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BARBIER, OWENS NAMED TO SBC COMMITTEE ON COMMITTEES

May 4, 2023

By Baptist Press staff

FARMERSVILLE, Texas — SBC president Bart Barber has announced his appointments to the 2023 Committee on Committees. Riley Prather, pastor of Green Valley Crossing, Putnam, Conn., will lead the committee as chair, and Cassie Stanteen from First Baptist, Clinton, Miss., will serve as vice chair.

“As a lifelong Southern Baptist, I am thrilled to play a part in helping the SBC keep the Gospel at the center and to remain faithful to our cooperative work in the world,” Prather said. “If you had told me as a kid that I would be serving the Convention in this way, I would’ve called you crazy. But I learned a long time ago to join God where He is at work, and I believe He is inviting me to do this.” [Read more…]

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Filed Under: Featured, News, Tennessee

CAIN ELECTED TO EC SEARCH COMMITTEE

May 2, 2023

By Baptist and Reflector

Baptist and Reflector

Cain

SEYMOUR — Corey Cain, pastor of First Baptist Church, Seymour, was elected to serve on the newly formed search committee tasked with seeking a new president/CEO for the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Cain was in Dallas on May 1 during the special called meeting in which EC members rejected the nomination of former EC chairman Jared Wellman. Cain is one of five Tennessee Baptists serving on the EC board of trustees from where the six search committee members were chosen. 

Cain explained the process in an interview with the Baptist and Reflector. EC guidelines called for the original search committee to be dissolved and a new search committee to be named immediately after a “No” vote of a presidential candidate. Wellman’s nomination was defeated by a vote of 50-31. [Read more…]

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A STEP TOWARD RESTORED CREDIBILITY

May 2, 2023

By Chris Turner and Lonnie Wilkey
Baptist and Reflector

It is never the wrong time to do the right thing. 

And the right thing was done Monday, May 1, with the decision by trustees of the Executive Board (EC) of the Southern Baptist Convention to not elect by a vote of 50-31 former EC board chair Jared Wellman as EC president/CEO.

Credit to the EC for taking a meaningful step toward restoring a measure of credibility to an entity that desperately needed to send a message to Southern Baptists that would bolster confidence in the entity. The EC members studied the issue, were encouraged to vote their conscience, prayed, and decided to stand on personal conviction regardless of consequences. [Read more…]

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Filed Under: Featured, Opinion Column

EC REJECTS NOMINATION OF WELLMAN; LAUNCHES NEW SEARCH

May 1, 2023

By Lonnie Wilkey and David Dawson
Baptist and Reflector

Several members of the new search committee, including Corey Cain, center, pastor of First Baptist Church, Seymour, and others gather for prayer after the May 1 EC meeting. — Photo by Marc Ira Hooks / The Baptist Paper

DALLAS — Meeting behind closed doors in executive session today (May 1), the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention rejected the nomination of Jared Wellman as its new president/chief executive officer by a vote of 50-31.

Wellman, 39, pastor of Tate Springs Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, informed his church on April 30 that he was the nominee to lead the EC.

There were 81 of the 83 trustees of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee in Monday’s executive session, according to The Baptist Paper (TBP). 

TBP reported 12 of the 83 joined via Zoom due to health and other issues preventing their ability to attend in person. One staff member, the parliamentarian and legal council, also participated in the meeting. [Read more…]

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Filed Under: Featured, News, SBC

BREAKING NEWS: EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBERS REJECT NOMINATION OF JARED WELLMAN

May 1, 2023

By Baptist and Reflector

DALLAS — Meeting behind closed doors in executive session today (May 1), the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention rejected the nomination of Jared Wellman as its new president/chief executive officer by a vote of 50-31.

All 83 trustees of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee were in the executive session, according to The Baptist Paper (TBP).

Wellman, 39, who serves as pastor of Tate Springs Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, informed his church on April 30 that he was the nominee to lead the EC. [Read more…]

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KNOXVILLE PASTOR SHARES JOURNEY OF OVERCOMING STRESS, DISCOURAGEMENT

May 1, 2023

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

In May of last year, pastor Keith Vaughan of Valley Grove Baptist Church in Knoxville left his office with the intention of leaving the ministry and never returning. After some intervention and assistance from the Shepherd’s Care ministry of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, Vaughan is back in the office and preaching the Word and caring for his flock once again.

KNOXVILLE — May 22, 2022 will forever be etched in the memory of Keith Vaughan, pastor of Valley Grove Baptist Church in Knoxville.

