Baptist Press ST. LOUIS (BP) — The Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting drew 7,321 messengers to St. Louis June 14-15 from the nation’s 46,000-plus Southern Baptist churches. The unofficial total is 35 percent above last year’s 5,407 messengers in Columbus, Ohio. When registered guests, exhibitors and others are included, the count of those at the SBC annual meeting rose to 11,581 as of Wednesday morning. SBC registration secretary Jim Wells

Wilson Henderson credits hard work and loving people as basics of his ministry By Lonnie Wilkey Editor, Baptist and Reflector COLUMBIA — On the last day of December in 2000, Wilson Henderson retired after about 45 years as a minister of music, including the last 13 at Dalewood Baptist Church in Nashville. In April of 2001 Henderson was contacted by Highland Park Baptist Church in Columbia to see if he

By Lonnie Wilkey Editor, Baptist & Reflector ST. LOUIS — Tennessee pastor Steve Gaines was elected by acclamation as president of the Southern Baptist Convention after fellow nominee J.D. Greear of North Carolina withdrew his name from consideration. The day before (June 14), Gaines, pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church, Cordova, missed election as president by three votes in a runoff election with Greear, pastor of Summit Church in Durham, N.C.

By Carol Pipes, Editor, Facts & Trends at LifeWay Christian Resources and By Lonnie Wilkey, Editor, Baptist and Reflector NASHVILLE — Southern Baptists as a whole and Tennessee Baptists in general may find cause for hope in the latest Annual Church Profile report. Both the Southern Baptist Convention and Tennessee Baptist Convention added more churches in 2015, due mostly to church planting efforts. Churches also experienced an increase in total