As the next step in Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s long-term strategy to evaluate its property usage in keeping with its student-focused core value and to prioritize seminary resources, the seminary announced Jan. 13 Student Village Apartments and Townhomes have been sold to Bellrock Real Estate Partners, a Fort Worth-based company.

“This transaction creates an opportunity to partner with Bellrock in ways that will enhance the residential experience for our students,” said Southwestern Seminary President David S. Dockery.

“We are encouraged by Bellrock’s commitment to investing in the property and to working collaboratively to ensure it continues to serve the needs of the seminary community,” Dockery added.

Bellrock co-founder Anthony Wonderly emphasized the firm’s commitment to thoughtful ownership and continuity for residents.

“We understand the importance of this community to Southwestern Seminary and its students,” Wonderly said. “Our goal is to invest responsibly, improve the quality of life for residents, and position the property for long-term success while maintaining continuity for those who already call it home.”

The sale of Student Village represents a key component of Southwestern Seminary’s broader financial turnaround since 2022, Dockery said.

The institution has implemented disciplined financial management, reduced operational expenses, and experienced growth in operating revenue, resulting in the elimination of all short-term and long-term debt and cash reserves in excess of $20 million.

Turnaround following financial crisis

This turnaround follows a period of financial crisis under former president Adam W. Greenway, who resigned from Southwestern Seminary in Sept. 2022.

According to a previous report by the Baptist Standard, Greenway’s resignation was linked to reports of a major budget deficit and significant turnover of faculty, staff, and administration, resulting in the need for more financial guardrails to prevent spending irregularities and provide trustee accountability. 

Greenway’s tenure followed predecessor Paige Patterson’s efforts to expand faculty and lead the seminary in taking on several expensive building projects during a period of enrollment decline, contributing to Southwestern’s further financial instability, according to the report. 

Sale part of longer-term strategy

Dockery contrasted the sale of Student Village with the 2023 sale of seminary’s former B.H. Carroll Park housing complex.

While the Carroll Park sale helped address the seminary’s then “financial crisis,” he said the sale of Student Village “is an aspect of a longer-term strategy to serve students well and to prioritize the campus resources, all of which are an aspect of implementing the space and property utilization guidelines and priorities approved by the [seminary] board in the fall of 2024.”

The Student Village community, located at 2000 W. Seminary Drive, includes a total of 376 residential units, consisting of 252 traditional apartment units constructed in 2012 and 124 townhomes built between 1976 and 1995. The mix of apartments and townhomes provides flexible housing options well suited to seminary students and their families.

In April 2023, the seminary’s board of trustees created a space and property utilization task team composed of trustees and seminary personnel with a commitment to institutional stewardship and discovering the best way to utilize Southwestern’s campus, property, and assets in order to advance the seminary’s mission. In 2024, trustees approved guidelines and priorities for the task team. In the summer of 2025, the board authorized the sale of the property.

In recent months, seminary administrators have met three times with residents of Student Village to inform them of the prospective sale, Dockery noted.

Serving students is a priority

“Every aspect of the decision-making process was always shaped with the theme of how to best serve our students,” he said.

“We have worked hard to ensure a good transition for the students. We pray that current and future students will benefit in the new year and in the years ahead. Our priority all along in this process has been to find ways to strengthen this aspect of student life.”

Dockery also said Bellrock has communicated plans to make a significant capital investment in the community following the acquisition with both short-term and long-term improvements. Planned improvements include interior unit upgrades, enhanced safety and security measures, refreshed landscaping, and the development of new or improved gathering spaces intended to foster community among residents.

The partnership with Bellrock, Dockery added, is structured as an ongoing relationship rather than a one-time transaction. The two organizations will continue to work together closely as improvements are implemented and as the community develops. 

The seminary will remain involved in key areas that affect student experience, including security and facilities coordination, helping to ensure continuity for staff and student workers who have long served the Village.

“We believe the Lord has provided a way for a strong and ongoing partnership so that the student village will continue to be a vital part of seminary life for many years to come,” Dockery added.

The transaction was brokered by Jason Harrell of Transwestern, representing the Southwestern Seminary.

Additional reporting by Faith Pratt, reporter for the Baptist Standard.

A Protestant pastor and five friends and family members were released from prison Jan. 10 after nearly six months of incommunicado detention in Nicaragua’s Granada Department, as reported by Christian Solidarity Worldwide.

Evangelical pastor Rudy Palacios Vargas, with the La Roca de Nicaragua Church Association, was arrested in July 2025, as reported by Baptist Press in November.

Vargas was released along with his sister, two brothers-in-law, a church worship team member, and a family friend, according to the Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners in Nicaragua.

The group was among 20 political prisoners whose release was confirmed in a statement posted on X.

CSW sources reported Vargas is under house arrest and surveillance, and movements are restricted.

“While we are grateful that these individuals will be reunited with some of their loved ones after nearly six months in incommunicado detention, neither Pastor Rudy Palacios Vargas nor his friends and family members should be under house arrest or precautionary measures. Their release does not undo the injustice committed against them,” CSW’s director of advocacy and Americas team leader Anna Lee Stangl said.

