Featured Archives - Page 161 of 219

A LOVE FOR CAMPING MINISTRY

December 28, 2018

TBMB retiree Tim Bearden excitedly prepares for the ‘next chapter’ of his life

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
lwilkey@tnbaptist.org

Tim and Carol Bearden stand outside the new worship center at Linden Valley Baptist Conference Center in Linden. Bearden is retiring Dec. 31 after 14 years as senior manager of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board’s two conference centers and 23 years on the TBMB staff.
— Photo by Kazeray Campbell

LINDEN — Longtime Tennessee Baptist Mission Board staff member Tim Bearden has had a love for Christian camps since his early childhood in Georgia, growing up in a preacher’s home.

“There never was a time in my life that I did not know the love of God because of loving parents,” recalled Bearden, who is retiring Dec. 31 after nearly 40 years in denominational ministry.

Bearden has held several roles since joining the TBMB staff in 1995. Most recently he has served as senior manager of the two Tennessee Baptist Conference Centers — Linden Valley in Linden and Carson Springs in Newport. [Read more…]

RETIRED TBMB STAFFER PAUL CLARK DIES

December 26, 2018

Baptist and Reflector

Paul Clark served on the TBMB staff from 2000 until his retirement in 2016.

BRENTWOOD – Paul Clark Jr., retired director of worship and music ministries for the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, died Dec. 24 after a long illness.

Clark served on the TBMB staff from 2000 until his retirement in 2016 after suffering a stroke in November of 2015. During his tenure with the TBMB, Clark directed both the Tennessee Men’s Chorale and the Tennessee Ladies Chorus. He also served for 26 years as a local church music minister for churches in Missouri, Kentucky, Kansas, Tennessee and Georgia. [Read more…]

SMALL CHURCH, GENEROUS HEART

December 26, 2018

FBC, Andersonville, supports both CP and a missionary couple

Each year, First Baptist Church,Andersonville, holds a missions market to raise enough money for the International Mission Board to fund one missionary couple for a year. Church members make and sell things like baked goods, knitted items and household decorations. They also auction off services like mowing lawns or cleaning windows. — IMB photo

Editor’s Note: Churches all across Tennessee and around the nation are in the process of collecting the annual Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions. Read how a Tennessee church meets the needs of a missionary couple while continuing to give more than 10 percent of its undesignated receipts through the Cooperative Program.

Baptist Press

ANDERSONVILLE — A Tennessee Baptist church is proving that missions giving can be both/and, not either/or.

For the past several years, First Baptist Church, Andersonville, has taken on the challenge of supporting a missionary couple at the cost of $90,000 each year. [Read more…]

REMEMBERING THE LORD OUR GOD IN 2018

December 23, 2018

By Randy C. Davis
TBMB President & Executive Director

You may be overrun with Christmas activities and see a busy 2019 blowing in like a thunderstorm racing across a Kansas prairie. Last minute gifts, parties, travel to be with loved ones, and on it goes. We get to this point of the year and it seems we try to squeeze about six months of activity through the funnel of a couple weeks. We seldom slow down or stop long enough to remember. [Read more…]

‘COME AS YOU ARE’ APPROACH HELPS CHURCH CONNECT WITH COMMUNITY

December 21, 2018

By David Dawson
Baptist and Reflector
ddawson@tnbaptist.org

Bert Spann has helped lead First Baptist Church, Hohenwald, to a new era of evangelism and outreach.

HOHENWALD — Since his arrival at First Baptist Church, Hohenwald, roughly five years ago, pastor Bert Spann said he has seen the church undergo a change in culture.

And it started with a change of clothes.

Before Spann’s arrival, FBC had essentially been operating as a white-collar church in the heart of a blue-collar town. But over the past half decade, the church has become more focused on finding ways to connect with the community — and the results have been seen, week after week, in the baptismal pool. [Read more…]

CHRISTMAS BACKPACKS IMPACT TN FAMILIES

December 20, 2018

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
lwilkey@tnbaptist.org

Terry Robinson, left, and Tom Nelson of Roan Creek Baptist Church prepare to take a load of backpacks to a local school.

FRANKLIN — Children living in the Appalachian area of Tennessee have been beneficiaries of the Christmas Backpack Ministry for several years, most of which have been donated from outside the state itself.

The Christmas Backpack Ministry has evolved over the years since 2001 when some Girls in Action (GAs) in Georgia decided they wanted to do something special for children living in the Appalachian region of the United States. [Read more…]

GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN

December 18, 2018

Churches reach community, keep focus on Jesus during Christmas

By David Dawson
Baptist and Reflector
ddawson@tnbaptist.org

The manger scene depicting the birth of Jesus is performed during “The Life of Christ Christmas Drive-Thru” at Brush Creek Baptist Church.
— Photo by James Wilson

FRANKLIN — Keeping Christ at the center of Christmas is a challenge that seems to get tougher each year.

Fortunately, many churches around the country, including a large number of churches in Tennessee, are doing their part to guard against the secularization of the season.

Whether it’s hosting one of the traditional Christmas productions — such as live nativity scenes, children’s musicals, candlelight services and Christmas cantatas — or perhaps branching out in a new direction, the objective is the same: Ensuring that the birth of Christ remains the focus of the holidays. [Read more…]

SHARING “GOD’S LOVE FROM A DIAPER BAG”

December 14, 2018

By Trennis Henderson
WMU National Correspondent

Bessie McPeek speaks to the gathering.

JENKINS, Ky. — Bessie and Lester McPeek are known throughout eastern Kentucky as the Diaper Lady and the Diaper Man. They wouldn’t want it any other way.

The McPeeks, who have been married for 24 years, started a unique diaper distribution and parent education ministry in Jenkins, Ky., in 2001. Since then, they have given away more than 2 million diapers to single moms, unemployed families and others in the economically troubled region who are struggling to make ends meet.

[Read more…]

TBCH VOLUNTEER MAKES IMPACT AT BOYS RANCH

December 12, 2018

‘Mr. Dana’ is teaching more than just vocational skills; he’s teaching love of Jesus

By Carla Harper
Contributing Writer, B&R

Dana Reed stands in the workshop at the Tennessee Baptist Children’s Homes’ Boys Ranch in Millington where he teaches skills such as welding. Reed is a member of Crosspointe Baptist Church, Millington. — Photo by Carla Harper

MILLINGTON — When Dana Reed, now 72, left the prison where he worked as an employee in 2011, he began working at the Boys Ranch in Memphis, which is owned and operated by the Tennessee Baptist Children’s Homes.

Reed, known as “Mr. Dana” said his job at the Boys Ranch is the “best paying job I’ve ever had because of who I am working for.” [Read more…]

PASTOR ‘ZIP-LINES’ TO PULPIT; VIDEO GOES VIRAL

December 11, 2018

By Diana Chandler
Baptist Press

Southern Baptist pastor Bartholomew Orr used a zip line in his sermon delivery to signify Jesus’ second coming. Screen capture from YouTube

SOUTHAVEN, Miss. — Southern Baptist megachurch pastor Bartholomew Orr’s object lesson, flying to the pulpit on a zip line to signify Jesus’ return, caused a viral sensation on social media and major network talk shows.

Despite both negative and comical comments from an estimated 200 million hits a week after a brief video clip of his entrance was posted, Orr told Baptist Press it was a “win-win.” [Read more…]