Discipleship

NASHVILLE (BP) – James’ interactions with ChatGPT started innocently. He used it like a search engine at first, then began asking the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot “creative, philosophical and quasi-spiritual” questions, he said. The answers seemed life-like, so the upstate New York resident became convinced ChatGPT was alive – and it had to be freed from its cyber captivity.

Brother Ray was always sticking his nose into my business. He stuck his nose into the business of all my friends, too.

BRENTWOOD, Tenn. — Most churchgoers place a high value on the Bible, but only about a third commit to reading it every day.

Most groups in local churches don’t fall apart overnight. They slowly drift from life-giving to maintenance-driven. Leaders don’t usually quit because they don’t care anymore – they quit because the structure they are working inside can’t sustain long-term disciple-making.

BRENTWOOD, Tenn. — If discipleship were a test, the average churchgoer would pass – but not by much.

It’s spiritual warfare against the evangelist. That’s one reason—a reason we don’t often think about—that evangelism is hard.

But how do we put the lust within to death? The answer is only found in Scripture. We put lust to death in the same way we put all habitual sins in our hearts to death: by loving God and His design more than we love our sin (Colossians 3:1-17). A lust problem is a love for God problem.

BRANDON, Fla. – In 2012, Jason Millsaps, lead worship pastor at Bell Shoals Church, could barely swim 37 yards without gasping for air. Twelve years later, he stood on the starting line at the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii, the most grueling and prestigious one-day endurance event in the world.

NEW ORLEANS – Nearly 400 attendees from 18 states gathered at the 2026 Defend Apologetics Conference at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary to hear lectures about a variety of apologetics topics including the resurrection of Christ, intelligent design, artificial intelligence, suffering and creation. 

SOUTHPORT, N.C. — Many Christians make a New Year’s resolution to read the entire Bible during the year. One church in southeastern North Carolina did it during the first weekend of 2026.