Supreme Court Rulings, SBC Reports, & Church Planting in San Diego

The Supreme Court did not release rulings on three cases Monday that Baptist Press is closely following.

The high court did not rule on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health organization, the case arguing the outlaw of abortion based on the number of weeks of fetal gestation that could overturn Roe v. Wade and the 1992 Casey v. Planned Parenthood cases that legalized abortion.
They also did not issue their ruling on Carson v. Makin, Maine… a school-choice case.

Nor did they rule on Kennedy v. Bremerton School District…a case where high school football coach Joseph Kennedy says the school district violate his first amendment rights by restricting his ability to pray at midfield following the conclusion of games.

The court is set to release rulings again on Wednesday. They traditionally release rulings through the month of June.

The Southern Baptist Convention is underway in Anaheim, California. Messengers from thousands of the convention’s 47,000 churches will be meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday to hear reports on missions, church planting, the convention’s seminary and other entities.

A new president, 1st vice president, 2nd vice president and recording secretary of the SBC will also be elected.

Most are watching, though, to see how messengers will react to a 288-page report on the alleged mishandling of sexual abuse claims with the SBC Executive Committee.

Last year a task force was set up by President Ed Litton to hire a third-party investigation firm to look into the claims.

The task force is bringing recommendations to messengers after the months-long investigation on ways they can better track pastors and church leaders who are ‘credibly accused’ of sexually abusing those in their church, provide funding to care for survivors of sexual abuse and take preventative steps to drive out sexual abuse in the local church.

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San Diego calls itself America’s Finest City. While the beauty is indeed inspiring, the need for the Gospel of Jesus Christ is also breathtaking. More than 3.3 million people call San Diego home and, according to recent studies, more than 86% of them do not have a relationship with Jesus Christ.

In fact, if every Southern Baptist church in the San Diego area were to reach those far from God in the area…each church would need to reach more 16,000 people.

Mark and Shannon Finnigan are looking to reverse the trend in San Diego. They’re church planters with Life Point Church in Oceanside, California. While they’re seeing God make an impact through their work, they say there’s a need for more churches and church planters. To learn about the first steps in church planting, visit NAMB.net.

You can find the full story at our website, Baptist Press.com.