers part of an ethnic minority. Among 18-54-year-olds, that figure rises to 32%.

Kenny Dubnick, the IMB’s European People’s Affinity cluster leader for the UK and Ireland, said most of the study’s findings reflect his own observations and those of other IMB personnel.

“On the whole, we are seeing an interest in spiritual matters, including Christianity, among 18-24-year-olds,” he told Baptist Press. “They are not necessarily interested in ‘church’ or religion, but in spirituality and Christ’s teachings. For many, they are initially often suspicious and cynical towards religion and the church, but not Jesus.”

Those observations generated changes in how to share the gospel.

“One of our primary evangelistic practices is to invite people to study the Bible,” said Dubnick. “Sometimes this is done in a formal gathering of 10 to 15 people who meet once a week for dinner and a Bible study.”

Those studies typically begin with about seven weeks of going through the gospel of Mark and usually meet in a home, pub, or community center. Those early gatherings are more informal, as missionaries meet almost weekly with individuals for one-on-one Bible study.

The American Bible Society, a separate organization whose founding was influenced by its UK counterpart, recently reported a similar growth in Scripture engagement among men.

Although women are still more engaged with the Bible, men are more likely to be “Bible-curious” and have surged in their Bible-reading practices from 34% in 2024 to 41% now. What’s more, Millennial men reported a 25% increase from in Bible use last year, while Gen X men reported a 29% increase.

Dubnick’s observations match the UK study’s findings on diversity and immigration. Christians arriving from elsewhere have helped spur church growth.

“We trust that the Spirit is bringing believers to the UK to spread the gospel among the Brits,” he said. “The UK was once a missionary-sending nation. Now, it is a missionary-receiving one.”

The UK study also put forward what it called “a clear difference between church-going and non-churchgoing Christians.” Namely, fewer Britons see themselves as Christians “by default.”

In 2018, 32% identified as Christians even though they didn’t regularly go to church. That number dropped to 27% in the recent study while reflecting increasing desires for discipleship and Bible study.

That mirrors Dubnick’s observations.

“In my 18 years serving in the UK and Ireland, every person I’ve seen come to faith in Jesus has done so via studying the Bible,” he said. “People are not interested in church or organized religion, but the Bible and Jesus are topics they are more willing to engage with.”

The latest report on Southern Baptist engagement indicates something similar.

While church membership continued a downward trend, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination recorded the highest number of baptisms in seven years. That came with increases in total worship attendance as well as small group or Sunday School participation.

“The Quiet Revival” also reported a deep desire “for meaning, order and belonging.”

“With the normalization of Christianity in culture, and the confidence and comfort of Christian friends to share their own faith experience, a large number of young adults now appear to be looking towards the Church as a space for finding healing and community as well as a deeper sense of meaning in their life,” it said.

Those thoughts reflect the Global Flourishing Study released on May 1 by Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

“Most of the countries that reported high overall composite flourishing may not have been rich in economic terms, but they tended to be rich in friendships, marriages, and community involvement—especially involvement in religious communities,” wrote the study’s authors.

The report also described young people as “struggling” in terms of mental health, with flourishing scores staying consistent from 18-49 years of age before showing stages of increase.

Matthew Spandler-Davison, a Kentucky Baptist pastor still heavily involved in ministry in his native Scotland, noted the encouraging signs of the UK study while calling for discernment and a “need to look beyond the surface.”

“In some of our church plants in Scotland, we have seen a growing group of teenagers interested and curious about the church,” he said. “However, many of them are navigating a syncretism in their belief and worldview. They’re piecing together their worldview from various voices, including online and social media influencers.”

The result is an amalgamation of different beliefs, with Jesus sprinkled in. This points to the ongoing importance of discipleship.

“It’s a gift to have them with us, but the exclusivity of Christ—that He alone is the way, the truth and the life—is a real stumbling block for some,” Spandler-Davison said. “We may see some drift away in the coming year if we are not clear about the claims of Jesus and the call to a life of repentance and faith in Christ alone.”

As in America, there are also long-held associations with organized religion keeping many from the church. White, working-class men in particular, said Dubnick, view the Church of England as the “Religion of the Royals” and are thus disconnected from it in almost every way.

There are others, though, such as many Anglican churches that are “doing a good job in contextualizing the gospel to the working classes.”

“These Anglican churches are committed to sharing the gospel in urban-deprived communities,” he said. “We are thankful for these Anglican brothers and sisters. The work is a marathon and not a sprint, but the Lord is at work!”

This article originally appeared in Baptist Press.

For Peoples, passion for special needs equipping ministry is personal

When Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Ph.D. student Sandra Peoples recognized God’s call to ministry in her life as a teenager, she knew it was a call to discipleship and specifically women’s ministry. Little did she know at the time that God would use the special needs ministry of her family’s church to shape her calling.

Peoples was born in Oklahoma and grew up going to First Baptist Church in Duncan, where she was part of the fourth generation in her family that had been faithful members, volunteers, and leaders in the church.

