By Brian Blackwell, Baptist Message staff writer TERRY, Miss. (LBM) – Pastor Lee Faler and wife Jordan are effusive about God’s faithfulness to them after losing their son to brain cancer. Rankin was only 6 years old when he died. Faler said despite the pain, he and Jordan were buoyed by what he described as “God’s endless love” while they traveled through a dark valley. “This has shown me how strong Jesus’ love is for us,” Faler, pastor of First Baptist Church, Terry, told the Baptist Message prior to a recent revival service at Boeuf River Baptist Church, Winnsboro. “He is not just sufficient to save. He is sufficient to sustain. It was something we knew in our heads but now we know it in our hearts because He’s walked it Himself and He’s walked it with us. “Your trials can make you better or they can make you bitter,” he continued. “I don’t know exactly when it happened for me. But somewhere between August and right now, the Lord ignited a hunger in my heart for Him -- to the point that my prayer has been ‘God if I can’t be white hot and I can’t have the fire, then I have too much in Heaven waiting for me. Take me home if I can’t be useful.’” CHALLENGED The journey began in March 2021, when they returned … [Read more...]

By Don Hinkle, The Pathway editor NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Up to $2 million of Cooperative Program funds will be paid by the Southern Baptist Convention’s (SBC) Executive Committee (EC) to cover legal fees of its newly-retained law firm that supports the Nashville Pride festival, the LGBTQ Bar, and is praised by the Human Rights Campaign, one of the nation’s largest LGBTQ organizations. Bradley Legal was highlighted in Human Rights Campaign’s material, and the firm has touted the link in several releases. “Bradley is pleased to announce that the firm scored a 90 out of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2022 Corporate Equality Index (CEI), the nation’s foremost benchmarking survey and report measuring corporate policies and practices related to LGBTQ+ workplace equality,” the law firm reported on its web site. “I am pleased to see the firm’s hard work recognized once again in the Corporate Equality Index,” said Bradley Chairman of the Board and Managing Partner Jonathan M. Skeeters. Bradley apparently meets all the criteria for HRC’s “Corporate Social Responsibility,” which would require written guidelines that prohibit the firm’s “philanthropic support” of non-religious organizations that draw distinctions based … [Read more...]