CSW is calling on the Nicaraguan government to grant Vargas and others arrested “full freedom without condition, and to immediately release all remaining political prisoners.”

“We call on the international community to maintain pressure on the Ortega-Murillo regime to ensure human rights are upheld and that their crimes do not go unpunished,” Stangl said.

Baptist Press also reported the U.S. State Department in 2022 designated Cuba and Nicaragua Countries of Particular Concern for “engaging in or tolerating systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom” under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998.

TEHRAN, Iran—Christians have been shot as police respond to protests across Iran, a U.S.-based evangelist told Baptist Press, with Southern Baptists requesting prayer for persecuted Christians and others across the nation.

Communicating through Starlink satellite and bypassing the government enforced internet blackout in Iran, Iran Alive Ministries founder Hormoz Shariat told Baptist Press he learned Jan. 11 a Christian man had been shot in Iran, Christians are in harm’s way because they are ministering amid protesters, and at least one wounded man accepted Christ through a Christian’s intervention.

“Yesterday as I was doing a live broadcast, and then news came, and a person outside Iran called and said: ‘My nephew has been shot in Iran. He’s a Christian and he’s hiding in a home. Please pray for him,” Shariat told Baptist Press. “Christians are on the streets and some of them in the past (protests) have been killed.”

Christian death tolls rising

As the names have not been released of an estimated 500-1,000 or more killed in protests the past two weeks, Shariat said he cannot verify how many Christians might be among the dead in the latest round of demonstrations.

“But it’s very likely there are Christians among them,” he said, “because Christians are out there.”

At least one wounded person accepted Christ after a Christian nurse took him into their home, treated his wounds, and shared the gospel, Shariat said he learned Jan. 11.

“This person called and he said: ‘I was wounded on the streets. And then somebody took me home as I was fleeing and bleeding. The person was a nurse, and they dressed my wound. And then I realized they are Christians, and they shared the gospel with me, and I just came to Christ,’” the newfound believer said.

As deaths mount but details remain elusive, Nathan Rostampour of The Summit Church in Raleigh, N.C., is urgently asking believers to pray for Iranians risking their lives for freedom amid a growing humanitarian crisis.

Urgent prayers requested

“This is a moment for the church to rise,” Rostampour, The Summit’s Persian Ministry director and an International Mission Board trustee, told Baptist Press Jan. 9. “Men and women are being beaten, imprisoned and killed in the streets simply for demanding freedom, dignity, and the right to live. When the world cannot see, injustice multiplies. When voices are silenced, lives are lost.”

Please pray for Iran, Rostampour pleaded.

“We urgently ask the international church to stand in the gap and become the voice for those who have been forced into silence. Please help bring awareness by speaking out,” Rostampour urged. 

“Post on social media, talk about this in your churches and call on news agencies, leaders, and institutions to report the truth of what is happening. The people of Iran are crying out, and they need the world to hear them. Silence is not neutrality—it is abandonment.”

Christians are bringing light amid the evil, with many treating the wounded at homes to avoid certain arrest at hospitals, Shariat said. Christians are also taking food and water into crowds of protesters amid Iran’s humanitarian crisis.

One Christian couple prepared 50 sandwiches, put them in their backpacks along with bottles of water, and distributed the food to protesters, Shariat learned through Starlink.

“They (Christians) go among the protesters and they feed them, they give them water, and they share the gospel,” Shariat said. “Christians, we are called to be salt and light in every area.”

Concerns about Iranian retaliation

As U.S. President Donald Trump threatens military intervention in Iran on behalf of protesters, Shariat voiced concern about Iran’s promised retaliation.

“Pray for Trump and Israel because they’re saying they are considering intervening. May God use (Trump and Israel) and not the enemy, that they will be a positive influence in Iran,” Shariat said.

“And another prayer is that the Iranian government has enriched uranium. They can build four to five atomic bombs, and we need to bind that spirit of death. In Islam, as you know, killing and dying for the cause of Islam is honorable. So, once they have the atomic bomb, nothing stops them.”

During his daily satellite broadcasts in Iran from his homebase in Dallas, Shariat said, he reminds Iranian Christians of their purpose and encourages them to persevere as others commit suicide.

Shariat described a Starlink video of a young Iranian man telling police to kill him because he had no life anyway.

“A young person was telling the police or those anti-protest forces: ‘Kill me. I’m young, but I never had a life. I never lived. Kill me,’” Shariat said. And another Iranian who was contemplating suicide decided it would be more effective to die publicly.

“And he said: ‘I’m not going to die in the privacy of my home if I want to (commit) suicide. Why don’t I go out?’” the young man pondered. “And if they kill me, at least my life counts for something.”

Specific prayer requests lifted up

Both Shariat and Rostampour shared specific prayer requests.

Rostampour, in touch with a broad-based but scattered Christian community in Iran through his work at The Summit, requests:

• Pray that brothers and sisters in the church of Iran will be protected, strengthened, and encouraged. “In the midst of extreme persecution, they continue to pray, serve, and faithfully follow Jesus from inside the country. Many gather in secret. Many risk imprisonment, torture, or death simply for worshiping Christ. Yet they remain steadfast, interceding not only for their own survival, but for the salvation and freedom of their nation.”
• Pray for the church in Iran to be strengthened, unified, fearless, and filled with hope.
• Pray for an immediate end to the violence and the killing of innocent people.
• Pray for truth to be exposed and for justice and accountability to prevail.
• Pray for comfort for grieving families and healing for the wounded and traumatized.
• Pray for restored communication and the breaking of information blackouts.

