Joni B. Hannigan

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (BP) -- When the house lights dim in South Florida's historic Hollywood Playhouse and the spotlight trains on pastor Martin Vargas, he intends for a message to be center stage: "God knows; He changes lives; there is growth in the truth; and we are fulfilling the Great Commission."

ATLANTA (BP) -- Discipleship needs to be "at the heart of church planting." Dhati Lewis "wasn't called as a pastor so I could preach. I was called as a pastor so I could make disciples." Lewis is director of the Send North America Rebuild, a North American Mission Board initiative helping urban leaders create a culture of discipleship in the local church.

ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP) -- Fritz Wilson, executive director of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, is one of 12 new appointees to the Federal Emergency Management Agency's National Advisory Council.

FORT WORTH (BP) -- Just before the family of 15-year-old Braxton Caner was seated at the front of New River Fellowship Church, the entire Aledo High School Bearcats football team trudged up the center aisle in silence, some holding cowboy hats to their sides.

BALTIMORE (BP) -- While economic woes have slowed the growing ethnic diversity at state levels in the Southern Baptist Convention, panelists at the Cooperative Program exhibit, held during the SBC annual meeting in Baltimore, discussed intentional efforts to include ethnics in Convention leadership.

BALTIMORE (BP) -- As Southern Baptists reflected on and bantered various topics -- including numerous challenges of the 21st Century -- at the Cooperative Program exhibit during their annual meeting in Baltimore, most agreed studying Scripture in its proper context, selfless giving and a commitment to praying for others are good starting points for progress.

BALTIMORE (BP) -- Panelists at the Cooperative Program exhibit expressed universal support for CP missions and ministry during the SBC annual meeting in Baltimore though it is vital to educate grassroots Southern Baptists about how it works.

BALTIMORE (BP) -- A three-day discussion among Southern Baptists became a focal point of the exhibit area of the SBC annual meeting in Baltimore as a procession of diverse, articulate Baptists conversed about core values.

HOUSTON (BP) -- In nearly 20 years of being a pastor's wife, Angie Dennis said she doesn't remember a single instance of a young woman coming to her and saying, "Miss Angie, my husband is struggling with pornography."

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (BP) — The Jacksonville, Fla., city council Wednesday (Aug. 15) narrowly rejected altering its human rights ordinance to add sexual orientation to the list of those protected from discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodation. The vote followed three months of testimony and debate about whether discrimination exists in Jacksonville against gays and […]