1+ week, 4+ day ago (359+ words) November 19, 2025 By Jason Myers EDITOR'S NOTE: Jason Myers serves as vice president with the MBCH Children and Family Ministries. In Genesis 22, God calls Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac on a mountain in the land of Moriah. As they journeyed, Isaac noticed there was no lamb for the offering. Abraham responded with faith: "The Lord will provide." And He did. At the last moment, an angel stopped Abraham, and God provided a ram caught in a thicket. While Abraham climbed one side of the mountain saddened by his circumstances, God was sending provision up the other. That image has stayed with me. November is National Adoption Month. As someone who was adopted and has worked in child welfare for nearly 25 years, I've seen many stories of heartbreak and healing. Adoption is a beautiful reflection of redemption'a child whose birth parents couldn't…...

3+ week, 6+ day ago (956+ words) November 3, 2025 By Michael Smith LEXINGTON " For a church in western Missouri celebrating its bicentennial in 2025, First Baptist Church, Lexington, is undergoing a remarkable aging process. "It's 200 years old, but it's getting younger," according to Pastor Russell Peirce. "Our growth is coming from younger people, so our median age is getting lower," he says. Peirce says that, in the church's history, there have been "seasons of dry spells but also seasons of refreshment and revival." He sees the church now in a season of renewal. John Brittain, mission strategist for the West Central Baptist Association, agrees. He says FBC Lexington "is becoming younger because they have a vibrant pastor in the church." He describes the church as multi-generational, with active Sunday School classes for all ages. Both men say FBC Lexington is seeing an influx of members from its outreach and…...

3+ week, 6+ day ago (948+ words) November 3, 2025 By Diana Chandler WHITEFISH, Mont. (BP) " At the very moment pastor Curt Sparkman spread his arms preaching a sermon at Flathead Lake in northwest Montana, a bald eagle stretched its wings overhead, Sparkman told Baptist Press. Earlier, he and executive pastor Jason Palmer slammed their brakes to avoid hitting a black bear while driving a trailer the two hours from Missoula to Whitefish. En route to the lake to preach his first sermon, Sparkman said, he had driven less than two minutes from home before "right in the middle of the road is a moose." Montana's vast open landscape and plentiful wildlife are part of the draw for Whitefish's year-round and seasonal residents, said Sparkman, who officially launched Goodwater Church Oct. 5 in the center of town at the Performing Arts Center. But the beauty is also a challenge to…...

2+ week, 3+ day ago (223+ words) November 12, 2025 By Wes Fowler So why do we do it? Why spend so much time, effort, and resources to gather every year? Well, thank you for asking! We gather to conduct business. This might be the most obvious reason! Our annual meeting is " well, it's a meeting " a time for all affiliated MBC churches to conduct business. There are certainly additional reasons for us to gather, but these three remain high on my list " conducting business, enjoying fellowship, and being encouraged. I'm genuinely excited about what the Lord is doing in Missouri, and I thoroughly enjoyed our time together in Branson. Thank you, Missouri Baptists, for serving so faithfully, going so missionally, praying so fervently, and giving so generously. Discover the ministry of Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers as they bring help, hope, and healing to North Carolina after Hurricane…...

2+ week, 2+ day ago (338+ words) November 14, 2025 By Brian Koonce BRANSON " Ken Whitten closed out the 2025 Missouri Baptist annual meeting here with a reminder of the Apostle Peter's struggles in ministry, and how Jesus can overcome their own struggles. Whitten serves as national director of pastoral leadership at the North American Mission Board (NAMB). Prior to his ministry with NAMB, he served 33 years as senior pastor of Idlewild Baptist Church in Lutz, Fla., as well as many other denominational roles. Whitten used Luke 22:31-34 as his text, recounting Jesus's prediction that Peter would soon deny Him. Whitten said that like modern Christians, Jesus used Peter despite his flaws, both for Peter's good and His own glory. God uses interruptions, times of pressure and pride to get people's attention, build faith and fulfil His promises. This, he said, is illustrated in John 21 when Jesus repeatedly tells Peter to…...

