By Julie Walters WMU News Office BIRMINGHAM, Ala. –– Wanda Lee announced a search committee will be appointed to seek her successor as executive director/treasurer of national Woman’s Missionary Union. Though no date is set for her departure, Lee shared her intentions to retire during her report at national WMU’s board meeting on Jan. 11 at Shocco Springs Conference Center in Talladega, Ala. Lee pledged to continue to lead WMU

By Lisa Cannon Green Baptist Press NASHVILLE — When Americans make New Year’s resolutions, a better relationship with God ranks almost as high as better health, according to a study by LifeWay Research. And for many groups, faith actually outranks health. Older Americans, African-Americans, Hispanics, and Christians are all more likely to say they’ve made resolutions about God than about health. Overall, 57 percent of Americans report making health-related New

Baptist Press NASHVILLE — Bill Sumners,  a Tennessee Baptist and director of Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives since 1988, will retire from his post next July, he recently announced in a letter to the Council of Seminary Presidents, which governs the organization. “It has been my pleasure and joy to serve in this position, in this place, for most of my career,” Sumners told the CSP. Since the 1997

By Carol Pipes LifeWay News Office NASHVILLE — Christmas is a great time to invite someone to church, according to a recent study by Nashville-based LifeWay Research. In a recent poll of 1,000 Americans, LifeWay Research found six out of 10 Americans typically attend church at Christmastime. But among those who don’t attend church at Christmastime, a majority (57 percent) say they would likely attend if someone they knew invited

Baptist Press NASHVILLE (BP) — Late preaching professor Calvin Miller once quipped to Christianity Today that many Southern Baptist churches “probably could hardly spell Advent” in the early 1990s. Not so anymore. LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention has published Advent devotional books and includes tips for observing Advent in at least two holiday magazines this year. North Carolina’s Biblical Recorder newsjournal commends Advent to its readers, offering

Baptist Press NASHVILLE (BP) — America is launching new Protestant churches faster than it loses old ones, attracting many people who previously didn’t attend anywhere, new LifeWay Research studies show. More than 4,000 new churches opened their doors in 2014, outpacing the 3,700 that closed, according to estimates from the Nashville-based research organization based on input from 34 denominational statisticians. And on average 42 percent of those worshipping at churches

CARY, N.C. (BP) — Southern Baptist leaders are responding to the headline “God isn’t fixing this” that dominated the Dec. 3 cover of the New York Daily News. Images of tweets from Republican leaders surrounded the headline, displaying sympathetic “thoughts and prayers” for the people affected by a Dec. 2 mass shooting. “I’m hard-pressed to think of a more cynical and exploitative headline at a time of national mourning,” Russell