Featured Archives - Page 168 of 240

FREE PANCAKES KICK OFF BCM MINISTRY AT MTSU

September 12, 2019

By Ashley Perham
B&R contributing writer

Lisa Whitt, left, and Jennifer Choate make pancakes to help kick off the year for the Baptist Collegiate Ministry at MTSU.

MURFREESBORO — The Baptist Collegiate Ministry at Middle Tennessee State University kicked off the new school year by offering free, all-you-can-eat pancakes to students from 8 p.m. to midnight.

It is the second year the BCM has offered free pancakes the first week of school although they have been serving pancakes during finals week for more than 10 years.

Mark Whitt, MTSU campus minister, said the event was a great way to connect with students quickly because the event takes place on move-in day.

“It’s also an event right after the carnival, a big event on campus, and then there’s nothing planned afterwards so we were able to just continue in with a big welcome to campus,” Whitt said. “It’s a quick way to meet students in a real non-threatening kind of way.” [Read more…]

WHEN WILL WE EVER LEARN FROM OUR PAST?

September 11, 2019

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

Eighteen years ago today, the Executive Board of the Tennessee Baptist Convention (now Tennessee Baptist Mission Board) was preparing for its September meeting. Before it started, however, news of the terrorist attacks on Washington, D.C. and New York City began to spread.

People stood around a television set in the building and watched the horror unfold.

Then TBC executive director James Porch observed that “our world, our state, your hometown and mine have changed. It will never be the same again.” Describing the events of the day as “this generation’s Pearl Harbor,” Porch asked, “Can this nation become one under God? I hope that we will.” And, for a very brief time, we did. [Read more…]

SUMMIT 2019 WILL FOCUS ON ‘BY ALL MEANS, WIN TN’

September 11, 2019

Hendersonville pastor Bruce Chesser to be nominated as TBC president; FBC Concord is hosting event

Baptist and Reflector

FRANKLIN — “By All Means, Win TN” is the theme of the 2019 Summit, scheduled for Nov. 17-20 at First Baptist Church, Concord, in Knoxville.

Summit festivities begin on Sunday, Nov. 17, with the “Tennessee Reunion” at 6 p.m. at First Baptist, Concord. The worship service will feature Rick Barnes, men’s basketball coach at the University of Tennessee, one of the most decorated and accomplished head coaches in school history.

Also on Sunday night, the All Nations Worship will be held at Black Oak Heights Baptist Church in Knoxville. [Read more…]

GOLDEN MOMENT

September 10, 2019

Tennessee Baptists establish new record for giving through Golden Offering for Tennessee Missions

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

FRANKLIN — Tennessee Baptists gave a record $1,920,733 through the Golden Offering for Tennessee Missions in 2018-19.

The amount is $77,222 over the old record of $1,843,511 which was set during 2016-17.

Tennessee Baptists have come to understand and value that “any way you slice it, Tennessee is a missions field,” said Randy C. Davis, president and executive director of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board.

“We are excited and thrilled that Tennessee Baptists have given sacrificially to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ in our state where more than 50 percent of the residents are unchurched,” Davis continued.

Vickie Anderson, executive director of Tennessee Woman’s Missionary Union, which helps to promote the annual GOTM offering, agreed. “The churches who give through GOTM see that our state is a missions field,” she said. [Read more…]

UNION TRUSTEES APPROVE MASTER PLAN ON CAMPUS DEVELOPMENT

September 9, 2019

By Tim Ellsworth
Associate VP for Communications, Union University

JACKSON, Tenn. — Union University trustees at their Sept. 6 meeting adopted a campus master plan that calls for new buildings and an extension of the university’s Great Lawn all the way to Highway 45 Bypass over the next 20 years.

In other matters, trustees approved new officers, established tuition and fees for the 2020-2021 academic year and approved Beverly Bone-Absher as professor emeritus. [Read more…]

TENNESSEE BAPTIST DISASTER RELIEF: ON AGAIN, OFF AGAIN

September 6, 2019

Baptist and Reflector

MOUNT JULIET — After several days of wondering if and when Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief would be called on to respond to Hurricane Dorian, Wes Jones made it official on Sept. 6 when he notified leaders across the state that all units are “standing down.”