Shariat, among his previously stated requests, also requests prayer for Iran Alive Ministries, which has plans to plant dozens or hundreds of churches in Iran when the country becomes open to the gospel.

(RNS)—A former professor at a Georgia Baptist college is suing a Christian publication for defamation, saying he was falsely accused of sexual abuse.

Lawyers for Jeremy Lyon, who taught Old Testament and Hebrew at Truett McConnell University in Cleveland, Ga., alleged Associated Baptist Press, known as Baptist News Global, published “fabricated” allegations of abuse against him in a pair of stories about an abuse scandal at the school.

According to the lawsuit, attorneys for Lyon said BNG failed to contact the professor before naming him in the June 2025 stories and that the publication “fabricated information to support the false and defamatory accusations” against Lyon. The professor “categorically denies” the allegations against him, according to the suit.

In an email, Mark Wingfield, editor of BNG, said the independent publication stands behind its reporting.

“BNG operates with the highest ethical standards of professional journalism,” he said in a statement published on the BNG website. “We have been at the forefront of covering sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention, and thus it is not surprising some would attempt to repudiate our witness. We stand ready to defend our work.”

The news stories in question reported a law firm representing an alleged abuse victim had included abuse accusations about Lyon in a letter to the school’s leaders. The letter, according to BNG, primarily contained abuse allegations against Bradley Reynolds, a former vice president at Truett McConnell, and accused the school’s administration of covering up misconduct by Reynolds. Reynolds was indicted in December for allegedly lying to authorities in Georgia.  

That letter also accused school leaders of mishandling a second case of alleged abuse, saying they pressured a different alleged victim in that case to drop her complaint against Lyon.

According to BNG, the letter was part of a trove of documents sent to leaders at Truett McConnell by the law firm Shein, Brandenburg & Schrope in North Decatur, Ga. 

Truett McConnell’s president, Emir Caner, was fired in September, after the school’s board investigated how past allegations against Reynolds were handled.  

Lawyers for Lyon alleged BNG’s reporting about him was based on one source and raised questions about whether the letter in question actually came from a legal firm, according to the legal filing.

“There is no law firm ‘representing a woman against Dr. Lyon,’” according to the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia on Dec. 22. “No ‘complaint’ has been asserted by any law firm against Dr. Lyon.”

Attorneys for Lyon declined to comment to RNS. 

A copy of the letter cited in the BNG report was sent to RNS by an anonymous source. That letter contained no identifying information about who authored it. Shein, Brandenburg & Schrope did not respond to a request for comment about the letter. 

Lyon no longer teaches at Truett McConnell. The accusations were based on alleged incidents in 2021 and 2022.

In the complaint, attorneys for Lyon say he was fired as an adjunct at several schools as a result of the allegations and was removed from his role as president of the Creation Theology Society.  

“Dr. Lyon’s damages continue to increase, as he is unable to find work in his professional field as a result of the statements in the articles and instead is currently working in retail at a significantly reduced income,” according to the complaint.

Lyon’s lawsuit is the fourth defamation claim filed in response to the abuse scandal in the SBC, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. Former SBC President Johnny Hunt and former seminary professor David Sills sued the convention, as well as several Baptist leaders, after their names were listed in a 2022 Guidepost report that accused SBC leaders of mistreating abuse survivors. 

Most of the claims in Hunt’s lawsuit were rejected by a federal court judge in 2025. The trial in the Sills case is on hold while the judge considers whether or not to dismiss the case.

And in 2023, a Tennessee pastor sued the SBC’s Executive Committee after a denominational committee informed his church about a past abuse allegation. The pastor eventually lost his job as a music teacher and had a job offer at a new church rescinded. That case is currently under review by the Tennessee Supreme Court.

Lyon would be the first Baptist figure during the SBC abuse scandal to sue a publication for publishing allegations of abuse.

The floodwaters that tore through Kerr County last summer are long gone, but the work of rebuilding is not.

Across Kerrville, Hunt, Ingram, and surrounding areas, Texans on Mission volunteers continue to show up through the Revive Kerrville initiative, repairing homes damaged by the July floods and walking alongside families navigating the long road to recovery.

“We’re serving at more than seven homes this week alone,” said Ryan Welch, TXM missions and discipleship coordinator. “Disasters happen fast, but recovery doesn’t. A lot of groups move on. We don’t.”

Crews are tackling everything from roofing and fencing to painting and finishing work, the kind of repairs that often come after emergency response teams leave and insurance timelines slow.

At one home, volunteers rebuilt a fence completely washed away by the river. Inside, others worked to finish painting so the homeowner could move forward.

Driven by God’s love

“God tells us to love one another, and when you see a need to meet it,” said Makenna James, a Texas A&M University student volunteering with Revive Kerrville. “Being here is a way to live that out.”

James said serving months after the flooding has been especially meaningful.

