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UNWAVERING COMMITMENT TO COOPERATIVE PROGRAM ENABLES TENNESSEE BAPTISTS TO REACH MONUMENTAL PLATEAU

August 26, 2019

By David Dawson
Baptist and Reflector
ddawson@tnbaptist.org

Celebrating a milestone moment
Tennessee Baptists recently reached a major plateau, surpassing the $500-million mark in all-time giving to the SBC for Cooperative Program allocated useage. In the photo to the right, Randy C. Davis, president and executive director of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, presents a check to Augie Boto of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.
– Photo by Royce DeGrie

FRANKLIN — The oversized check was just a prop. The significance of the moment, however, was very real.

During a recent ceremony at the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board’s Church Support Center in Franklin, TBMB president and executive director Randy C. Davis presented a Goliath-sized check to Augie Boto of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.

The amount was for $500,000,000, which represents the recent plateau that was reached by Tennessee Baptists in the category of Cooperative Program Allocation gifts to the SBC. Davis said the milestone speaks volumes about Tennessee Baptists’ commitment to sharing the gospel. [Read more…]

BROWNSVILLE BAPTIST CHURCH — TWO PASTORS IN 60 YEARS

August 24, 2019

By Ashley Perham
Baptist & Reflector intern

BROWNSVILLE — Brownsville Baptist Church, Brownsville, has had only two pastors in the last 60 years: H. K. Sorrell and Bob Connerley, who is celebrating 30 years at the church at the end of the month.

“I don’t know how much that says about him and me, but it says a lot about the people here that they would put up with two guys for 60 years,” he said. “That’s kind of unusual.” [Read more…]

KNOXVILLE CHURCH ‘DIES WITH DIGNITY’ TO HELP CHURCH PLANT

August 23, 2019

By Ashley Perham
Baptist and Reflector intern

A praise team leads worship at Hope Fellowship in Knoxville. The church is meeting in a facility provided by Centerpointe Church in Knoxville. Centerpointe sold its $4 million facility to Hope Fellowship for $1.

KNOXVILLE — Hope Fellowship, Knoxville, started in 2016 as a church plant from Shoreline Church, Knoxville, with a vision to be a Christ-centered, multi-ethnic and generational church, saved by Jesus and changed by Jesus, according to Dominique Lee, pastor of Hope Fellowship.

At the same time, Centerpointe Church, Knoxville, was making the difficult decision to “die with dignity,” said pastor Jim Millirons. [Read more…]

PARKBURG BAPTIST SEES RESULTS OF CHURCH REVITALIZATION

August 22, 2019

By Ashley Perham
Baptist & Reflector intern

Danny Rachel, pastor of Parkburg Baptist Church, Pinson, shares how his congregation has benefited from church revitalization in a new Golden Offering for Tennessee Missions video.

PINSON — Approximately 75-80 percent of churches are stagnant or in decline, and as many as 10 percent of Southern Baptist churches may cease to exist in the next 10 years unless fundamental changes are made, according to Steve Holt, church services director for the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board.

The Golden Offering for Tennessee Missions and the Cooperative Program makes it possible for the TBMB to partner with churches in church revitalization, a process which moves a plateaued or declining church toward a healthy and sustained environment. [Read more…]

RURAL MEDICAL CLINIC IS ‘A GOD THING’

August 21, 2019

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

Leaders of Servolution Health Services include, from left, Deborah Chumley, Alicia Metcalf, Judy Robertson and Donnie Bannister. Chumley and Metcalf are co-directors while Robertson and Bannister are board members.

SPEEDWELL — A rural medical clinic, supported in part by local Christians, many of whom are members of Baptist churches, is trying to make a difference in one of the state’s poorest counties in Appalachia.

Claiborne County in northeast Tennessee, bordering the Kentucky state line, is impacted by poverty (according to IndexMundi, an international data portal), broken homes (50 percent of school-age children are raised by someone other than biological parents) and an opioid crisis (the county is the seventh highest county in the United States with the most opioid painkillers per capita). [Read more…]

PRAYER: MAKING A DIFFERENCE

August 20, 2019

By Carolyn Tomlin
Contributing Writer, B&R

It’s that time again when public and private schools start a new year. From preschools up through college level, students will be facing new challenges and opportunities. A thought that runs through the mind of all parents and families is this: will my child or loved one be in a safe environment? Will the teachers and administration create an environment where all children are respected and learning takes place? How can I encourage my church to become involved?

