Washington, DC – July 4, 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. As Southern Baptists, we are first citizens of God’s Kingdom—and that shapes everything about how we live as Americans.
We have created resources and reflections for your church and community to use as we celebrate our nation’s semiquincentennial.
Check out the following resources we’ve created to commemorate America’s 250th:
📑 Church Guides: Our church guides, “Dual Citizens” and “The Nations Belong to God,” were written to help pastors think through a biblical view of political and civic engagement. Get your free church guides here. Sample copies of the Church Guides are available for preview at our UISBC office in Draper. Please call and let us know you would like to see the guides and we will make them available to you. Our office hours in Draper are Monday through Thursday, 9-4.
🗽 Religious Liberty Sunday Bulletin Insert: July 5, 2026 is Religious Liberty Sunday. As you reflect on Baptists’ dedication to religious liberty for the sake of the Great Commission, these free bulletin inserts and graphics are available for your church. Download your bulletin inserts and social graphics here.
🙏 Prayer Guide for America: The most important thing we can do during this commemorative time is pray for the Lord’s mercy on every aspect of our country. Download your free prayer guide here. Seven-day and 30-day versions available.
Canfield Mountain in Coeur d’Alene is a popular hiking area for residents and visitors. Photo courtesy of Jeremy Scott.
Posted By Baptist Press on July 3, 2025 @ 1:54 pm. Used by permission.
COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho (BP) – After finishing up Sunday morning services as pastor at Freedom Fellowship Church on June 29, Jeremy Scott and his wife, Jennifer, left town for a well-deserved trip to a cabin near the Canadian border to celebrate their 28th anniversary. On their way, they noticed several police cars headed back toward town.
Most of the remaining two and a half hour drive provided no cell service. They learned, after connecting to the cabin’s Wi-Fi, that someone had started a fire in a popular hiking area of Coeur d’Alene, then shot at responding firefighters, killing two. Residents were in lockdown as the police hunted the shooter.
Kootenai County firefighters carry the bodies of Battalion Chiefs’ John Morrison and Frank Harwood on Tuesday morning, July 1. Photo Kootenai County Fire & Rescue/Facebook.
The event took place a couple of miles from the church, and only a mile from the Scotts’ home. They turned around and headed back that night.
Coeur d’Alene is a resort town where nothing bad happens, Jeremy Scott told BP. Such an event shocked the area.
“The safety and innocence we felt here is kind of gone now,” he said. “If something like this can happen here, it can happen anywhere.”
In addition to the two fatalities, a third firefighter is recovering from gunshot wounds. The Kootenai County sheriff told reporters the shooter set the fire to lure firefighters in, then climbed a tree with a shotgun. Law enforcement exchanged gunfire with him before finding the 20-year-old dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound later in the evening. The fire was eventually brought under control.
The Scotts have two sons. One lives out of the house and was at work while the younger one, 17 years old, was at home.
Jeremy Scott is part of a group of pastors who meet monthly. Their role will be crucial, he said, in helping the community recover in the coming weeks.
Seen as a sanctuary
“I’m not sure people have really begun to express how they’re struggling,” said Scott, whose M.Div. from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary included a concentration in Biblical Counseling. “I’ve reached out to other pastor friends to let them know I’m praying for them. I know many of us will be speaking on the tragedy this Sunday from the pulpit and many will be counseling their people, as I’m going to be. But, we have yet to see the long-term impact.”
Scott was 4 years old when his family moved to the area in 1979 from California. He is in his eighth year as pastor of Freedom Fellowship.
“There is a strong commitment to the family here,” he said. “I’m encouraged by the pastors I meet with each month. That’s across denominations, but we come together for fellowship and to pray for each other. There’s just something unique about it, just like northern Idaho and how people around here see it as a sanctuary.”
Availability will be an important role for pastors and churches as the community continues to heal, he added. Freedom Fellowship has opened its doors for those wanting counseling.
“We have to be equipped and ready, as 1 Peter 3:15 tells us, to give a defense for the hope that we have in Jesus Christ,” Scott said. “I can’t tell you why [the shooter] did what he did. But I can tell you that this is one more story of the greater story, which is the fall of man and the wages of eternal death for sin.
“But we can also say there is peace and hope in Christ. He’s in control. He’s the one who gives real hope that cannot be taken away, even in the face of suffering. We are called, as the Church, to bring the reminder that even in death, hope cannot be taken away.”
About the Author
Scott Barkley is chief national correspondent for Baptist Press. Permission granted by Baptist Press to reprint article in UI Connections.
by Katie Coleman Reprinted from Southwestern News, November 9, 2021
FT WORTH, Texas – During a fall mission trip to the Intermountain West, a team of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary students ministered to Christians serving throughout Utah and southwest Idaho, traveling more than 1,600 miles to visit with 34 Christian leaders and their families, October 2-9.
