Will Hall, Baptist Message

BATON ROUGE, La. (BP) -- Blake Ferguson has had a remarkable football career in a unique position. He came to LSU as the country's number one long snapper as a senior in high school, and last year he was named best collegiate long snapper. On top of that, he took over the job for the Tigers from his brother Reid, who was signed after graduation as the long snapper for the NFL's Buffalo Bills. Scouts are predicting Blake will play at that level on Sundays, too.

DAVIS, Okla. (BP) -- About 100 evangelists, pastors, directors of evangelism and some wives traveled from across the United States to gather in Oklahoma at the Falls Creek Conference Center to identify issues that have led to declines in evangelism as well as the use of evangelists in the Southern Baptist Convention. They also met to develop recommendations about how to restore the denomination to its Great Commission roots. The group included a diverse representation in age and geography, with a large number among the crowd identifying themselves as 45 years old or younger. The guest list showed many attendees were from Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana, but included members from the ...

BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil (BP) -- Southern Baptists returning from Belo Horizonte, Brazil, are sharing testimonies of widespread revival in churches, communities, prisons and schools, following an 8-day schedule of crusades, medical ministries and other outreach efforts in this South American country. Wayne Jenkins, director of evangelism and church growth for the Louisiana Baptist Convention, said there were a recorded 3,202 salvation decisions resulting from events conducted July 10-17.

ALEXANDRIA, La. (BP) -- The homosexual activist group Human Rights Campaign has targeted 23 institutions of higher learning with Southern Baptist ties in a report that also names 35 other colleges and universities with distinct Christian identities. Released just before the 2015 Christmas season, the report, "Hidden Discrimination: Title IX Religious Exemptions Putting LGBT Students at Risk," asks Obama Administration education officials to increase reporting requirements for these 58 schools because each was granted "exemptions of interest" relating to either "gender identity" or "sexual orientation" or both.