“Right after a disaster, everyone wants to help,” she said. “But later on, when the attention fades, that’s when people are really left dealing with what happened. That’s when it matters most.”

College students from across the state are working alongside experienced volunteers, learning construction skills on the job while building relationships with homeowners and one another.

“We’re helping rebuild a shed that was damaged in the flood,” said Isaac Garcia, a Texas A&M-Kingsville student. “This kind of work costs money. To be able to give our time, skills, and help someone who’s already lost so much—that’s how we show Christ’s love.”

For homeowners, the steady presence of volunteers has brought both progress and encouragement.

“It’s been a real blessing working with a Christian organization,” said Debbie Dossey, a Hunt resident whose home was damaged in the flooding. “They pray with you. They care. And the quality of work has been incredible.”

Joy found in homecoming

Dossey said returning home brought moments of joy and reflection.

“Every day, I find something that survived that I didn’t even remember we had,” she said. “Being back home lets you finally breathe and also start processing everything that happened.”

Brian Keeper, who lives along the river, said the emotional toll of the flood didn’t fully set in until cleanup began.

“The trauma wasn’t just that night,” Keeper said. “It was realizing neighbors were gone, and that the history of my family was stored in this house.”

Working with TXM, he said, made a difference.

“They show up smiling. We pray in and pray out,” he said. “In the middle of all this loss, it’s been people who have given me hope for the future.”

Community amidst tragedy

For students Jonathan Wolf of Texas A&M and Clayton Hargrove of Texas State University, the experience has strengthened both their faith and their understanding of community.

“It shows people they haven’t been forgotten,” Wolf said. “That God hasn’t given up on them.” Hargrove agreed.

“We’re not just here to clear things out and leave,” he said. “We’re here to help rebuild and keep walking with them.”

As recovery in Kerr County continues, Texans on Mission leaders say the work is far from finished and neither is their commitment.

“This is long-term,” Welch said. “We’re here for the whole journey.”

On Jan. 8, over 160 Texas faith leaders wrote an open letter to superintendents and school board members across the state, urging them to not adopt SB 11 in their school districts. The letter is posted on the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty website.

TX SB 11, a law encouraging a period of prayer and reading of a religious text in public schools, was passed on June 20, 2025. The bill was introduced in the Senate during the 89th Texas Legislature and became effective Sept. 1, 2025, requiring school districts to hold votes on adopting prayer policies. 

The sign-on letter is a collectivist attempt to steer school boards away from SB 11, with many faith leaders, including Pastors for Texas Children, asserting the law threatens the religious freedom of students and families, instead placing religious instruction in the hands of government entities. 

The letter further raises concerns of faith leaders regarding the administration of public education: “SB11 threatens to drive a wedge into public school communities and create unnecessary administrative burdens.” 

Consent forms raise administrative concerns

While voluntary, SB 11 requires any desiring participants to submit consent forms, which include a waiver of legal claims under state or federal law, including those under the Establishment Clause, a U.S. First Amendment clause prohibiting the government from establishing a religion.  

Despite the necessity of these forms to monitor student and parental consent, signatory faith leaders view the extra administrative burden of tracking these forms, setting aside designated prayer time and spaces, and ensuring a lack of student coercion to be burdensome and detracting within a system that already protects the religious freedom of its students. 

In an interview with Baptist Standard, Rabbi David Segal, Policy Counsel at Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, expressed these concerns: “One of the most concerning mechanisms is the system of waivers and opt-ins a school district and campus would have to manage if such a policy were adopted. It creates, potentially, an administrative nightmare for the leaders of that.”

Religious liberty is an important factor

BJC is one of the partner organizations responsible for developing the open letter. According to BJC’s website, the committee is dedicated to “protecting religious liberty for all and defending the separation of church and state.”

The principle of religious liberty runs deep within Baptist roots, as Baptists were the first religious group to adopt the separation of church and state in the early 17th century. Segal emphasizes these ideas as fundamentally Baptist and thus interwoven into BJC’s mission: “We are a Baptist organization. We believe deeply in people having a right to pursue a life of faith. 

But we also believe what Baptists have believed for our entire history … that the government has no place in interfering in our religious life or a life of conscience.”

Government interference with religious affairs is primarily a concern regarding religious freedom and a seeming inherent lean toward Christian doctrine SB 11 promotes, a concern expressed by supporters of the letter. 

SB 11 potentially favors Christianity

Though unbiased on the surface, opponents note SB 11 encourages practices of the predominant faith group, evidenced by a compilation of public comments submitted to the Committee on State Affairs for SB 11. 

Following the enactment of the bill, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton encouraged students to utilize their time of prayer reciting the Lord’s Prayer. 

Segal describes this action as a “case in point” concerning SB 11’s perceived Christian bias: “When the Attorney General issued a statement urging school boards to adopt this policy, he ended his press release with a suggestion of which prayer to use, and it’s King James’s version of the Lord’s Prayer, which is a very important prayer for Christians. 

“So, that essentially doesn’t have the force of law, but it’s an indication of a kind of bias that can come through when these kinds of things are set up by state officials,” Segal added.

