Telling the Story of Tennessee Baptists Since 1835
Baptist and Reflector
BRENTWOOD — Tennessee Baptist Convention churches gave $2,554,604 through the Cooperative Program in May.
In the first seven months of the 2015-16 fiscal year, Tennessee Baptists have given $20,303,904 through the CP giving channel to meet missions and ministry needs in Tennessee and around the world. [Read more…]
By Connie Davis Bushey
News Editor, Baptist and Reflector
Pastor Rickey Burns and his wife Sissy stand outside the new facility of Williston Baptist Church, Williston.
WILLISTON — Thankfully the wait wasn’t 40 years, a popular biblical period. It would have been more tolerable if the wait had been 40 days, another common biblical period.
Instead Williston Baptist Church here waited about five years to begin to use its new building.
The situation developed because of a misunderstanding on building regulations. [Read more…]
By Shawn Hendricks
Baptist Press
NASHVILLE — When Southern Baptists depart St. Louis after their annual meeting in June, says SBC president Ronnie Floyd, he will be praying they do so with a “deep burden for our nation, a new commitment to racial unity, and an extraordinary commitment to evangelize America.”
With the theme of this year’s June 14-15 gathering being “Awaken America: Reach the World — Agree, Unite, Pray,” Floyd continues to point to passionate prayer as a critical tool for a “nationwide and global spiritual awakening.”
“I pray that our SBC messengers encounter the living God through moments of worship, preaching, challenge, and prayer,” Floyd said. [Read more…]
By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
BRENTWOOD — Tennessee Baptists’ giving through the Cooperative Program is trending upward.
For the first time in five years (since the 2010-11 budget year), Cooperative Program gifts from Tennessee Baptist Convention churches not only are up over the previous year, but they are above projected needs midway into the budget year which ends Oct. 31. The increase also is only the second increase since 2007.
After six months of the current fiscal year (which ended April 30) Tennessee Baptists have given $17,749,300, an increase of $672,460 or 3.9 percent over the previous year. The total also was $624,300 or 3.65 percent over projected budget needs. [Read more…]
By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
Steve Freeman
BRENTWOOD — Steve Freeman, senior pastor of Grace Baptist Church, Springfield, will be nominated for the presidency of the Tennessee Baptist Convention at The Summit in November.
Freeman currently serves as chair of the Executive Board of the TBC. He is the only announced nominee to date.
Chattanooga-area pastor Eric Stitts of Bayside Baptist Church, Harrison, informed the Baptist and Reflector May 23 of his intention to nominate Freeman during the TBC’s annual meeting at Summit, scheduled for Nov. 13-17 in Sevierville.
Stitts noted that Freeman “has a deep and abiding love for his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, his church, and for the state of Tennessee. [Read more…]
By Bonnie Pritchett
Baptist Press
AUSTIN, Texas (BP) — Eleven states and two school districts filed a lawsuit May 25 challenging President Barack Obama’s directive demanding all federally funded schools apply a controversial interpretation of Title IX requiring schools to define a student’s sexual identity based not on biological traits, but on feelings.
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit include Texas, Alabama, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Utah, and Georgia; Governor of Maine Paul Lepage; the Arizona Department of Education; Harrold Independent School District (HISD) in Texas and Heber-Overgaard Unified School District in Arizona. [Read more…]
By Bill Sorrell
Contributing Writer
Ben Reeves displays the form that made him an all-conference golfer at the University of Tennessee at Martin.
MARTIN — Driving down Interstate 40 toward Jackson, saw something that made him almost swerve off the road — a larger-than-life picture of himself on a billboard advertising the University of Tennessee at Martin where he is a senior.
“I was looking around at the other cars. Do they know that this guy is in the car next to them?” laughed Reeves, who is captain of the golf team. “It was fun. A lot of guys gave me a hard time about it.”
UTM golf coach Jerry Carpenter has seen Reeves’ face value. [Read more…]
By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
BRENTWOOD — The Greatest Generation. Baby Boomers. Generation X (Baby Busters). Generation Y (Millennials). Generation Z. Knowing the names assigned to the generations in today’s world can be confusing and hard to understand.
Only one thing is certain about each generation — they all need to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
An increasing emphasis is being placed on Millennials and Generation Z and rightfully so. Statistics reveal that Millennials are leaving the church in record numbers and that nine out of 10 children in Generation Z will likely grow to adulthood without knowing Christ.
These are sobering statistics and must be addressed. New churches are being started with Millennials and Generation Z as the focus. [Read more…]
By Connie Davis Bushey
News Editor, Baptist and Reflector
Wendell Edmonds, youth pastor, Walnut Hill Baptist Church, Harriman, stands on April 21 near the site of the April 17 fire which killed Sandra Mills, a neighbor who attended Walnut Hill Baptist.
HARRIMAN — “We didn’t have church inside the building, but we had church in the community,” explained Wendell Edmonds, youth pastor, Walnut Hill Baptist Church here, after the church canceled Sunday activities to respond to victims of a fatal fire.
On April 17, a Sunday, at about 3 a.m., Edmonds, who also is a Harriman Fire Department chaplain, was awakened by a notification on his smart phone from the Fire Department. Soon Edmonds, a retired fireman and policeman, arrived at the fire, which was blazing less than a block from the church. [Read more…]
By Connie Davis Bushey
News Editor, Baptist and Reflector
BRENTWOOD — The projected photo in the meeting room was of 10 children though only one was spotlighted. The caption read — “If the trend continues, nine of 10 children born after 9/11 will reach adulthood without knowing Christ.”
“It takes something monumental to reverse a trend. You don’t reverse a trend just by changing your mind,” observed Randy C. Davis.
Even more alarming is that these children born after 9/11 (2001), who are known as Generation Z, make up what is predicted to be the largest generation ever, added Davis. The executive director of the Tennessee Baptist Convention spoke at the “Reaching Gen Z” luncheon held at Grace Community Church here and at six other locations across the state recently. The meetings drew a total of about 525 people. [Read more…]
