SBC

BAILEY SMITH, EARLY SBC CONSERVATIVE PRESIDENT, DIES

By Christian Index & BP Staff DULUTH, Ga. — Evangelist Bailey Smith, who helped sustain the Conservative Resurgence at its outset in the Southern Baptist Convention, died Monday morning (Jan. 14) at his home in Duluth, Ga. He was 79. Smith’s election as SBC president in 1980 was the second victory for conservatives following the landmark election of the late Memphis pastor Adrian Rogers in 1979.

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FIVE WAYS TO MAKE TV SAFE FOR KIDS: SEE PTC’S 2019 LIST

By Diana Chandler Baptist Press LOS ANGELES — Protecting children from obscenity on television has never been more difficult than in 2019, the Parents Television Council (PTC) said in listing the top five reforms the entertainment industry needs to make this year. “Even with the most diligent parental oversight, the industry has exceptional power and leverage to influence our children,” the PTC said. “But while the industry continues to produce

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MOST TEENAGERS DROP OUT OF CHURCH AS YOUNG ADULTS

By Aaron Earls Lifeway Research  Church pews may be full of teenagers, but a new study says college students might be a much rarer sight on Sunday mornings. Two-thirds (66 percent) of American young adults who attended a Protestant church regularly for at least a year as a teenager say they also dropped out for at least a year between the ages of 18 and 22, according to a new study

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EVANGELIST RICK STANLEY, STEPBROTHER TO ELVIS, DIES

By Art Toalston Baptist Press EUREKA, S.C. — Rick Stanley, a stepbrother to Elvis Presley who turned to Christ two months after Presley’s death in 1977 and, as an evangelist, spoke at Billy Graham-sponsored events and in a multitude of other settings, died Saturday evening, Jan. 5, in Aiken, S.C. Stanley returned to First Baptist Church in Eureka, S.C., five years ago — where he first gave his testimony in

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JIMMY ALLEN, SBC PRES. & ‘ENERGETIC DREAMER,’ DIES

By David Roach Baptist Press BRUNSWICK, Ga. — Jimmy Allen, a former Southern Baptist Convention president and entity leader known for his gregarious personality and engagement with cultural issues, died Jan. 8 in Brunswick, Ga. He was 91. The last SBC president to serve before the convention’s Conservative Resurgence, Allen also was a confidant of President Jimmy Carter and once met with Ayatollah Khomeini during the Iran hostage crisis. Allen led

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PASTORS: OFFERINGS SEE BOOST IN 2018

By Aaron Earls LifeWay Christian Resources NASHVILLE — The economic recovery has reached the offering plate, according to a study from Nashville-based LifeWay Research. Today, eight in 10 Protestant pastors (79 percent) say the total offerings at their church this year are at or above last year’s levels, including 42 percent who say this year is ahead of last year. Few pastors (15 percent) say giving is not keeping pace with

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CLEMSON COACH CHAVIS RECOUNTS RADICAL TRANSFORMATION

By Tim Ellsworth Baptist Press CLEMSON, S.C. — Despite being a big-time college football player headed to the NFL, Miguel Chavis was on a path to destruction. Self-centered and vile. Hedonistic and drunk. A tough brute who partied hard and pursued every fleeting pleasure he could think of. You name it, and Chavis, during his early years as a defensive tackle at Clemson, was probably guilty of it.

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ALABAMA FOOTBALL PLAYERS GIVE BOOST TO LOCAL MINISTRY

By Tim Ellsworth Baptist Press TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama running back Josh Jacobs and three other Crimson Tide football players provided a pleasant surprise for a 13-year-old boy while delivering a mattress and bed to a Tuscaloosa home in partnership with Calvary Baptist Church’s S.D. Allen Ministry. Jacobs walked into the house, and the boy who lived there looked him up and down. “Are you Josh Jacobs?” the boy asked.

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BILL TOLAR, PROF WHO ‘STANDS LARGE’ IN SBC, DIES

By David Roach Baptist Press FORT WORTH, Texas — Bill Tolar, a preacher-scholar who provided transitional leadership at key junctures for Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and multiple Southern Baptist megachurches, died Dec. 29 following a battle with cancer. He was 90.

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SHARING “GOD’S LOVE FROM A DIAPER BAG”

By Trennis Henderson WMU National Correspondent JENKINS, Ky. — Bessie and Lester McPeek are known throughout eastern Kentucky as the Diaper Lady and the Diaper Man. They wouldn’t want it any other way. The McPeeks, who have been married for 24 years, started a unique diaper distribution and parent education ministry in Jenkins, Ky., in 2001. Since then, they have given away more than 2 million diapers to single moms,

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