Telling the Story of Tennessee Baptists Since 1835
By LifeWay news office
NASHVILLE — Protestant pastors overwhelmingly agree humanity has a God-given duty to care for animals.
They just don’t mention it much from the pulpit.
In a survey of 1,000 Protestant pastors, sponsored by Every Living Thing, a national campaign for the Evangelical Statement on Responsible Care for Animals, LifeWay Research finds a distance between pastors’ beliefs about animal welfare and their church activities. [Read more…]
A panel of R. Albert Mohler Jr., Denny Burk, James M. Hamilton Jr., and Owen Strachen discuss the transgender movement during the ACBC/CBMW preconference, Oct. 5.
– SBTS photo by Emil Handke
By Baptist Press
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP) — The transgender movement presents an unprecedented theological and cultural crisis for the church, said Southern Baptist scholars at an Oct. 5 pre-conference event, “Transgender: Transgender confusion and transformational Christianity,” at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
The preconference preceded the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC) annual conference, which is being held at the seminary Oct. 5-7 in Louisville, Ky. The preconference, co-sponsored by ACBC and the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW), is believed to be the first time evangelicals have held such an event to discuss the transgender movement.
“We have underestimated the challenge that we’re facing, and we have underestimated it in ways that betray the fact that the lessons of church history are so quickly forgotten,” said Southern Seminary president R. Albert Mohler Jr. “The challenge that is now presented us by this comprehensive moral revolution taking place around us is tantamount for the kind of theological challenge that the church faced in the Trinitarian and Christological controversies of the first [few] centuries.” [Read more…]
By David Evans
TBC Evangelism Specialist
David Evans
Steve Parr and Tom Crites surveyed around 1,200 Millennials to find out why they continue to attend church. Out of the 15 factors that they identified, one was viewing their pastor in a loving manner. They found that the children/youth that viewed with affection their pastor were 70 percent more likely to attend church as a young adult as compared to those that did not appreciate the pastor. [Read more…]
Renae Adelsberger
By Renae Adelsberger
Freelance Writer in Jackson
Fall has arrived, bringing with it football on all levels. We’re an NFL household, fans of the Minnesota Vikings. As I wrote these words a few weeks ago, I was wearing a purple Vikings scarf to work to celebrate the fact that we are driving to Nashville that evening to watch the Vikings play the Titans in a preseason game. I also packed a change of clothes for the game and had to decide which of my two Vikings jerseys to wear. On social media, I not only follow the team, but also the individual players. Put it all together and you get a pretty good idea of how much I enjoy the Vikings.
But that wasn’t always the case for me. I grew up in a sports neutral family. To be embrassingly honest, football was that activity on the field I endured until halftime. That’s when the marching band took the field. I went to almost every game to watch my brother march for four years until it was finally my turn.
In college, I started to date Kevin (my husband). As dating got “serious,” I realized that football had the potential of igniting a lifetime supply of arguments because I could care less about grown men chasing after an oblong ball.
As we entered premarital counseling, we read all the standard passages and books, many based on Ephesians 5. I spent time with married women who complained when football season began. And I spent time with married women who loved the sport as much as their husbands. I decided I needed to be the latter in order to look forward to the fall season rather than dread it.
So while we dated, I asked Kevin to explain different plays to me. He loved teaching me and I loved his enthusiasm and knowledge. I made a conscious decision to love the Vikings and the NFL.
Marriage involves daily concessions to each other’s preferences. But each decision should be one that brings you together, not drives you apart. My close friend refuses to watch her boyfriend’s favorite television show because she considers it “nerdy.” Her stubborn refusal has created an unnecessary division in their relationship. She is missing an opportunity to deepen their intimacy by diving into something he loves in order to love it with him.
In my modest four years of marriage, I’ve learned that this partnership called marriage wasn’t designed by God in order for me to have “my” things and Kevin to have “his.” We’re a team. And though we don’t do everything together, we make a point to find hobbies and interests in common so that we don’t spend unnecessary time apart.
— Adelberger is a freelance writer and member of First Baptist Church, Jackson. Visit her website at pedestriangod.com.
Mark Wingfield
By Mark Wingfield
Associate Pastor, Wilshire Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas
One of the hardest jobs in a church these days is that of youth minister.
Not just because the schedule of activities can be grueling or the work can be physically demanding. The reason, instead, is ever-increasing demands placed on churches and pastors for what youth ministry should look like and feel like.
The days of the one-size-fits-all, “y’all come” youth ministry I knew as a teenager in the 1970s are long gone, especially in urban areas where youth and their families have lots of choices. [Read more…]
LifeWay news office
NASHVILLE — Pastors believe not all divorces are created equal, but for many Americans any reason is as good as another according to new research from LifeWay Research.
“Pastors make a distinction about the rightness of a divorce based on the reasons behind it,” says Scott McConnell, LifeWay Research vice president. “They want to account for the parts of Scripture that speak of possible rationales.”
However, Americans view virtually all reasons for ending a marriage in the same moral light. [Read more…]
Kent Hightower, pastor of the Circle C Cowboy Church, Morristown, preaches at the church recently. The church is featured in a video about the 2015 Golden Offering for Tennessee Missions. Attending the service on horseback are members of the church’s drill team.
By Connie Davis Bushey
News Editor, Baptist and Reflector
MORRISTOWN — “Cowboy Church is not your traditional church,” said Kent Hightower, church planter/pastor of the Circle C Cowboy Church here, on a video produced by the Tennessee Baptist Convention.
Folks connect with the church “because Cowboy Church is simple church. We use a simple message.
“We proclaim Christ and we make it easy for folks to understand,” the pastor added. [Read more…]
Experts say Baby Boomers want their retirement years to be filled with meaningful activities — and that churches should help them achieve that goal. — Creative Commons photo by Bill Stanley
By Jeff Brumley
Associated Baptist Press
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Congregational coaches are warning churches against becoming so fixated on Millennials and other young people that they ignore the surging population of Baby Boomers already in their midst.
But those experts say most congregations simply aren’t ready to listen to that advice, especially when reaching out to potential members in their 50s, 60s, and 70s doesn’t seem as exciting as ministering to younger generations. [Read more…]
By LifeWay Research
Most Americans believe they are seeing an epidemic in the United States of people taking their own lives.
But most Americans don’t view suicide as a selfish choice, and they don’t believe it sends people to hell, LifeWay Research finds.
“Americans are responding with compassion to a tragedy that touches many families,” said Scott McConnell, LifeWay Research vice president. “For example, as researchers learn more about the effects of mental illness, people may be more likely to react to suicide with mercy.”
In a phone survey of 1,000 Americans, LifeWay Research found more than a third (36 percent) have had a friend or relative commit suicide, and 56 percent describe suicide as an epidemic in the United States. [Read more…]
By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
Editor’s Note: See opinion columns in the next several days on the topic of physician assisted suicide or death with dignity.
NASHVILLE — The issue of physician assisted suicide (PAS) or death with dignity has surfaced in Tennessee.
Earlier this year a bill which would have allowed doctors to prescribe life-ending drugs when requested by terminally ill patients failed to be acted upon by the Tennessee General Assembly.
In May, however, well-known Tennessee lawyer and politician John Jay Hooker filed a lawsuit challenging state law that makes it a felony to assist in a suicide, according to a report in The Tennessean on July 10. The Associate Press reported that the 84-year-old former candidate for governor of Tennessee has terminal cancer. [Read more…]
