MACON, GA -- January 29, 2007  Baptistnet (www.baptistnet.com), one of the original Baptist portals, has relaunched. This free service gathers a wide range of information in one place, making it fast and convenient for Baptist ministers and laypersons to stay informed. Baptistnet is a service of Smyth & Helwys Publishing.

Baptistnet provides news, ministry and faith-related articles, links to Baptist organizations and resources, and also scans the Internet for interesting stories, blogs and other sites that are of interest to Baptists. A sidebar on the homepage provides direct access to news stories from Associated Baptist Press, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, and the Baptist World Alliance.

The new Baptistnet is powered by Caleb's Cafe (calebscafe.com), an online service designed to help committees, staff teams, classes and other church groups stay connected and get more done. For users who already have a Caleb's Cafe login, the same login also works for Baptistnet. Logging into Baptistnet gives you quick access to all your Caleb's Cafe groups and Church Alerts (coming soon), as well as the ability to participate in Caleb's Cafe-based discussion groups.

Baptistnet is one of the oldest Baptist portals on the Internet, having begun in August of 1997. Initially, the service was part of the ecumenical online community Ecunet through a monthly subscription. Later Baptistnet moved to the Internet, offering links to Baptist organizations, resources and even special content, such as sermons and studies for Baptist Heritage Sunday. As Yahoo and Google made link-based portals less helpful, Baptistnet went dormant. The new Baptistnet focuses heavily on content and community, helping bring interesting stories, blog entries, resources and events to the attention of Baptists around the world.

Baptistnet and Caleb's Cafe are services of Smyth & Helwys Publishing, Inc. Smyth & Helwys continues its tradition of bringing innovative online resources to churches. Current online resources include: NextSunday.com, NextSundayGallery.com, Smyth & Helwys Premium, Smyth & Helwys Worship, Learning Matters Magazine, Caleb's Cafe and Baptistnet.

Contact information:
Smyth & Helwys
6316 Peake Road
Macon, GA 31210
info@baptistnet.com
www.baptistnet.com