Thom Rainer, retired president of LifeWay, wrote in a blog (Jan. 3, 2015) on “Eight Things I’m Praying Will Happen in Churches in 2015.” The first: A greater emphasis on prayer. Can you imagine the impact this could have on our schools if members would be committed to pray? Pray as individuals and as a congregation. Prayer not only changes things; it changes those who pray. [Read more…]

SMALL CHURCH, BUT A MIGHTY GOD

August 15, 2019

Rural Wayne County church relies on faith to sponsor camp

By Lonnie Wilkey
lwilkey@tnbaptist.org

Pastor Dusty Malugen of Oak Grove Missionary Baptist Church in Iron City baptizes Crislyn Darby in the Buffalo River at Linden Valley Baptist Conference Center. Oak Grove, a small rural congregation in Wayne County, has sponsored a youth camp at Linden Valley since 2013. Nearly 60 people have been baptized as a result. — Photo by Lonnie Wilkey

LINDEN — On paper, it doesn’t seem possible that a small country church that averages about 40 people on Sunday could sponsor a youth camp (at no cost) for about 50 people.

And, members of Oak Grove Missionary Baptist Church in Iron City will agree. They can’t, but God can, and He has proven it many times since 2013 when pastor Dusty Malugen felt God was calling him to lead the rural Wayne County congregation to go beyond its walls. [Read more…]

‘LOVE THY NEIGHBOR’ BEING PUT INTO ACTION

August 14, 2019

By Ashley Perham
Baptist & Reflector intern

Jeffrey Bonner and Janice Higdon of Oak Valley Baptist Church, Franklin, repair a building owned by Binghampton Community Church in Memphis as part of City Reach Memphis.

MEMPHIS — City Reach provides an opportunity for churches to partner with each other no matter their size. Last month in City Reach Memphis, a 60-attendee church plant from Murfreesboro helped a 60-year-old church in the heart of Memphis. That same week, a large missions-minded church from Franklin helped a tiny church plant in a seemingly hopeless Memphis neighborhood.

Living Water Church, a six-year-old church in Murfreesboro, spent half of the week working at Leawood Baptist’s Judgement House. The Judgement House is an evangelistic tool to reach teenagers in the area. This was the church’s first mission trip, said Micah Creekmore, pastor. [Read more…]

BCM STUDENTS BRING ENERGY TO DR WORK

August 13, 2019

By Ashley Perham
Baptist and Reflector intern

WARSAW, N.C. — The Golden Offering for Tennessee Missions makes it possible for Tennessee Baptists to pass the torch of service down to the next generation through intergenerational missions.

“For almost three years now, Tennessee Disaster Relief and The Baptist Collegiate Ministries in Tennessee have begun to work together to respond to disasters. We know that students have the desire to help,” said Wes Jones, Tennessee Baptist Mission Board disaster relief specialist. [Read more…]

DAVIS CHALLENGES LEGISLATORS TO STAND FOR LIFE

August 12, 2019

By Lonnie Wilkey
lwilkey@tnbaptist.org

TBMB President and Executive Director Randy C. Davis testifies during the Senate Study Committee, advocating senators advance SB 1236, a strongly pro-life bill that acknowledges life begins at conception. To support his position before the senators, Davis referenced the binder that has the names of more than 16,000 Tennessee Baptists and nearly 1,000 Tennessee Baptist pastors who signed the “I Stand for Life” petition over the past three weeks.
Photo: Screen shot from TN General Assembly web video.

NASHVILLE — When New York governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law one of the nation’s most comprehensive abortion laws earlier this year, he “woke a sleeping giant,” declared Randy C. Davis, president and executive director of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board.

Davis was one of five pro-life proponents who appealed to a nine-member Tennessee Senate Judiciary Summer Study Committee Aug. 12 to join thousands of Tennessee Baptists and other evangelical Christians in standing for life in the Volunteer State. Longtime observers of the Tennessee Baptist Convention believe it may be the first time that a representative of the convention has addressed Tennessee senators on a major legislative issue. (Read the full text of Randy Davis’ statement to the Senate Study Committee and the audio podcast of his testimony can be found here.)

[Read more…]

Rural Wayne County church relies on faith to sponsor camp

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