Approximately 100 Tennessee BCM students and leaders recently attended Collegiate Week. Tennessee Baptist collegiate ministry specialists on the trip included Stacy Murphree, Austin Peay State University; Mark Whitt and Shelby Hall, Middle Tennessee State University; Ben Maddox, Tennessee Tech; Jeff Jones and Ashlyn Trice, University of Memphis; Grace Jones, Cleveland State Community College and Morgan Owen, University of Tennessee, Martin.

DAVIS, Okla. — Days before the start of a new school year, more than 1,730 college students and leaders gathered at Falls Creek Conference Center in Davis, Okla., to learn how to live on mission and become passionate followers of Jesus. 

Groups from across North America — including Alaska, Hawaii, and Canada — gathered with International Mission Board (IMB) and North American Mission Board (NAMB) personnel for the five-day August event that included worship, teaching and fellowship. 

State convention collegiate ministry leaders partnered to plan and produce the event, which saw its largest post-Covid attendance this year.

Pastor Arjay Gruspe, of Pawa’a Community Church in Honolulu, also serves as the state director of Next Generation Ministries for the Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention and was a member of the event planning team. This year, he brought eight others from Hawaii, including four students, to “challenge them to be countercultural in the way they live and approach life on their campuses.” [Read more…]

Louisiana Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers repair the roof of a church that sustained damage in Hurricane Francine. — Submitted photo / Baptist Press

MOUNT JULIET — A disaster relief team from Forest Hills Baptist Church in Nashville, led by Steve Brock, will leave Sunday, Sept. 15, for Morgan City, La., and work next week to assist in the aftermath of Hurricane Francine.

The hurricane hit the Louisiana coast in Terrebonne Parish, with Morgan City facing particularly bad damage on Sept. 11.

Baptist Press reported that thousands were without power in Louisiana on Sept. 13 and some residents face structural damage, downed trees and flooding. [Read more…]

Byron Ash, pastor of Cowpunchers Cowboy Church in Shelbyville, back row with cowboy hat, recently baptized an entire family of new believers, the Wagners. They family now regularly attends the church, driving roughly 100 miles roundtrip to be at Cowpunchers each week.

SHELBYVILLE — As pastor of a cowboy church, Byron Ash has a strict rule: No poaching allowed. 

That’s not in reference to cattle or horses, but to church members.

“If someone in our church has a friend who is already a member of another church, I tell them NOT to invite them to our place,” said Ash, pastor of Cowpunchers Cowboy Church in Shelbyville. “In fact, I get mad if they do. We’re not here to take members away from other churches. We’re not rustlers. Our goal is to reach the unchurched.” 

That simple objective is being achieved each and every Sunday at Cowpunchers, which started ten years ago with four adults and five kids in a small meeting space and has now grown into a thriving church that ranks among the top churches in the state in baptisms. Along the way, they’ve helped plant four other cowboy churches. 

“There’s no way to explain what’s happened here other than to say it’s all Him,” said Ash. “It’s not me. It’s not our staff. It’s all Him. Jesus has allowed us to be used, there’s no other way to put it.” [Read more…]

Campers at Linden Valley Conference Center take a raft ride down the Buffalo River. The two Baptist Conference Centers, Linden Valley and Carson Springs, combined to host more than 5,600 guests this summer and attendance records were broken.

FRANKLIN — More than 250 individuals accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior during summer camps held at Tennessee Baptists’ two conference centers at Carson Springs Baptist in Newport and Linden Valley in Linden.

The summer of 2024 has been the largest in attendance in Carson Springs history, affirmed Kevin Perrigan, manager of Carson Springs Baptist Conference Center.

Carson Springs reported 2,971 guests from more than 60 different churches with 106 salvation decisions from six kids camps; seven youth camps, eight college/adult groups, and a one-day event.  [Read more…]