Peoples recalls praying in her bedroom when she was seven years old with her mother, confessing her sins and her need for Jesus. From that early age, Peoples said she “saw the importance of plugging in and being part of a church family and serving with our gifts.”

While still a teenager, Peoples began to have the opportunity to use her gifts to help lead Bible studies for other girls and was also mentored by youth and children’s leaders. But while she was being invested in by other women, Peoples said the church had another lasting impact on her life in how they cared for her family and specifically her sister Sybil, who had Down syndrome.

Peoples said their church provided disability programs that supported her family as well as four other families. Of those families, Peoples said four of them now have siblings of the special needs members serving in full-time ministry.

“I just think about how if that church hadn’t accepted Sybil and welcomed her, then I couldn’t have attended either, and that really would have changed our family for generations, potentially,” Peoples said. “It certainly would have made it harder for us to love Jesus and love the church. So that church was a real gift to my family and to the families that attended.”

Peoples attended Hardin-Simmons for her undergraduate, taught for a year in Dallas, and then went to Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, where she met and married her husband Lee and had their first son. She was pregnant with their second son when she graduated with her Master of Divinity in Women’s Studies in 2007.

Upon graduating, Peoples began to lead women’s Bible studies and disciple other believers while her husband pastored. But in 2010, while they were living in Pennsylvania, their son James was diagnosed with autism, and they realized that the small church they were a part of, and many other Baptist churches in the nation, did not have programs and resources in place that would help their family and other special needs families. While she had grown up in a special needs family and in a church that supported families such as theirs, Peoples faced the realization that not all churches had that available to the congregation.

“What I had kind of taken for granted growing up wasn’t available to me as a mom,” Peoples said, adding that reality led to her “wanting to make churches more accessible and inclusive.”

Peoples’s husband spent time pastoring in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, and for the past 10 years in the Houston area, where Lee has pastored Heights Baptist Church in Alvin, Texas, for eight years. At each church, Peoples and her family helped create programs that would ensure their son and others could receive the discipleship opportunities they needed.

In 2021, she began working for the Southern Baptist of Texas Convention (SBTC) as their disability ministry consultant, SBTC being the first Baptist state convention to have that position, working closely with and for Karen Kennemur, Southwestern’s professor of children’s ministry and children’s and family ministry associate with the SBTC.

In working with the SBTC, Peoples has the opportunity to travel and provide training, visiting churches and assessing what their needs are as they provide a place for families with special needs to worship and fellowship.

In 2022, Peoples decided to continue her education at Southwestern as a Ph.D. student with Kennemur as her supervisor.

“When I thought about getting my PhD, Southwestern was at the top of my list,” Peoples said, adding the online options were especially a blessing. “… I love the family ministry and generational studies area. It fits so well with my passion of inclusion for special needs families. So it really was just the perfect fit at the perfect time.”

Peoples said she has enjoyed the family ministry degree program at Southwestern, which has led her to look at her own experiences through a biblical lens, asking questions such as what discipleship looked like in the early church and the Old Testament, and to consider how families might have participated in the church.

“All of that has been really interesting to think through and then apply to our context,” Peoples said, adding she has enjoyed her classes and learning with her classmates.

Peoples said her Southwestern education has also helped her as she teaches classes at Liberty University on disability ministry, leading her to look at that ministry as discipleship for the entire family.

“We’re not just talking about programs for a kid with disabilities; we’re really talking about holistic discipleship, and how a church welcoming somebody with a disability allows their entire family to attend,” Peoples said.

Using her experiences of training churches, consulting with the SBTC, teaching at Liberty, and even joining churches that did not have resources available to her own family, Peoples authored Accessible Church: A Gospel-Centered Vision for Including People with Disabilities and Their Families, set for a July 1 release through Crossway.

Peoples said the catalyst for the book was hearing from so many churches asking the same questions about disability ministry and believing “that they’re starting from scratch because there just aren’t a lot of resources out there.”

The book looks at elements of disability ministry, including how it fits with other ministries of the church, how to disciple an individual with disabilities, and how to make the proclamation of the Gospel priority in that ministry. Specifically, Peoples said her studies at Southwestern led her to write the book focusing on ministering to the entire family, not just in the children’s ministry or to the individual with a disability.

“How do we support the whole family in our churches?” Peoples said of what sets her book apart from others. “And then how do we make sure that we’re building ministries that meet people with disabilities at every age and stage, because we don’t want the inclusion to end when they’re done with children’s ministry, or even done with youth, next-gen ministry.”

Peoples said this book is to help churches of all sizes, but that it is also more than just a how-to book as it looks at the theology of disability and what the Scriptures say about disabilities. She said leaders of any area of church ministry could benefit from the information.

In her studies at Southwestern, her writing, and her teaching, Peoples said “my goal is always just to help churches, [to] do that however I can as a pastor’s wife and as a consultant and as a professor, all these ways. The goal is just to make churches stronger and to help them, especially as they reach special needs families and people with disabilities.”