By Paul Chitwood
President, International Mission Board

Jesus prioritizes children and their care. We see this in verses like Matthew 19:14, where Jesus says, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven,” and Matthew 18:6, where Jesus says, “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” His compassion towards the woman caught in adultery and the woman at the well, and His care for His own mother as He went to the cross, among many other passages, reveal the value He places upon women. 

When we think of protecting from abuse those who are vulnerable, I think first about the 2,850 kids of our International Mission Board missionaries. I also think about the single women who outnumber single men serving through the IMB by two-to-one. But we recognize single men can likewise be victims, as can anyone regardless of whether or not they are married. From the words of our Lord, and biblical ethics and biblical teaching in general, it is clear that Christ followers should seek to do no harm to others, and we should be willing to step in and protect others from harm when we are able to do so. 

If you have followed the news from our Southern Baptist Convention about the Sexual Abuse Task Force report, you know that some of the leaders in our convention have failed in this regard. I’m deeply disappointed by that but, frankly, I’m not completely shocked.  [Read more…]

By Chris Turner
Director of communications, Tennessee Baptist Mission Board

It was chilly and so quiet that the only sound present when I took my early morning walk was my labored breathing. 

The nearly 6,000-foot elevation in the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Yosemite National Park quickly reminded me I’m a sea-level kind of guy. The immensity of everything surrounding me — mountains, trees, open spaces — command attention and inspire reflection. 

But for me, there is something about the mountains, and the cold air — and the lack of oxygen — that clears the mental clutter and awakens the mind. The silence and solitude offered spiritual space to process what I’d experienced the previous few days. Four specific observations made an impression on me. 

(1) Man is very, very small. Standing in Yosemite Valley and gazing upward to the summits of El Capitan, Half Dome and Cathedral Rock, and the point at which water first charges over Upper Yosemite Falls — appearing as if roaring from the sky — is like gazing upward in the grandest of reformation-era European cathedrals. All are reminders that God is limitless, magnificent, beautiful, awful, without equal; and that man is not the center of the universe. Far from it. We are at best bit actors in a cosmic production, and we must move to the periphery and yield center stage to God and His rightful place as the show’s headliner.  [Read more…]

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

Bootsie Coggins died on Mother’s Day.

Very few people in Tennessee know who Edward “Bootsie” Coggins is. But in heaven and northern Greenville County in South Carolina, Bootsie Coggins is a spiritual giant, even though he was about five feet, four inches tall and 130 pounds or so soaking wet.

Other than my mother, grandparents and my Aunt Lynn and Uncle Bill, no one played a more major role in my “raising” and spiritual development than Bootsie and his wife, Shirley. To mention one without the other is  impossible. 

Married for more than 63 years, they went together like cobbler and ice cream. I was blessed to be an “honorary” member of their family which included their children, Randy and Lavonda.

Bootsie had a tough home life growing up. His dad was a bootlegger, thus his nickname. He would be the first to admit he was not a good person in his teenage years and early adulthood.

Even after he married Shirley, a strong Christian woman, he ran from religion. He told stories of hiding in the bedroom when the preacher would come to visit. [Read more…]