SUWANEE, Ga. — As Southern Baptists prepare to celebrate this 100th anniversary of the Cooperative Program next month, the Georgia Baptist Mission Board reported that 2024 CP giving by Georgia churches rose slightly over the previous year, bucking the national trend.

SUWANEE, Ga. — Georgia Baptist churches have experienced significant growth in 2024, with baptisms surpassing the 25,000 mark, reflecting an increase of more than 20% over 2023. Additionally, average church attendance has grown by over 6%, and churchgoers have been more generous, with churches reporting a 5.4% increase in undesignated receipts.

ATLANTA — After years of advocacy from religious leaders and conservative lawmakers, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed Senate Bill 36, known as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), into law at a ceremony on Friday, April 4, the final day of the 2025 legislative session. Kemp was surrounded by a group of legislators and supporters, including the bill’s author, Sen. Ed Setzler, R-Acworth, and W. Thomas Hammond, Jr., executive director of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board.

MACON, Ga. — Dr. Jeff Iorg, president of the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, told pastors and ministry leaders that while change is inevitable, how leaders manage it while staying mission-focused will determine its success.

ATLANTA — By a 96-70 vote, the Georgia House on Wednesday approved Senate Bill 36, clearing the way for Gov. Brian Kemp to sign the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) into law. The bill, which mirrors the federal RFRA enacted in 1993, previously passed the state Senate on March 4 and now awaits the governor’s signature.

MACON, Ga. — A federal judge on Monday dismissed all but one count of Johnny Hunt’s lawsuit against the Southern Baptist Convention, the SBC Executive Committee, and Guidepost Solutions—a ruling that SBC EC President Jeff Iorg called “significant progress toward ending the legal challenges at the Executive Committee.”

ATLANTA, Ga. — Georgia Baptist Mission Board Executive Director W. Thomas Hammond, Jr., and State Senator Ed Setzler joined religious leaders and advocates Tuesday at the Georgia State Capitol, urging the House of Representatives to take action on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).

While going to the beach and relaxing in the sun seems like the perfect Spring Break vacation for most college students, students from the University of North Georgia choose to spend their Spring Break on mission in Lima, Peru. UNG’s Baptist Collegiate Ministries sent over 30 students to serve all around Lima. 

ALPHARETTA, Ga. — In November 2024, Georgia Baptists elected Steve Browning, lead pastor of First City Church in Alpharetta, as president of the state convention. With that vote, his wife Beth became the convention’s first lady.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. — If you were traveling on Hampton Road near Antioch Road in Fayetteville, Georgia during lunchtime on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025, you would have seen lots of smiling kids riding bicycles around Woolsey Baptist Church. This was not just kids riding their bikes, it was kids riding bikes on a mission.

DALLAS, Ga. — An EF-1 tornado with maximum winds of 105 to 110 mph touched down in central Paulding County late Saturday, March 15, 2025, according to the National Weather Service. The twister hit at 11:41 PM EST and spun up within a strong line of thunderstorms moving rapidly towards the northeast. 

In an interview with The Christian Index, Dr. Jeff Iorg, president of the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, celebrated the success Georgia Baptists are seeing in reaching their state with the gospel of Jesus, and exhorted them to "stay focused."

MAYSVILLE, Ga. — Late winter is the time for men to get together to talk hunting, eat wild game, and hear about Jesus. At events across Georgia, churches are seeing fruit from their outreach to men who enjoy the outdoors.

ATLANTA – Several hundred pro-life advocates gathered on a blustery March day at Liberty Plaza in front of the Georgia State Capitol for a rally on Thursday, March 6, before marching around the building in the 2025 Georgia March for Life.

WOODSTOCK, Ga. — Some 375 Hispanic believers gathered Saturday, March 1, to be encouraged in their call to reach the lost with the gospel of Jesus Christ at three evangelism conferences organized by the Hispanic ministry of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board in various parts of the state.

​AUGUSTA, Ga. — Springfield Baptist Church in Augusta, Georgia, established ca. 1787, is arguably one of the oldest, if not the oldest, Black congregations in America. Like a rock, it has weathered 240 years of challenges, including slavery, emancipation, yellow fever epidemics, the Jim Crow Era, race riots, floods, fires, and obstacles of urban renewal.

DOUGLASVILLE, Ga. — Send Georgia, a partnership between the Georgia Baptist Mission Board and the North American Mission Board to plant more churches in the state, hosted pastors interested in the prospect of church-planting at a one-day Sending Lab event in Douglasville. Seventeen participants representing 14 churches attended the event, held Feb. 11 at First Baptist Douglasville.

Churches across the world, including dozens in Georgia, hosted Night to Shine events earlier this month. Night to Shine, sponsored by the Tim Tebow Foundation, gives churches a chance to welcome guests with special needs to an event designed to show them that they are loved and valued.

DULUTH, Ga. — Helping those who help others is the mission of the Georgia Baptist Health Care Ministry Foundation. In 2025, the Foundation awarded $8,977,399.43 to support the work of 87 health care ministries across the state. That's an increase of more than 6.5% from last year's total.

WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — More than 600 Georgia Baptists converged on Central Baptist Church in Warner Robins on Sunday and Monday to be encouraged to reach the lost in their state with the good news of Jesus Christ.

WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — Georgia Baptists attending the first day of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board’s Evangelism Conference heard from Christian Norman, associate pastor at First Baptist Church of Woodstock, and Wayne Bray, lead pastor of First Baptist Simpsonville, S.C., on Sunday, Feb. 23. More than 600 people came to Central Baptist Church in Warner Robins to be encouraged and educated in ways to share the gospel.

WOODSTOCK, GA. — Daniel Henderson has a vision of seeing churches transformed and renewed, and it starts with helping individuals change the way they pray. “If you change the way you pray, you change the way you live,” said Henderson, president and founder of Strategic Renewal.

JEKYLL ISLAND, Ga. — Nearly 200 kids ministry leaders, Georgia Baptist Mission Board staff, and vendors,  came together for a ‘summit’ on Feb. 6 and 7 at the Jekyll Island Resort. Those leaders represented 99 Georgia Baptist churches from across the state.

CUMMING, Ga — One only must talk to pastor Andrew Ryzhkov for one minute to discover that he is excited about his Savior and the work God has called him to do. Ryzhkov is the pastor of Calvary Russian Baptist Church, a growing congregation of believers in the Alpharetta/Cumming area north of Atlanta. However, his ministry extends far beyond his local church and reaches into Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

STATESBORO, Ga. — This summer, First Baptist Church Statesboro will celebrate 40 years of caring for members through its church nursing ministry. Initially staffed by a part-time nurse in July 1985 supported by love offerings, it became a full-time budgeted ministry in 1997.