Erin Roach

MENIFEE, Calif. (BP) -- Fermín Whittaker was a lonely seminary student in Canada, far from his home in Panama, when God used the Cooperative Program to hook his heart and set in motion a lifetime of support for unified Southern Baptist missions and ministry. Whittaker, executive director emeritus of the California Southern Baptist Convention, told Baptist Press he was saved at age 12 in a Baptist church in Panama, discipled by a Southern Baptist missionary and later made his way to Canada to enroll at a Baptist seminary.

BEAUMONT, Texas -- The losses that are going to hurt the longest after Hurricane Harvey are the invisible ones, pastor Rick Warren told a group of Southeast Texas pastors at Calvary Baptist Church in Beaumont as he counseled them on how to help people recover in what could be "the church's finest hour." "If unbelievers like what they see in the mud-outs and all the stuff we're doing, then they will listen to what we say," Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., said Sept. 18. "Many times outreach to people starts with a hand and then moves to the heart and the head."

PHOENIX (BP) -- Women gathered for the third annual Tea at 3 for personal connections, equipping and encouragement ahead of the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Phoenix. The free event, at the Sheraton Grand June 12, was hosted by Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and open to all women. Ministry partners donated key resources for each woman attending, including a stack of books for ministry and spiritual enrichment.

Good financial stewardship stems from a right relationship with God, and the Bible has plenty to say about managing God's resources God's way, a group of pastors said during the President's Panel on Stewardship June 14 at the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Phoenix.

The Executive Committee report highlighted Resonate, a collegiate church planting network supported by the Cooperative Program that has seen more than 700 students baptized since 2007 and continues to multiply.

NASHVILLE (BP) -- Prayerwalking continues to play a vital role in leading people to personal relationships with Jesus, according to ministry leaders and church planters who practice the spiritual discipline of "praying onsite with insight" as part of their ministries. Mike Puckett, executive director of Baptist Campus Ministry of the High Country in North Carolina, said prayerwalking in his context has been a cornerstone practice -- "a really great way to start work in a new community" as well as "massively important" to ongoing work.

EULESS, Texas (BP) -- John Meador experienced "a grief, a heartbreak ... soul-searching, a time of prayer and fasting" when he learned about a woman who had no one to help her after an apartment fire. The church Meador leads, First Baptist in Euless, Texas, was emerging from millions of dollars in debt and was focused on missions ventures worldwide. Though the church had begun exploring what they could do to help their local community, news of an apartment fire at a complex adjoining the church campus was the last straw.

NASHVILLE (BP) -- Although she was a young mother of twin girls with a fear of public speaking, Chris Adams became a women's ministry pioneer in the Southern Baptist Convention. After 22 years of training leaders as the women's ministry specialist for LifeWay Christian Resources, Adams retired in February from a role that God began leading her toward 30-plus years ago at Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler, Texas.

ORLANDO, Fla. (BP) -- The five "solas" of the Protestant Reformation were highlighted during the National Religious Broadcasters' "Proclaim 17" convention to mark the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's 95 Theses. Tony Evans, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, preached on "Sola Gratia" (by grace alone) during the NRB International Christian Media Convention, Feb. 27-March 2 in Orlando, Fla., with Erwin Lutzer, pastor emeritus of Moody Church in Chicago, addressing "Sola Fide" (by faith alone); Mac Brunson, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla., on "Solo Christo" (through Christ alone); R.C. Sproul, founder and chairman of Ligonier Ministries, on "Sola Scriptura" (by Scripture alone); and Barry Creamer, president of Criswell College in Dallas, on "Soli Deo Gloria" (glory to God alone).

NASHVILLE (BP) -- God is the goal of purity promises and of life itself, an author says after removing her True Love Waits ring and penning a blog post that resonated with thousands of young adults wondering where those pledges had left them. The True Love Waits movement, which began in the early 1990s, has impacted countless lives by its message of purity in a culture that emphasizes the opposite, but somewhere along the way some believers may have focused more on waiting on true love rather than on God.