In BJC’s online press release, Blake Ziegler, Texas Field organizer at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, said: “Many of our Jewish ancestors sought refuge in the United States because of its separation between religion and government. We fled nations whose theocratic policies persecuted our people and others who did not share the state’s religion, while arbitrarily favoring those who did.”

Ziegler mentioned concerns over SB 11’s impact on religious pluralism in schools, noting religion separate from government interference as essential to promoting “religious freedom.”

Mounting fears over SB 11’s lack of religious pluralism come after the bill underwent multiple amendments, including those that protect non-participants by prohibiting PA broadcasts of the prayer or study time, and mandating a board vote requirement within six months of the law’s Sept. 1, 2025 effective date. 

An influential Protestant church in central China has reported its prominent leaders have been arrested in what is being considered a crackdown on underground churches in China.

Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu said, as reported by BBC News, “nine people were detained on Tuesday after police raided their homes and the church office in Chengdu in central China.”

The detentions came as authorities more than 1,000 miles away began demolishing the Yayang Church in Wenzhou, a coastal city known for its large Christian population.

Video obtained by the advocacy group ChinaAid showed bulldozers and cranes tearing down parts of the building, while hundreds of armed and special police officers were deployed to guard the site, the group said.

Bob Fu, founder of ChinaAid, told reporters at BBC News, “The massive mobilisation against the two major independent church networks shows the central government is determined to stamp out Christian churches entirely, unless the church is totally indoctrinated into the party’s ideology.”

Arrests like these have been the result of the Chinese Communist Party’s desire to keep churches not aligned with government policies and Chinese culture from gaining influence within China.

BBC News also reported Xi Jinping’s attempt to control religious freedom has strengthened with his call for “Sinicization of religions,” requiring religious doctrines and practices to conform with Chinese culture and values.

China’s Communist Party promotes atheism and tightly regulates religion, pressuring believers to worship only in state-sanctioned churches led by government-approved clergy. While the government said in 2018 that China had about 44 million Christians, the figure is believed to exclude many who attend underground churches.

Mary Sue Kendall of Covington died Jan. 8 at age 97. Sue was born March 31, 1928, in Osceola to Wyatt Armstead and Jeffie Aline Burt. While working in the First National Bank of Grandview, she met her husband of 64 years, Joe Frank Kendall. During Joe’s Air Force career, they lived in such places as England and Rome, N.Y., serving churches wherever they lived. Upon Joe’s retirement, they returned and lived on their farm outside Covington just a mile away from where she was born. Sue was a faithful and dedicated member of the First Baptist Church of Covington, serving as the treasurer and leading a women’s Sunday school class for many years. Her Christian faith was her highest priority, and she firmly professed her deep belief. She was a prolific reader who enjoyed reading everything from the Bible to a good mystery. As for the Bible, she read it through completely every year. She made everyone feel welcomed and led her life with a servant’s heart like her Savior. Sue was preceded in death by her husband, Joe, and brothers, Roland and Frank Burt. She is survived by her sons, Joe Mark and wife Jacque of Shreveport, La., and Michael and wife Kwunjit of Southlake; her daughter Diann Kendall of Fort Worth; her four grandchildren, Kyle Kendall, Whitney Garmhausen and husband Geoff, Katria Kimble and husband Brandon, and Mica Kendall; her three great-grandchildren, Jack and Kendall Caroline Garmhausen and Wyatt Kimble; and her brother, Jeff Burt. Services will be held at First Baptist Church in Covington on Friday, Jan. 16, with the viewing at 10 a.m. and the funeral at 11 a.m.

This article originally appeared in the Biblical Recorder.

WASHINGTON (BP)—Former North Carolina Baptist pastor and congressman Mark Walker announced Thursday, Jan. 8, he has accepted a new role within the Trump administration focused on advancing religious liberty around the world.

Walker, who had been under consideration to serve as the United States ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, said he has withdrawn from the nomination and will instead serve as principal advisor on global religious freedom in the U.S. State Department.

In a statement released on social media, Walker expressed gratitude to President Donald Trump for the opportunity to serve and for the administration’s emphasis on defending religious freedom internationally.

“I am deeply grateful to President Donald J. Trump for the honor of nominating me to serve as United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom,” Walker said.

“Promoting religious liberty worldwide has been a cornerstone of my life’s work—as a pastor, as a Member of Congress, and as a passionate advocate for the persecuted.”

After what he described as “careful consideration and thoughtful discussions with the Administration,” Walker said he chose to withdraw from consideration for the ambassador role in favor of the newly announced advisory position.

“I am respectfully withdrawing from consideration for the Ambassador-at-Large position and excited to announce I have accepted the new role as Principal Advisor on Global Religious Freedom to the State Department,” Walker said.

In his new role, Walker will work closely with Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and other administration leaders to address religious persecution and human rights abuses worldwide. He emphasized religious liberty continues to face significant challenges in many regions.

“Religious freedom remains under assault in far too many corners of the world, and I am committed to supporting the Trump Administration’s bold efforts to defend this fundamental right,” Walker said.

The Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission had been pressing for Walker’s Senate confirmation, but is pleased with this new development.