1+ week, 6+ day ago (135+ words) November 17, 2025 By Missouri WMU The Week of Prayer for International Mission is Nov. 30Dec. 7, 2025. This is a week you and your church can focus on praying for our international missionaries and this offering. Discover the ministry of Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers as they bring help, hope, and healing to North Carolina after Hurricane Helene destroyed lives and homes in devastating floods. People of faith must vote next fall to remove abortion from the state constitution, former Missouri Governor Mike Parson told Missouri Baptists gathered in Branson late last month. Miner Baptist Church here is lifting high the cross of Jesus. To be exact, they have constructed a 120-foot-high cross on their property, visible from Interstate Highway 55, in hopes that more people would be drawn to Christ....

3+ day, 2+ hour ago (418+ words) The Pilgrims sign the Mayflower Compact on Nov. 11, 1620. The event was memorialized by the "Signing the Mayflower Compact, 1620," an 1899 painting by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris, shown above. (Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons) November 27, 2025 By Baptist Press The feast enjoyed by the Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoag people in 1621 is what most people think of as the first Thanksgiving. However, the first recorded English day of Thanksgiving in the New World actually took place at "Berkeley 100" in Virginia two years earlier. However, the account of the Pilgrims" Thanksgiving feast should not diminish the generally overlooked Thanksgiving held at Berkeley 100, later renamed Berkeley Plantation, on the James River, in 1619. The Berkeley settlement of 36 people was located on a "king"s grant," a tract of land given by the king, large enough to supply 100 of the king"s men (soldiers) for a year....

5+ day, 49+ min ago (1120+ words) November 25, 2025 By Stella McMillian TOKYO, Japan (IMB) " The line into one of the stadiums at Tokyo's Komazawa Olympic Park stretched out the door and down the street. The crowd waited patiently in the crisp fall air for a chance to watch the volleyball semifinals at Deaflympics, a worldwide event that brings Deaf athletes together to compete every four years. For Suncica, a Deaf believer from Serbia, the main event was not the volleyball competition taking place inside the stadium, but rather it was the gospel conversation she was having with the couple behind her in line. As they talked, she pulled a card from her bag with an illustration of Mt. Fuji against a sun and five rays of color. She handed the card to the couple. When they scanned the QR code, a site popped up with short gospel…...

2+ week, 3+ day ago (474+ words) November 13, 2025 By Staff MOLDOVA " Missouri Baptist church members couldn't imagine what blessings "loomed ahead" for them when they recently went on mission to the east European nation of Moldova. "Most people you ask will not even know there is a country called Moldova, and for sure where it is," Keith Vawter, director of missions for the Wright-Douglas-Ozark Baptist Association and Denty County Association, wrote in a report about the mission trip. "Moldova is surrounded on three sides by Ukraine and on the fourth by Romania." Romanian, he added, is the primary language spoken in Moldova. The mission team included: from First Baptist, Salem, Joe Brand and wife Kim, Worship Pastor David Hancock, David Ward, Mark Sisco and Nick Brakensiek; Whitney Fleenor, the pastor's wife at First Baptist Church, Oak Ridge; and Keith Vawter with his wife, Terri. According to Keith…...

3+ week, 5+ day ago (979+ words) November 4, 2025 By Leslie Peacock Caldwell "Tatiana," she quickly typed into her phone notes. "Alicia," she added. "That's someone else I need to remember to pray for." "Nothing is wasted with our God," Hanberry said. "I've got their names, and I'll pray for them. My daughter was faithful and always full of hope. It's only through the Lord that we face sickness and death with hope." During the weeklong mission trip, testimony after testimony filled debrief times and tears flowed freely. Many women pointed to the purposes of the Lord to use them for His glory in just the right place at just the right time. This became a recurring theme during the week. Twenty-six women from 12 states and 20 churches joined the October trip, hosted by IMB missionaries. Naomi Fowler, from Florida, signed up two years ago, when the trip first…...