MILE HIGH MISSIONARIES
Tennessee church planters, volunteers shine light in Denver
By Lonnie Wilkey & Chris Turner
Baptist and Reflector
DENVER — If you love hiking and skiing and other outdoor activities, Denver is the place to live. If you love Jesus, you might get lonely.
People are flocking to Denver and its surrounding communities. In 2018, it was recognized as the fifth fastest growing large city (more than 300,000 residents) and 34th overall in the country by WalletHub, a financial services website, according to thedenverchannel.com.
Since 2007, Denver has become “Mecca” for Millennials (those born between 1981 to 1996), observed Dave Howeth, Send City Missionary for Denver with the North American Mission Board. [Read more…]
TENNESCENE: WEEKS OF NOV. 13-26
LEADERS
Leroy Davis
Leroy Davis recently retired as director of missions for Jefferson County Baptist Association, based in Jefferson City. He served from 2010-19. Davis also has served a number of Tennessee Baptist churches as pastor, including Montvue Baptist, Morristown; First Baptist, Whitesburg; Looney’s Chapel Baptist, Surgoinsville; and others. He was called into the ministry in 1982. He and his wife, Libby, have two children. Davis lives in Morristown and can be reached at 423-353-0198.
Stan Cantrell began serving Sept. 29 as pastor of Sanford Baptist Church, Riceville.
Oak Hill Baptist Church, Leoma, has called Jonathan Price as pastor [Read more…]
CLEAN UP CONTINUES IN TENNESSEE
Disaster relief teams from Tennessee, as well as Alabama, Kentucky and Missouri, are continuing to clean up trees and debris following straight-line winds that caused extensive damage across the state in late October. Teams are still at work in Clarksville, Waverly, Decatur and Adamsville, according to Wes Jones, disaster relief specialist for the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board. He estimated more than 225 jobs have been completed but many more are still to be done. For more information, and to find out if teams are still needed, contact Jones at 615-371-7927.
THE FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL, THIRTY YEARS LATER
By Mike Creswell and Joanna Pinneo
IMB communications
Editor’s note: Thirty years ago, on November 9, 1989, East Germans were allowed to travel to the West, and the Berlin Wall was subsequently dismantled. To commemorate this world-changing event, we’re republishing an excerpt from the Foreign Mission Board’s (now IMB’s) The Commission magazine. The following excerpt was printed in January 1990, two months after East Germans were allowed to travel to the West. We hope this article will inspire you to continue praying for the people of Europe and the peoples of the world who are still behind walls that bar them from hearing the gospel.
Soldiers stand on the Berlin Wall in front of Brandenburg Gate in November 1989 and watch the crowds below. That month, East Germans were allowed to travel to the West for the first time in 28 years. Today, only remnants of the Berlin Wall still stand as a reminder of the past. — IMB photo by Joanna Pinneo
When the Berlin Wall went up in 1961, a barrier 103 miles long and 13 feet high enclosed West Berlin. It cut off some people from jobs, churches, families and friends. Several Baptist churches in West Berlin lost hundreds of members, some half their membership. In East Germany the wall was considered a necessary way to staunch the loss of its people who went West and didn’t return. At least 77 people died trying to cross the barrier.
The middle of West Berlin became one big pedestrian mall in the days after the Berlin Wall opened last November. Hundreds of thousands of East Berliners visited former homes, friends and family, [and] looked and shopped in stores they had only heard about before. At least for a time, there were no barriers of age, background or ideology. Everyone, from old West Berliners to young East Berliners, celebrated just being together. [Read more…]
FAITH SUSTAINED TENNESSEE VETERAN IN DARK DAYS OF WAR
Editor’s note: Today, Nov. 11, is Veteran’s Day. The following article is in honor/memory of the countless men and women in Tennessee and around our nation who served their country in the military.
By Lonnie Wilkey
Baptist and Reflector
World War II veteran Bob DePriest and his wife, Mary, both natives of Tennessee, now reside in Hermitage.
HERMITAGE — Robert “Bob” DePriest of Nashville had no idea when he joined the Navy in 1943 that he would witness one of the most significant events in United States military history.
Two years later, DePriest was on the island of Iwo Jima during one of the major battles of World War II.
DePriest, who was assigned to the Marines as a Navy medical corpsman, watched from afar as six Marines raised the American flag atop Mount Suribachi. A copy of the iconic photograph taken by Joe Rosenthal that day is still displayed proudly in the DePriest home in Hermitage 74 years later. [Read more…]
FBC CLARKSVILLE LOOKS TO FUTURE AFTER DROPPING PASTORAL CANDIDATE
By Chris Turner
cturner@tnbaptist.org
CLARKSVILLE — First Baptist Church, Clarksville, ended several weeks of turmoil when church leadership announced Sunday (Nov. 10) that it was officially ending its relationship with a pastoral candidate accused of “pastoral abuse.”
In each of the church’s two worship services, Mark Zirkle, chairman of deacons, read from a statement regarding the decision for the church to drop Wes Feltner as a candidate to fill the church’s vacant pastor position. During the search process, two women contacted the church’s pastoral search committee and accused Feltner of “pastoral abuse” regarding inappropriate relationships that happened 17 years ago when Feltner was their youth minister. [Read more…]
FOWLER INAUGURATED AT CARSON-NEWMAN
Carson-Newman news office
Carson-Newman University celebrated the inauguration of its 23rd president, Charles A. Fowler (center), on Nov. 8. Presenting the University’s Presidential Medallion are J. Randall O’Brien (left), the university’s 22nd president and James S. Netherton, C-N’s 21st president.
JEFFERSON CITY — In a ceremony attended by delegates of more than 40 academic institutions, associations and learned societies, Carson-Newman University inaugurated Charles A. Fowler as the 23rd president of the 168-year-old institution.
The formal Inauguration Ceremony took place Friday morning at First Baptist Church of Jefferson City. Fowler was named the University’s 23rd president in June following a unanimous vote by the institution’s Presidential Search Committee and Board of Trustees. [Read more…]
Go2 CHALLENGES COLLEGE STUDENTS TO LIVE ON MISSION
By Rebecca Manry
Baptist Press
NASHVILLE — “Lots of factors go into where someone pursues their career. Why wouldn’t the Kingdom and mission of God be the largest of those factors?”
That’s how Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear describes the motivation behind Go2, an initiative that challenges college students to commit their first two years after graduation to serving with a church plant in the US or overseas as they begin their careers. [Read more…]
MOHLER: ‘I WILL ACCEPT NOMINATION’ AS SBC PRESIDENT
By Diana Chandler
Baptist Press
BP EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was changed to reflect updated attendance and financial statistics from Third Avenue Baptist Church.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President R. Albert Mohler Jr. will accept a nomination in June 2020 to serve as Southern Baptist Convention president, he told Baptist Press Friday (Nov. 1).
“I am honored by the announcement by Pastor H. B. Charles, and I will accept nomination as president of the Southern Baptist Convention in June,” Mohler told BP. “All my life, I have sought to serve whenever asked by my denomination, and I would hope, if elected, to serve in a way that would unite Southern Baptists, strengthen our work together, add energy to our evangelism, and keep our hearts set on taking the [G]ospel to the nations.” [Read more…]