“I’m so glad to see my friend Mark Walker appointed to this important role of Principal Advisor on Global Religious Freedom to the State Department,” Interim ERLC President Gary Hollingsworth said. “It is gratifying to have someone who is so firmly committed to advancing religious liberty at home and abroad in this position.”

“Here at the ERLC, we look forward to working closely with him on global issues that matter deeply to Southern Baptists. Please join us as we pray for him in this new endeavor of public service,” Hollingsworth added.

Trump nominated Walker to serve as U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom in April 2025, a position requiring Senate confirmation.

While Walker’s nomination drew support from administration officials and faith leaders, it never advanced to a Senate vote.

Executive branch nominations not confirmed before the Senate adjourns each year expire, requiring the nomination process to start over in a new session.

By moving into an advisory role, Walker is able to begin work on issues pertaining to global religious freedom immediately without restarting the formal nomination and confirmation process.

Walker has long been vocal on issues of faith and religious liberty. He said the advisory position will allow him to continue that work while helping advance America’s leadership on the issue internationally.

Walker, a Republican, represented North Carolina’s 6th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2015 to 2021.

During his time in Congress, he served as chairman of the Republican Study Committee from 2017 to 2019 and as vice chair of the House Republican Conference from 2019 to 2021.

Before entering politics, Walker spent 16 years in pastoral ministry, serving churches in Florida and North Carolina.

He previously served on staff at Calvary Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, N.C., and most recently as worship pastor at Lawndale Baptist Church in Greensboro, N.C., from 2008 to 2013.

KNOXVILLE (BP)—Tennessee Supreme Court justices sought clarity regarding the church autonomy doctrine Thursday, Jan. 8, in a case focused on the Southern Baptist Convention’s protocols to address claims of sexual abuse.

Attorneys for Preston Garner, who has brought a defamation lawsuit against the SBC and others, asserted a letter sent in the early days of 2023 stemming from a report to the SBC abuse hotline led to Garner’s dismissal at a Christian school and the simultaneous withdrawal of a job offer at a church.

Representation for the defendants said the matter was an example of “internal governance.”

“Religious bodies have religious ways of approaching [these matters],” said Becket attorney Daniel Blomberg, representing the SBC et. al. “That’s obviously the case here, where religious polity really plays a significant role in how the convention itself can interact with its member churches.”

Becket, according to its website, “is a non-profit, public-interest legal and educational institute with a mission to protect the free expression of all faiths.”

Matt Rice, solicitor general for the State of Tennessee, spoke on the matter of church autonomy.

“The very process of requiring religious institutions to engage in litigation over matters of their faith doctrine and internal governance, itself, causes a constitutional harm under the religion clauses,” he said. “We think this court should recognize as much.”

In comments to Baptist Press, Blomberg noted the court sees the importance of this case.

“They had excellent questions and were taking this really seriously, which is a very good sign,” he said of the five-judge panel. “This is a very important issue. Judge [Sarah K.] Campbell mentioned other faith groups as well [that would be impacted].”

Sexual abuse claim made against Garner

In 2022, a report came through the SBC’s abuse hotline, which at the time was maintained by Guidepost Solutions, of a claim of sexual abuse 12 years earlier. The claimant, a woman whose identity has not been revealed, accused Garner, a longtime worship pastor and school music teacher, of abuse while he was on staff at a church.

A representative of the SBC Credentials Committee sent a letter Jan. 7, 2023, on behalf of the Credentials Committee to Everett Hills Baptist Church in Maryville, Tenn., where Garner had recently resigned as worship pastor.

That letter informed the church of the report and that there was “a concern” over Everett Hills’ relationship with the SBC. It further asked for a response from the church within 30 days. The Credentials Committee representative is also named in the suit.

Garner was employed by The King’s Academy, a Christian school, and in the process of taking a position with First Baptist Church in Concord, Tenn. He maintains the letter led to his losing his job at The King’s Academy and to First Baptist Concord’s withdrawing its offer of employment.

According to Annual Church Profile reports, Garner has served as worship/music minister at Black Oak Heights Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tenn., since September 2024.

Attorney Bryan McKenzie, representing Garner, said his client had “no claim” with The King’s Academy or Everett Hills Baptist Church, and so the case did not concern “internal religious affairs within those organizations.”

Questions over liability of the SBC

Campbell didn’t see how they also wouldn’t include the SBC.

“You’re asking us to discriminate based on a certain denomination’s decision about how to structure itself and how to structure its governance, and we can’t do that under U.S. Supreme Court precedent regarding the establishment clause.”

Baptist Press reached out to Garner’s attorneys for comment, receiving none.

Arguments for dismissal have centered on two points: (1) the church autonomy doctrine, which gives churches the right to make certain decisions free from government interference, and (2) protections through the Tennessee Public Participation Act, which provides protection against legal action “based on, relates to, or is in response to that party’s exercise of the right to free speech, right to petition, or right of association.”

The former speaks to the SBC’s religious nature. The latter addresses the Credentials Committee’s responsibility to establish contact with Everett Hills. Four amicus briefs, available at Becket, have been filed in support of the SBC’s position.

