2015 SBC Annual Meeting

COLUMBUS, Ohio (BP) -- LifeWay Christian Resources is poised to reach a million people this fall with its Christ-centered curriculum, The Gospel Project, leaders announced at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Columbus. During his report to SBC messengers, LifeWay President Thom S. Rainer laid out three strategic changes LifeWay is making to prepare for the future and serve churches more effectively. These strategic changes include selling its sprawling headquarters in downtown Nashville later this year and building a smaller facility nearby.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (BP) -- Messengers resoundingly affirmed David Platt's June 17 report that noted IMB trustees' recent policy changes are focused on throwing open the funnel of missionary sending so more Southern Baptists called by God can make disciples and multiply churches among those who've never heard the name of Jesus.

COLUMBUS, OHIO (BP) -- In a darkened convention center hall filled with Southern Baptist messengers, individual pinpoints of light illuminated the darkness. Moments earlier, in passionate pleas, IMB President David Platt and NAMB President Kevin Ezell urged Southern Baptist messengers not to be cold toward the vast lostness in the world, but to join in God's global mission as church planters, missionaries and sending churches to take the light of the Gospel to a dark world.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (BP) -- Wanda Lee, executive director of WMU, highlighted the importance of missions and introduced Linda Cooper as the new president of the national auxiliary during her report to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting June 17.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (BP) -- North American Mission Board President Kevin Ezell shared highlights of a year of ministry expansion and introduced what he called "NAMB Phase II" to messengers in Wednesday morning's (June 17) session at the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. "I want to thank Southern Baptists for their generous and sacrificial support for the Cooperative Program and the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering," Ezell said. "Thanks to the leadership of our pastors and the generosity of our congregations, the Annie offering was up 2 percent this past year.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (BP) -- God can send the flames of spiritual awakening that the church and nation so desperately need, Eddie Bumpers told messengers during his convention sermon June 17 at the SBC annual meeting in Columbus, Ohio. "It is possible for God to send revival to bring us to a place of new obedience to God, a new commitment to the Great Commission and the Great Command of the Lord Jesus," said Bumpers, pastor of Crossway Baptist Church in Springfield, Mo.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (BP) -- Spiritual awakening, the defense of marriage and the preservation of religious liberty were among key themes addressed by messengers at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting June 16-17 in Columbus, Ohio. The meeting was highlighted by a Tuesday night prayer gathering led by SBC President Ronnie Floyd, at which an estimated 7,000 Southern Baptists spent two hours asking God for a third Great Awakening in America and the global advance of the Gospel. The gathering was watched by an additional 8,000 people online and broadcast on Daystar television.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (BP) -- LifeWay Christian Resources is poised to reach a million people this fall with its Christ-centered curriculum, The Gospel Project, leaders announced at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Columbus. During his report to SBC messengers, LifeWay President Thom S. Rainer laid out three strategic changes LifeWay is making to prepare for the future and serve churches more effectively. These strategic changes include selling its sprawling headquarters in downtown Nashville later this year and building a smaller facility nearby.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (BP) -- Christians should not undervalue the effect of love or the Gospel in relating to gays and lesbians, recognizing, however, that faithfulness to the biblical definition of marriage will prove costly, members of a special panel told messengers at the 2015 Southern Baptist Convention. During the Wednesday afternoon session (June 17), five panelists answered questions from SBC President Ronnie Floyd about how churches and pastors can minister in an American culture that increasingly approves of homosexuality and same-sex marriage.

COLUMBUS (BP) -- An international religious freedom office in the Mideast will be opened by the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, Russell Moore announced at the SBC annual meeting June 17. Moore, the ERLC's president, told messengers, "We must contend for religious freedom for our brothers and sisters in Christ and for everyone else wherever they are on the globe." He added, "We will not stand idly by while those with whom we will share eternity are being led to the slaughter."