Travis Kerns, associate professor of apologetics and world religions, led the trip. Describing Utah as the most “un-Christian” state in America, he said short-term mission trips to a state with a majority Mormon population are not conducive for “parachute evangelism,” and often do more harm to the relationships and ministry of long-term leaders and missionaries to the area.
Kerns, who previously served as a Salt Lake City Send City missionary with the North American Mission Board, further explained that many pastors in the area not only struggle to receive acceptance from a community generally skeptical of “outsiders,” but often battle discouragement and loneliness as some are many miles away from the nearest Christian pastor.
In light of this, Kerns said encouragement and spiritual investment from other Christians such as the Southwestern Seminary team are essential to investing in Kingdom work in Utah and southwest Idaho.
Additionally, Kerns said, one of the objectives of the trip was for students to step out of their usual context and to experience the “spiritual warfare” that happens elsewhere and “to get a sense of what it’s like doing evangelism and missions in a minority Christian culture, to get a sense of what it’s like living there as a believer, and the ostracization that happens.”
Master of Theological Studies student Sarah Wester from Princeton, Indiana, has lived in a variety of American cities and has served on multiple international mission trips, but described her experience in Utah as “being in the belly of the beast when it comes to the spiritual oppression.”
As the team met with ministry leaders, Wester said she was particularly struck by how quickly emotions surfaced during their conversations and how they expressed gratitude for having trusted believers with whom they could share their burdens and receive encouragement.
“It became so clear the desperate need for encouragement and fellowship, and for them to feel like they weren’t alone,” Wester said.
For Master of Arts student Brittany Barfield from Tucson, Arizona, the trip made evident the need for discipleship alongside evangelism.
“I think it is an outflow of discipleship that sharing the Gospel comes,” Barfield said. “You cannot have evangelism without discipleship. If we are not making strong disciples, there will be no evangelism.”
Barfield said she was glad to have the opportunity to edify fellow believers as they seek to minister in Utah and southwest Idaho. This type of trip, she said, is a way Christians can support and invest in already existing ministry and work.
“If believers that are there on the ground right now are not being encouraged in any way, they’re going to burn out,” Barfield said.
Kerns said he hopes to lead similar trips to Utah at least once a year and noted the need for faithful Christians to commit their lives to reach the people of Utah with the Gospel, and to support the missionaries and pastors serving in that region. Utah, Kerns added, has an average daily death rate of 54 people, with 53 of those who die without knowing Christ.
“So, the real question about ministry work in Utah is not, ‘why should I go there,’” Kerns said, “but ‘why should I not go there?’”
Republished from TVSBA Newsletter: The Focus (November-December 2021)
MERIDIAN, ID- Some think being a part of the SBC is like selecting a political party of which to be a part. The thinking being, if they change course I will leave them.
While that may be fine for politics, for Kingdom purposes, we have a much higher standard.
This writer has never been under the misguided notion that Southern Baptists are perfect. And, boy we aren’t. I am Southern Baptist because of calling. Just as I have been called to the ministry, I am called to be a Southern Baptist. The basis of that call is the evangelistic and missions priorities of the SBC. These are in accord with the Great Commission and the Great Commandment. These priorities have not changed.
When Israel came to the edge of the promised land, they chose heresy and cowardice over the revealed will of God. Joshua, Caleb, etc. didn’t leave because of this chosen heresy. They went with them through four decades of wilderness journey preparing the new generations for entering the promised land with a new heart that God would give them the promised land as He had promised.
Years ago I was in Virginia when a young leader spoke with me about their idea of forming another Virginia State Convention. I spoke to him of Israel’s failure to take the promised land. He said that I had a strong allegory. I informed him it wasn’t an allegory, rather, a strong application.
My reasons for being a Southern Baptist have not changed. The priorities which are the basis of my call to be a Southern Baptist have not changed. Will I reject God’s call on my life and ministry be-cause of the errors of some vocal detractors of the main call? May it never be. With Ronnie Floyd resigning as President of the SBC Executive Committee, some will say he has left Southern Baptists. He has not. He left the Executive Committee.
Keep your eye on the goal. The evangelistic and missional priorities have not changed. Until they do, God has called me to be a Southern Baptist. My job now, again, is preparing new generations for a new promised land victory in faithful obedience. Be sure you don’t jump ship in rejection of God’s promised land call and command. Wilderness journeys are not fun. However, they are certain because many among us will bail out on the promised land assignment because of someone else’s heresy. Therefore, prepare your heart and ministry to prepare the coming generations for promised land victories. And, keep living His call personally and corporately.
Jerry Martin An old Southern Baptist by God’s call and my choice of obedience to His call. Jerry recently retired as our Sharing Christ Missionary for UISBC yet still coordinates our Prayer Network. You can contact him at: geezer.martin@gmail.com
Washington, DC – July 4, 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. As Southern Baptists, we are first citizens of God’s Kingdom—and that shapes everything about how we live as Americans. 
