ACTS 2:17 INITIATIVE REPORT APPROVED BY BOARD

NASHVILLE — The Acts 2:17 Initiative is back where it started: In the hands of Tennessee Baptists.

The overarching structure of the Initiative — including its order of priorities and early-stage implementation plan — was approved by directors of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board on Tuesday, Sept. 10, during the board of directors meeting at Forest Hills Baptist Church in Nashville.

The Initiative, which has been anchored by “grassroots input” since its inception, will next be presented to messengers for approval at The Summit (the Tennessee Baptist Convention’s annual meeting) in November.

Randy C. Davis, president and executive director of the TBMB, said, “I believe we have heard from God and we’ve heard from Tennessee Baptists. We’ve been given an opportunity for a clear direction to see the foster-care crisis resolved in our state, to see parents discipling their own children, to see pastors encouraged and so many other things about the Acts 2:17 Initiative that are impactful.

“It is a wonderful dream to dream,” added Davis, who had previously said he believes the Initiative could “become the most consequential process in the Tennessee Baptist Convention’s history.”

Also during Tuesday’s meeting, the TBMB directors voted to propose a Cooperative Program budget of $35 million for 2024-25 and approved potential changes to the allocation of CP funds. (See story HERE). Both the budget and the proposed changes will be presented to messengers in November.

TBC president Jay Hardwick, senior pastor of Forest Hills, served as chair for the Acts 2:17 Vision Team. He provided the “report and recommendation” for the Initiative at Tuesday’s meeting, presenting the board with the opportunity to adopt “the foundational blueprint for the Convention ministry for the foreseeable future.”

The parameters of the Initiative, as detailed in the report, were developed through a series of listening sessions, surveys, workgroups and other forums that have taken place since the Initiative was introduced to messengers for the first time at the 2022 Summit.

The report also included an “expression of great appreciation to the more than 1,000 grassroots Tennessee Baptists and over 500 pastors and ministry leaders who provided input to the process, (along with) the 15 Vision Team members, and the 103 workgroup members, all of whom utilized their skills, knowledge and passion for the gospel to produce this final report.”

Board members had access to an outline of the Initiative, including reports from the workgroups and listening sessions, along with a detailed breakdown of the Steering Team and Workgroup’s vision, priorities and overall plan, followed by a summary of the potential financial impact of the Initiative.

“It’s been a joy to be a part of this envisioning process,” said Hardwick. “It was really an effort to determine and seek, as best as we could, God’s vision for our collaborative work as Tennessee Baptists. (We wanted to) really hear how God is speaking to and how God is leading Tennessee Baptists. It was intended to be — and I believe, in practice and reality, it was — a true grassroots effort.”

The next step, Hardwick said, was figuring out how to “put language to” the Initiative and then develop a strategic plan to start the “implementable steps.”

Davis said trying to summarize the entire Initiative in a short window of time was a difficult challenge, but said the main focus revolves around six keys words: “Gospel leaders, evangelistic disciples and healthy churches,” said Davis.

Hardwick noted that the overall vision of the Acts 2:17 Initiative is “a collaborative network of spiritually healthy churches reaching Tennessee and beyond for Christ.”

The priorities of the Initiative include ensuring that:

• Every pastor is connected and supported for healthy ministry;
• Every (church) member has an active plan for spiritual maturity;
• Every child has a home and a gospel foundation;
• Every parent has a biblical vision for their family;
• Every church has a growing leaders who are called to ministry;
• Every community has effective, multiplying churches
• Until Every Tennessean hears the gospel.

The Initiative will focus heavily on the pastoral pipeline — an area that has become of great concern to TBC leaders in the past 10 years.

Hardwick addressed this issue, saying, “Imagine the seeds that could be planted with exponentially more gospel leaders, evangelistic disciples and healthy churches (working) together to reach Tennessee and beyond for Christ.”

Davis said the future direction of the Tennessee Baptist Convention will ultimately be determined by unity — or the lack of it.

“If an impactful day for a new God-sized direction is to happen, it can only happen with a collective ‘yes’ on the altar of absolute surrender by all Tennessee Baptists,” he said.

He said leaders and non-leaders alike must join together if the TBC is to “go on this journey of our sons and daughters prophesying and our young men seeing visions and our old men dreaming dreams.”

Although Davis said he obviously does not know exactly how the coming days will unfold, there is at least one aspect that he has complete certainty.

“One thing I know is that I have never been more honored or had more joy on this journey with you than I do right now.”

In other business on Tuesday:

New chair-elect: Scott Andrews, minister of worship and senior adults at First Baptist Church, Sevierville, was elected chair-elect. Andrews, who was not present for the meeting because he was on a mission trip to Brazil, was nominated by Glenn Metts, pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church, Seymour.

Metts noted that Andrews sings in the Tennessee Men’s Chorale and has led 40 international mission trips. “He has a great love for missions and for Tennessee Baptists,” Metts affirmed.

Andrews was unopposed for the office. He will serve as chair of the Administrative Committee next year and assume the presidency following the 2025 annual meeting. Current chair-elect Fred Shackelford, pastor of Ellendale Baptist Church in Bartlett, will assume the chair in November following the annual meeting. He will succeed chair Jeff Bowden of First Baptist Church, Lenoir City.

Celebrating CP: Board members approved a motion to recommend to messengers at The Summit in November to affirm a resolution commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Cooperative Program in 2025. The resolution notes that the Cooperative Program was adopted as a unified giving plan at the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Memphis in 1925 and that during the past 100 years, Tennessee Baptist churches have given almost $1.5 million through the Cooperative Program.

The resolution calls on Tennessee Baptists to “affirm the Cooperative Program as our primary means of funding our Great Commission cooperation at home and abroad” and “to commit to continue standing on the shoulders of those who have come before us to continue giving through the Cooperative Program.

Mission and Ministries: Board members also approved a motion from the Missions and Ministries Committee to recommend that messengers to the 2024 annual meeting approve a recommendation that the convention enter into a volunteer missions partnership with Bonn Bible Seminary in Germany for four years, beginning Jan. 1, 2026 and ending Dec. 31, 2028 with 2025 as a planning year.

Mission:Dignity: In 2022-23 the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board approved funds to provide a 13th check to Mission:Dignity recipients through GuidesSone Financial Services. Mission:Dignity is a ministry that provides a small stipend each month to retired pastors and their wives. Board chair Fred Shackelford reported that the GOTM administrative team has allocated a total of $100,000 from the GOTM Reserve Fund for the distribution of Mission:Dignity 13th-checks to Tennessee recipients in 2024 and 2025. The 13th check is a tremendous blessing to the recipients, Shackelford said. Board members were asked to take a gift bag to Mission:Dignity recipients in their area. “You will be blessed as much as the recipients,” Shackelford said.

In other actions:

• The board heard reports from Randy C, Davis, president and executive director of the TBMB, and convention president Jay Hardwick along with several TBC entity leaders as well as reports on the Golden Offering for Tennessee Missions and BlueOval City,
• Board members approved several amendments to the TBMB Bylaws and Directors’ Organizational Manual.

• The board was scheduled to act on a motion from last year to create a task force to review the wording for disfellowshipping churches in the Tennessee Baptist Convention, but Steve Tiebout, pastor of The River Church in Cookeville, who presented the motion last year, withdrew the motion. B&R — Lonnie Wilkey, editor of the B&R, contributed to this story.