That was the day of what he now refers to as “The Breakdown” occurred.

He recalled walking into his office on that Monday morning. “Nothing really happened that doesn’t normally happen on a Monday in a Baptist church,” he said.

“But for some reason, all of a sudden, I just knew I could not do this (pastor) anymore.” Vaughan got up from his desk, walked out the door, locked it and left the office. [Read more…]

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Filed Under: Featured, News, Tennessee

SO MUCH FOR RESTORING CREDIBILITY

April 29, 2023

By Chris Turner and Lonnie Wilkey
News Staff, Baptist and Reflector
Editor’s Note: This editorial was published on Saturday, April 29 — two days prior to the EC’s rejection of the nomination of Jared Wellman. 

FRANKLIN —
The prospect of Jared Wellman being elected Monday, May 1, by the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee (EC) to serve as its president/CEO does nothing to restore the credibility the organization’s board members supposedly sought.

 

Wellman will be put forward as the EC’s sole candidate. The announcement of a candidate finally comes after more than a year-long process conducted by the EC’s appointed presidential search committee, a committee on which Wellman served as an ex officio member since being named EC board chair last June.

However, Wellman is not the issue here. He seems like a likeable enough person. It’s the EC’s process over the past three months leading up to Wellman’s selection that comes with a large helping of speculation about the integrity of the search process, his candidacy and the possibility of his being named the EC’s new leader.

Questions linger, such as:

Why was interim president Willie McLaurin disqualified when as recently as February’s EC board meeting, Adron Robinson, chair of the EC search committee, told The Baptist Paper, that McLaurin remains “a viable candidate” for the position?

And why shortly after Robinson’s statement did Wellman recuse himself from serving any longer as a voting ex officiomember of the search committee to become a candidate (after participating in the interviews of other candidates for at least eight months)?

And why did the EC’s full board not know of Wellman’s recusal until weeks after it happened?

And why did Wellman resign as EC board chair approximately two weeks prior to Monday’s vote that potentially affirms him as EC president?

And why didn’t Baptist Press report his resignation when it happened? Surely the resignation of the EC’s chair would be big news across the denomination since the EC has been at the epicenter of SBC news for at least the past three years.

And why haven’t Southern Baptists been informed about any of these developments as they occurred by the denomination’s news agency?

And then there are questions about McLaurin. Why does a man with vast leadership experience and an exemplary record as an Army intelligence officer, a pastor, a state convention ministry specialist, a special assistant to Tennessee’s state mission board executive director, a vice president of the EC, and an interim EC president get passed over?

And how is Wellman – or any other candidate, past or present – any more professionally or spiritually qualified than McLaurin to hold the position?

And what expectation has McLaurin failed to reach while serving as interim EC president for more than a year? Before his tenure as interim president began, the EC was a public relations nightmare. During his tenure, McLaurin has been well-received in a diversity of churches across the Southern Baptist Convention preaching a message of unity through the gospel and a call for a cooperative effort for the sake of advancing the Great Commission.

Some have speculated that passing over McLaurin is racially motivated. Was it? Let’s hope not. Southern Baptists have improved its inclusion of blacks and other minorities in positions of leadership across state conventions and the national level. It could do much more, so why not install an extremely well-qualified candidate who has proven he can handle the specific job, and who happens to be black? His installation would certainly reflect the growing diverse demographic of the SBC.

Regardless of whether race is at issue, the dismissal of McLaurin after a successful 15-month dress rehearsal as interim EC president smacks of him falling victim to an “Inner Ring.”

While serving as the Memorial Lecturer at King’s College, University of London, C.S. Lewis delivered a challenge titled, “The Inner Ring.” Lewis states there are two different systems or hierarchies. The one is printed, can be looked up and remains a constant. The other is not printed, is not necessarily organized, and is fluid. Just because one becomes a part of The Inner Ring does not mean he or she will stay there. The Inner Ring is comprised of the power brokers of the moment who have ability to exert influence to achieve desired outcomes.

Given the EC search committee’s failure to name a candidate at its September meeting and then again in February after a year of the process, could it be that McLaurin was never realistically a part of an “Inner Ring’s” plan because he was never a part of an Inner Ring?

And let’s be honest, Inner Rings exist in denominational life.