Supreme Court accepts SBC’s appeal

The Supreme Court accepted the SBC’s appeal to review the case last summer. In January 2024, a circuit court judge rejected both the SBC’s arguments for dismissal. One year ago today, an appeals court affirmed the circuit court’s decision regarding the autonomy doctrine but reversed the decision regarding the Tennessee Public Participation Act.

The Credentials Committee was repurposed in 2019 to consider questions regarding whether a church is deemed to be in “friendly cooperation” with the SBC. One of those criteria, as outlined in the SBC Constitution, is a church’s alignment with the convention’s beliefs regarding sexual abuse.

“The process did what it was supposed to do,” said Blomberg in the hearing. “Everett Hills did not have a policy in place to ensure that their ministers were complying with the religious beliefs of the Southern Baptist Convention, and now they do.”

A ruling from the Tennessee Supreme Court is expected in the next few months.

With additional reporting by Baptist Standard.

On Nov. 15, prior to the Texas Baptists Annual Meeting in Abilene, the Texas Baptists Evangelism team, Forgotten Ministries, Broadview Baptist Church, and other churches partnered together to evangelize three Abilene apartment complexes.

Forgotten Ministries is a ministry founded by Jeremiah Herrian, which exists to help churches “rediscover compassion, leave the building and bring the hope of Jesus to the homes that need him most.”

“Outside the comfort of four walls, there is an entire world in anguish, and the church must rediscover the compassion that moves believers to action,” Herrian said.

Since 2007, the ministry has accomplished this with their Grill Walk strategy.

The Grill Walk is a door-to-door evangelism strategy where volunteers are divided into groups of four: two grill cooks and two food preppers, and “as the grill moves down the street, groups stop at houses, knock on doors, and offer free hot dogs.”

This allows volunteers to share the gospel and their testimonies, pray with residents, and invite them to church.

Herrian “framed the day” by emphasizing compassion. He gave volunteers a “final charge” before beginning their Grill Walk in Abilene.

“People are more spiritually lost today, not because they reject Jesus, but because they’ve never truly heard about him,” Herrian said.

“Knock on every door. Offer a hot dog at every door. Share Jesus at every door.”

The Texas Baptists Evangelism team, along with 80 volunteers from nine different churches, delivered 710 bags of groceries, served 700 hot dogs, and provided 600 pairs of socks to families in need. Volunteers knocked on 630 doors, “praying with residents and offering encouragement.” The team saw 21 individuals surrender their lives to Jesus.

“I often ask churches across the state, ‘If your church ceased to exist, would your community miss you?’ God did not call us to just be a church in the community. He called us to be the community church,” said Oza Jones, Texas Baptists’ director of evangelism.

“The Grill Walk allowed us to saturate the community by serving and sharing. [It] helps us to mobilize the local church for maximum impact,” Jones said.

To learn more about Texas Baptists Evangelism and how it can resource your church, visit txb.org/evangelism.

Since the U.S. government’s Jan. 3 capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, many Latino evangelical Christian communities in the United States have been celebrating what they call a spiritual victory as well as a political one.

“God is using Donald Trump to liberate Venezuela from the 27-year-old chains of oppression,” said the Rev. José Durán, a Venezuelan immigrant in Michigan, voicing a view held by some, though not all, Latino evangelicals and referring to the time that Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, have led the country.

Durán, who was interviewed in Spanish, serves as pastor of a senior team of advisers of María Corina Machado, the Venezuela opposition leader who was awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize.

He’s also the executive director of Movimiento de Ciudad, an organization that supports urban ministry throughout Latin America.

Though Machado is a Catholic, her inner circle in the Vente Venezuela Party includes several evangelicals, who have taken up her charge that opposing Maduro is a “battle between good and evil.”

“We’re in agreement that we want the liberty of Venezuela from satanic communism, socialism,” Durán said.

But with Maduro’s successors increasing repression in the country and President Donald Trump insisting the U.S. will “run” Venezuela without calling immediate elections, the future of the country is uncertain.

Latino support a key role

The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, an evangelical adviser to President Trump and the president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, told RNS that U.S. Latinos’ support in the 2024 elections played a key role in the administration’s decision to remove Maduro from office and that Latino evangelicals will have a voice in the country’s future.

“ You combine the evangelical vote plus the Latino vote, and you get Nicólas Maduro in New York City in prison,” Rodriguez said. “That’s the result because we demanded that.”

Rodriguez said the NHCLC would be sending the Rev. Iván Delgado Glenn, the Colombian leader of the NHCLC’s new Latin America expansion, to Venezuela along with four other faith leaders to observe the leadership transition after Maduro’s arrest and how it “will impact the church.”

Rodriguez added that “appropriate governmental authorities stateside on our side” will ensure their safety.

He applauded Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s statement that the U.S. does not want to govern Venezuela and said the secretary wants to help the country transition to a “legitimate form” of democracy.

“The White House and the Trump administration have given the evangelical community more than an ear,” Rodriguez said, adding he’d met with Trump just before Christmas.

Rodriguez said, while evangelicals are not weighing in on specific tactics, such as the boat strikes near Venezuela that preceded the operation that removed Maduro, the administration is “ taking action based on what they hear from an evangelical community that really would like to advance an agenda of righteousness and justice, truth and love.”