A feeding unit from Sullivan County had been deployed to New Bern, N.C., but was recalled before they had traveled very far. [Read more…]

FOWLER GIVES FIRST CAMPUS ADDRESS AT C-N FALL CONVOCATION

September 5, 2019

C-N news office

Charles Fowler gives his first address as president to students, faculty and staff of Carson-Newman University during the school’s Fall Convocation held Sept. 5.

JEFFERSON CITY — Carson-Newman University held its Fall Convocation Sept. 5 to a packed Holt Fieldhouse. The event serves as a ceremonial marker to the start of the new academic year. The occasion also marked the first time new Carson-Newman President Charles A. Fowler addressed the full campus community.

Citing Psalm 145:4, Fowler pointed to the importance of “celebrating the faithfulness of God,” as evidenced in C-N’s past, but also directing attention to the future by “anticipating the faithfulness of God. [Read more…]

NO ROOM FOR RACISM IN THE CHRISTIAN HEART

September 4, 2019

By Chris Turner
cturner@tnbaptist.org

“Are you gonna let that n—r coon sit in our class?’ a boy shouted at me. ‘We can kick the crap out of this n—-r. Look, it’s 20 of us and one of her. They ain’t nothing but animals …Go back where you came from.’ ” — From Warriors Don’t Cry

I don’t recall ever reading a book as emotionally taxing as, Warriors Don’t Cry, by Melba Pattillo Beals, one of the “Little Rock Nine” who integrated Central High School in 1957. The amount of physical brutality and emotional abuse those children — children my daughter’s age — faced every day for the entire school year is incomprehensible. They endured attempted lynchings, beatings, acid in the eyes, constantly being spit on, being trapped in bathroom stalls while white students stood on toilets in adjacent stalls and rained burning paper on them, and so much more, just because they were black.

The cruelty was inhumane; it was satanic. At times, Melba’s story physically nauseated me. White parents and their children went to extremes to drive them from Central High. For example, parents employed Ku Klux Klan psychologists to coach the students on how to make life hell for Melba and her classmates. The book is a raw look at racism, prejudice and segregation in the South in the 1950s. [Read more…]

BAPTISTS PLAN RESPONSE TO HURRICANE DORIAN

September 3, 2019

Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief units asked to ‘stand by’ for now

Editor’s Note: Continue to monitor baptistandreflector.org for the latest updates on Hurricane Dorian and Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief.

Baptist Press

Tropical Cyclone Track Forecast Cone and Watches/Warnings and Initial Wind Field — Graphic from www.nhc.noaa.gov

ALPHARETTA, Ga. — Hurricane Dorian finally completed its pounding of the Bahamas on Sept. 3. After intensifying to a Category 5 before devastating the islands, Dorian weakened to a Category 3 as it continued its slow trek toward Florida. Early reports describe the damage as historic, and five deaths had been reported in the Bahamas.

Baptist Global Response (BGR) has purview over the Bahamas and will be assisting with disaster relief efforts once the storm passes and damage assessments have been completed. Jeff Palmer, executive director of BGR, said he is in contact with the Bahama Baptist Convention and the Caribbean Baptist Fellowship. [Read more…]

STATE CONVENTION HELPS CHURCHES REACH STATE, WORLD FOR CHRIST

September 3, 2019

By Dr. Paul Chitwood
President, International Mission Board

My first international mission trip took place on a farm in central Kentucky.

As a new pastor in the community, I found myself interacting often with migrant workers from Central and South America. And I soon realized that most were spiritually lost. From conversations with farmers, I learned many of them were as concerned as I was about the eternal state of the souls of these (mostly) men who were so far away from their homes and families. As we began to pull together churches in our association and piece together a plan to begin a migrant ministry, we found an organization ready and eager to help us: our Baptist state convention. With the assistance of our state convention staff, we were soon seeing people from all over Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua come to Christ — though we never left Kentucky. [Read more…]