Illinois Baptist staff

MONTE. VERNON, Ill. (BP) – Un pastor de McLeansboro, Ill., fue arrestado el 5 de enero por dos cargos de manipulación sexual de menores con fines sexuales. Garrett Biggerstaff fue acusado luego de una investigación de cuatro meses que incluyó la incautación de sus dispositivos electrónicos y la recolección de evidencia en su casa. Un menor primero denunció los reclamos a la policía de Benton.

MT. VERNON, Ill. (BP) – A pastor from McLeansboro, Ill., was arrested Jan. 5 on two counts of grooming minors for sexual purposes. Garrett Biggerstaff was charged after a four-month investigation that included the seizure of his electronic devices and collection of evidence at his home.

Editor’s Note: In support of the sixth strategic action of Vision 2025 adopted by messengers to the 2021 SBC Annual Meeting, Baptist Press will continue to report every instance of sexual abuse related to Southern Baptist churches or leaders of which we are made aware. CARMI, Ill. (BP) – A former staff member of the Baptist Children’s […]

CARLYLE, Ill. (BP) – Two teenage daughters of an Illinois Baptist pastor and the pastor’s sister were killed in a head-on collision with a tractor-trailer near Breckenmeyer in Clinton County on Friday. The girls, 17-year-old Savanna Grace Broughton and 15-year-old Brooke-Lynn Kay Broughton, are the daughters of Scott and Amanda Broughton. He is the pastor of First Baptist Church of Carlyle. Also killed was Pastor Broughton’s sister, Rhonda Evans, of Ackerman, Miss., the Belleville News-Democrat reported.

HANNIBAL, Mo. (BP) – Hannibal LaGrange University (HLGU) held a 10-hour prayer meeting March 10 to intercede for the university’s financial shortfall, which is reportedly between one-half million and $1 million.

MARION, Ill. (BP) -- Across the country, the numbers are sobering. At least 80 percent of American churches are plateaued or declining, and many leaders are struggling to know what steps to take to revitalize flagging ministries. "We need a new wave of church revitalization to sweep across America," Rob Peters said at the Illinois Baptist State Association's Annual Meeting Nov. 7 in Marion. At the 113th annual gathering of Illinois Baptists, messengers adopted resolutions, elected new officers, and approved a 2020 budget.

MARYVILLE, Ill. (BP) -- The pioneering spirit of more than 200 churches was on display during the Illinois Baptist State Association's (IBSA) annual meeting Nov. 7-8. This year's meeting was held at First Baptist Church in Maryville. IBSA Executive Director Nate Adams helped lead a Wednesday evening service dedicated to the steps churches must take in order to reach Illinois' mission field with the Gospel. The vast spiritual need in Illinois, where at least 8 million people do not know Christ, was communicated most poignantly by the words of the state's most famous ...

STAUNTON, Ill. (BP) -- Volunteers carried a livestock feeding trough April 8 into the high school gymnasium where NET Community Church meets each Sunday. The trough had a lofty purpose as 11 people were baptized during morning worship, each wearing T-shirts with the words "going public." "Their life stories were all very different, but their life conversion was the same," said Derrick Taylor, pastor of NET Community. "It was so exciting to witness each one 'going public' with their new lives in Christ, thus declaring 'I'm not ashamed of the Lord Jesus Christ!'"

BROADVIEW, Ill. (BP) -- Messengers to the 2016 Annual Meeting of the Illinois Baptist State Association voted to increase the state's Cooperative Program giving to national causes, met missionaries coming off the international field who have joined the state staff, and welcomed 10 new churches to the association. The meeting, held Nov. 2-3 at Broadview Missionary Baptist Church in a western suburb of Chicago, also challenged Illinois Baptists and their churches to embrace the call to take the Gospel across cultures.

SHOREWOOD, Ill. (BP) -- The newest pieces of disaster relief equipment for a Baptist association in northern Illinois came from what many might consider an unlikely source: a 10-year-old girl.       Lily Eddington, a fifth-grade student, wanted to help the Three Rivers Baptist Association purchase a new, larger chainsaw ...