ST. LOUIS – Busy moms need prayer, but they also need to pray. A new book, released, April 2, and called Honest Prayers for Mama Bears will help moms and others do that. Honest Prayers was written by Hillary Morgan Ferrer, founder and president of Mama Bear Apologetics, and Julie Loos, member of Fellowship of Wildwood and member of the MBC Apologetics Network. “When we started this book,” Loos said, “we wanted to capture what was on a mom’s heart. I’m passionate about prayer and we wanted to establish a resource to help others with prayer.” Loos has more than 20 years in prayer ministry, servi ..read more

HAMILTON – The Heartland Baptist Association is hosting the “Engage Christian Worldview Conference,” April 30, in Hamilton, Mo. The “Engage” conference is co-sponsored also by the Missouri Baptist Convention’s (MBC) Christian Life Commission. Keynote speakers include MBC President Chris Williams, pastor of Fellowship Church, Greenwood, and MBC legislative liaison Timothy Faber, Director of Missions with the Lake of the Ozarks Baptist Association. Pastor Dave Nixdorf of River of Life Baptist Church, Cameron, is a member of the MBC’s Christian Life Commission and has helped to organize the “Enga ..read more

I have a wonderful life. I mean, I have a wonderful wife. I have both a wonderful wife and a wonderful life. Recently, my son gave her what may be her favorite birthday gift. What was that gift? A set of replacement headphone ear pads; you know, the squishy foam part that goes between the hard plastic electronic parts and your head? Over time, the leathery part began to flake off and lost its softness. The electronic parts still worked well, but the seal needed strengthening from years of use. Instead of buying a completely new headset for hundreds of dollars, my son wisely purchased the repla ..read more

This is another in a series of excerpts from “What Every Christian Should Know About the Return of Jesus,” released by High Street Press and available at Amazon.com in print, Kindle and audio book formats. Angels proclaim the return of Jesus in at least two New Testament passages. In the first, “two men in white clothes” tell the apostles Christ’s return is to be a mirror image of his ascension, which they have just witnessed. In the second, an angel flies overhead, announcing to the earth’s inhabitants that God’s hour of judgment has come. Acts 1:10-11 – “While he was going, they were gazing ..read more

NASHVILLE (BP) – Southern Baptist leaders are calling for prayer and peace in the wake of Iran’s direct attacks on Israel. The attacks occurred overnight Saturday Jerusalem time (April 13) as hundreds of drones and rockets were launched in retaliation for a strike Israel made April 1 against an Iranian consulate. Israeli defense forces claim that 99 percent of the drones and rockets were destroyed by their Iron Dome defense system before impacting targets. U.S. President Joe Biden condemned the attack “in the strongest possible terms.” “At my direction, to support the defen ..read more

Several years ago, I was riding through a summer snowstorm on motorcycle in the Rocky Mountains. I was completely unprepared for the weather and progress was much slower than anticipated. As I approached Breckenridge, Colorado, I could only think of a hot bath and a night’s rest.  When I entered town, I passed a motel with a “No Vacancy” sign lit up.  I was devastated but kept riding. The unforeseen snowstorm seemed to have everyone searching for a room. Imagine my relief when I finally saw a “Vacancy” sign. I checked in with chattering teeth and spent the next two hours thawing out ..read more

CAMDENTON – A young woman faced with an unplanned pregnancy has questions, needs, and struggles with the next turn. The Pregnancy Help Center (PHC) of Camdenton, and now Versailles, offers solutions. “The Lord put these girls on my heart,” Teresa Faber, director of PHC, said. “My husband pastored for 25 years, and we took young girls who were struggling with unplanned pregnancies and helped them.” Now, Faber’s husband, Timothy, is the Missouri Baptist Convention’s legislative liaison and the Director of Missions for the Lake of the Ozarks Baptist Association. “It was actually my husband,” Fabe ..read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (MBTS) — Midwestern Seminary celebrated the election of Donald S. Whitney to full-time faculty during the institution’s spring trustee meeting on April 9. Whitney will fill the John H. Powell Endowed Chair of Pastoral Ministry, serving as professor of biblical spirituality and director of the forthcoming Center for Biblical Spirituality at Midwestern Seminary. President Jason Allen shared, “Dr. Whitney is a man of prayer and sound doctrine who loves the local church and the Great Commission. He also loves to impact students. For these reasons and many more, we are delighted to ..read more

CRANE – The baptism of a 70-year old man and his sister in the church where they both had grown up was going to be a celebration of God’s faithfulness.  Pastor Elmer McCully at First Baptist Church, Elsey was troubled though when he saw dirty, muddy water coming out of the faucet as they filled the baptistry.  Checking around it became obvious that the church’s rural water well had run dry.  People began investigating the problem and it became obvious the well was not recoverable and a new one would have to be drilled. There was only one problem: There wasn’t enough money to get ..read more

JEFFERSON CITY (Capitol Ministries) – With a mission to launch ministries in all 50 U.S. states and an already noteworthy record of new ministry plants through successful recruiting, Pastor Matt Goodsell has been named North America global director for Capitol Ministries (CapMin). In this role, Pastor Matt is charged with expanding the ministry by recruiting men to launch new Bible-study based discipleship ministries to political leaders throughout the United States and Canada. “Matt exemplifies the qualities we are looking for in our global directors and is already excellent in this position ..read more