78-year-old Jerry Milam enjoying fruits of new church start in Lyles

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

LYLES — Statistics indicate that the average church planter is somewhere in his late 20s to his mid-30s, according to Lewis McMullen, church planting specialist for the Tennessee Baptist Convention.

If that’s the case, Jerry Milam acknowledges (with a grin), “I’m well above average.”

Milam, 78, is pastor of New Life Baptist Church in the Hickman County town of Lyles. The church celebrated its first anniversary on March 13.

He began the church with about 25 people after serving as pastor of smaller, traditional churches for more than 50 years. Milam had envisioned retiring last May from Wrigley Baptist Church in Lyles, a congregation he had served three different times for a total of 33 years. “I was going to sit on the back pew and rest, but it didn’t work out that way,” he recalled. [Read more…]

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

JACKSON — Leaders who recognize the need and are willing to be involved are critical to church revitalization, speakers agreed at a church revitalization conference held at Union University here last week.

The conference, which was sponsored by the Tennessee Baptist Convention and Union, addressed the issue of “Fanning the Flame of Christian Leadership.”

Tennessee native Jim Henry, former pastor of Two Rivers Baptist Church, Nashville, and First Baptist Church, Orlando, Fla., spoke twice during the opening session on March 14.

A former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, Henry has a unique perspective on church revitalization. [Read more…]

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

BRENTWOOD — Groundbreaking for the Tennessee Baptist Convention Executive Board’s Church Support Center will be held Saturday, April 23, on the new site in Berry Farms, south of Franklin.

Executive Board offices have been housed in the LifePoint Building in Brentwood following the sale of the former Baptist Center in 2013.

“The Church Support Center groundbreaking/worship ceremony will be both exciting and historic,” said Randy C. Davis, TBC executive director/treasurer. [Read more…]

Editor’s Note: Last night The Tennessean reported, on Wednesday, March 23, the “Bathroom Bill” was given new life in the House and advanced in the Senate. Although the House Education Administration and Planning Committee voted against the bill on March 22, when the committee reconvened on Wednesday, Rep. Jim Coley, R-Bartlett, made a motion to force the committee to reconsider its action. Tennesseans can still call their legislators to express their views on this bill.

 

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

NASHVILLE — A bill that would require students in public education institutions in Tennessee to use restroom and locker rooms that are assigned to their biological sex is currently circulating in the Tennessee Senate and House of Representatives.

Senate Bill 2387 and House Bill 2414 are commonly referred to as the “Bathroom Bill.”

David Fowler, president of the Family Action Council of Tennessee and a former state senator, has been monitoring the progress of the bill. [Read more…]

Bellevue pastor shares goals and hopes if elected convention president

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

BROWNSVILLE — Tennessee Baptist pastor Steve Gaines of Bellevue Baptist Church, Cordova, will be nominated for the presidency of the Southern Baptist Convention during the SBC annual meeting June 14-15 in St. Louis.

Georgia pastor Johnny Hunt announced he would nominate Gaines on March 9.

In an interview with the Baptist and Reflector March 14 in Brownsville, Gaines said he was approached about allowing his name to be nominated at the end of last year’s meeting. Current SBC president Ronnie Floyd of Arkansas is in his second and last term.

Throughout the year others have asked if he would be willing to be nominated. Gaines, though, said he never “aspired” to hold that office. Gaines recalled that his predecessor at Bellevue — the late Adrian Rogers — once said, “That office (SBC president) should seek the man rather than the man seeking the office.” “That was a good statement,” Gaines agreed. [Read more…]

By Connie Davis Bushey
News Editor, Baptist and Reflector

HENDERSONVILLE — When Mike Pennington, director of missions, Bledsoe Baptist Association, began helping Cragfont Baptist Church, Castalian Springs, it was in trouble. He tried to assist the congregation for several years but it was still declining in attendance and could not meet its financial obligations.

Then he approached First Baptist Church, Hendersonville, whose senior pastor, Bruce Chesser, agreed to try to lead his church to help Cragfont.

Now, just four years later, the new Creekside Fellowship, which meets in the former Cragfont facility, is drawing about 130 people to Sunday morning worship and is a healthy church, agreed Pennington and Bruce Raley, executive pastor, First Baptist, who led in the process. [Read more…]