Even before Maduro’s capture, the U.S. government had been applying pressure to effect regime change in Venezuela, particularly through sanctions. The Washington Post reported those sanctions contributed to an economic contraction in the country roughly three times as large as the one caused by the Great Depression in the United States.

Grassroots efforts during Maduro government

Marcos Velazco, a director of Vente Venezuela’s grassroots organizing who fled the country in August 2024, attributed reports of political prisoners and their Maduro-government torturers accepting Jesus to the presence of God, as well as his own escape from the country and his movement’s ability to connect with allies abroad.

“If something has been a true miracle, it’s how God has drawn our cause near to influential and important people, not just in the United States, I should say, but in the whole world,” Velazco said in Spanish via video.

Beyond praying with Machado’s team, Velazco said, Durán has been a key “architect” for making important connections.

“We have seen how faith has generated sufficient trust to defend the Venezuelan cause,” Velazco said, mentioning relationships with Rubio and Republican members of Congress such as U.S. Reps. Bill Huizenga of Michigan and Mario Díaz-Balart, Carlos Gimenez and María Elvira Salazar of Florida.

But Velazco said these victories have not come without pain.

As a result of his advocacy, he said, his father, who is not involved in the movement, was accused by the Maduro government of inciting hate, criminal association and terrorism.

He is being held as a political prisoner in a location unknown to his family and could face a sentence of up to 30 years, the Machado advisor said.

Velazco, 26, also said he became a key leader at such a young age because his boss was imprisoned and is now being held at El Helicoide Jail, where there have been reports of systematic torture.

Chávez and Maduro together have been “a regime that, from its position of power, has spiritually delivered the country to the forces of evil,” said Velazco.

Durán and Velazco both point to public accusations that Maduro has engaged in witchcraft and Santería, which Velazco said gives the president the feeling he is “spiritually protected while they slam civil society and while they dilute the structure of the free and democratic state.”

Durán said his group continues to count on God to act.

Machado allies are praying interim President Delcy Rodríguez and other prominent figures of the regime will be removed, and while he said he did not understand Trump’s approach to Rodríguez, “God is the one that removes and places kings.”

Machado has heaped praise on Trump publicly, even offering her Nobel Peace Prize to the president.

Velazco said the Trump administration “has done a fantastic job” with Maduro’s “Cartel de los Soles,” a slang term for corrupt government officials taking drug money.

Machado prays with her evangelical advisers, Durán said. “We’ve prayed, and she’s Catholic, but she cries like a person very sensitive to the Holy Spirit.”

Durán said Christians must influence society, though he said they should not be partisan.

“The church must be the church, and that’s the problem. The church has been locked away in thinking just about the spiritual, or that there’s a dichotomy between the secular and the spiritual. And that’s a plan from Satan,” he said.

Venezuelan evangelicals have heard God’s intentions for the country since the 1980s, said Durán. “We have heard prophetic words that God has a plan for Venezuela and that liberty for Venezuela is coming and a new Venezuela will be born.”

Durán, who had been ordained in the Foursquare Church, said he trained hundreds of Latinos for Billy Graham’s 2000 Nashville Crusade after he came to the U.S. Durán is now affiliated with the Reformed Church in America.

Rodriguez, the leader of the NHCLC, also said the church was “not done” in Latin America. He said the Venezuela policy is the beginning of a “domino effect” and called on the Trump administration to effect change in Nicaragua, Cuba, and Brazil, explaining he was calling for “geopolitical pressure,” not the same exact tactics because the other countries are “a different reality.”

He said a major policy goal of the NHCLC is to build “a multigenerational firewall against communism, socialism” in Latin America.

“ I want Christianity to thrive, and I do believe that a political apparatus that is counterintuitive to religious liberty serves as an impediment to Christianity expanding, to people coming to Christ as Lord and Savior,” he said.

Maduro’s capture “is not the period—it’s the comma,” Rodriguez said.

Support for capturing Maduro

The response from pastors within Venezuela has been more muted, reflecting a significant difference in views between those still living in the country and those who’ve joined the diaspora.

Almost two-thirds (64%) of Venezuelans living abroad support U.S. military intervention in the country, compared with only a third (34%) of those in Venezuela, according to an October AtlasIntel poll.

But the same poll found majorities of Venezuelans everywhere considered Maduro a dictator and said the country would be better off without him.

About 4 in 10 (41%) Venezuelan residents and 55% of those in the diaspora said they trusted Machado to lead a transition to democracy.

The Evangelical Council of Venezuela wrote in a statement the day of Maduro’s capture that its members were praying for their fellow citizens “that go through moments of uncertainty or fear” and for “the peace of the country and for a true and enduring transformation that honors the justice, the truth and the dignity of every citizen.”

The next day, the council announced a week of fasting and prayer for the nation.

On Sunday back in Orlando, the Rev. Gabriel Salguero, president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, the Venezuelan evangelical council’s U.S. counterpart, told his congregation at The Gathering that in Venezuela, “the last chapter has still not been written,” referencing “powerful forces” still in place.

“We have to pray,” alongside thousands of other churches in his network, he told them, “for the freedom of the Venezuelan people and for democracy that respects the self-determination of the people.”