The process by the EC presidential search committee leaves the impression that a fix was in, a deal was brokered, and Wellman slid into the catbird seat before, during or shortly after the EC’s February 2023 board meeting. That’s the perception, and unfortunately Southern Baptists have no real information about the process to inform them otherwise.

This process for this important position should have been done much more transparently and publicly.

Robinson said after the 2022 SBC Annual Meeting in relation to the report of the Sexual Abuse Task Force that, “We know the EC has lost credibility among the messengers in the past two years. We want to make sure we were hearing clearly the direction of the messengers before moving forward with our search. It’s important to restoring future credibility.”

Shouldn’t that desire for credibility extend to all areas of the EC’s responsibility?

If the EC search committee was a major league baseball player seeking to hit a home run that would restore the EC’s credibility, the process by which Wellman has been selected was a strikeout looking before Monday’s pitch has even been thrown, leaving the EC’s credibility more in shambles now than it was three months ago.

And Southern Baptists watching from the box seats shake their heads while mumbling, “So much for restoring credibility.” B&R

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Filed Under: Featured, News, SBC Tagged With: SBC, SBCEC, SBCExecComm, SouthernBaptist

TENNESSEE BAPTISTS EMBRACE OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE IMPACT IN BLUEOVAL CITY

April 28, 2023

By David Dawson
Communications specialist, TBMB

Alan O’Quinn, of Brownsville Baptist Church, prays over the tables where more than 1,000 workers would eat lunch on the afternoon of April 14 at BlueOval City in Stanton. — Photos by Jim Veneman

STANTON — Weaving through a maze of nearly 200 folding tables, Ben Cowell and Alan O’Quinn went on an unscheduled prayerwalk on the morning of April 14. 

The two men —  Cowell, senior pastor of Brownsville Baptist Church, and O’Quinn, a deacon at BBC — zig-zagged their way around the sprawling pavilion located in the middle of BlueOval City, praying passionately for the luncheon that would be held about an hour later.

The event — hosted by more than a dozen Baptist churches and supported by the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board and Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief — would ultimately feed more than 1,000 construction workers during a 90-minute stretch later that afternoon.  

“This is just massively cool,” said Cowell, referring to the opportunity to make connections with the construction workers. “Whenever I get to be a part of something like this, my heart starts beating really fast. To be on the cusp of someone’s spiritual awakening is just an amazing feeling.”

Tennessee Baptists, along with other churches from around the country, are being intentional and assertive about making an impact for Christ in BlueOval City. The luncheon was the unofficial start of the “BlueOval initiative” that will take place over the next several years.  [Read more…]

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YOUNG ADULT CONFERENCE MEETS GOAL

April 27, 2023

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

Participating in the recent young adult
conference at Thompson Station Baptist Church, were, from left, back row, Tim Hunter, Olive Baptist Church, Pensacola, Fla.; Ryan Keaton, TBMB; Shaun Pillay, Olive Baptist; Scott Dawson, president and founder of Scott Dawson Evangelistic Association, Clay Hallmark, president, Tennessee Baptist Convention; front row, Will Roberts, SDEA; and Rebecca Keaton, First Baptist Church, Lexington.

THOMPSON’S STATION — The first young adult conference sponsored by the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board went as well as anyone could have expected, said Ryan Keaton, emerging generations specialist for the TBMB.

The conference at Thompson Station Baptist Church drew 180 registrants from 35 churches, Keaton said.

Keaton said his desire is for an annual young adult conference along with regional conferences. The conferences can be a resource for churches to receive training in young adult ministry and to network with other churches that are targeting young adults, he said.

The conferences offer opportunities to get ideas and tips on what is working and what is not working in young adult ministry, he added. [Read more…]

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Filed Under: Featured, News, Tennessee

NASHVILLE POLICE CHAPLAIN MINISTERED TO FAMILIES, OTHERS IN WAKE OF SCHOOL SHOOTING

April 26, 2023

By Timothy Cockes
Baptist Press

Sgt. Andrew Ivey is the chaplain coordinator for the Metro Nashville Police Department.

NASHVILLE — Many first responders sprang into action in the aftermath of the tragic shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville on March 27. 

Among them was Sgt. Andrew Ivey, chaplain coordinator for the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) and a North American Mission Board (NAMB)-endorsed chaplain.

“I would describe it as extremely difficult,” said Ivey, a deacon at Temple Baptist Church, White House. “There was a lot of grief, a lot of uncertainty from parents not knowing if their kids were okay or not.” [Read more…]

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Filed Under: Featured, News, Tennessee

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