Baptist & Reflector

Telling the Story of Tennessee Baptists Since 1835

ISRAEL TRIP STRENGTHENS BONDS WITH STATE DOMs

By Nathan Handley

Tennessee Baptist directors of missions gather at the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem during a recent trip to Israel sponsored by Union University and the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board.

JACKSON  —  Union University and the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board partnered to send 25 directors of missions to Israel for the first time in January.

Union University President Samuel W. “Dub” Oliver led the trip alongside Nathan Finn, dean of Union’s School of Theology and Missions, and Ernest Easley, professor of evangelism at Union. Easley said he decided he wanted to send these directors of missions to Israel after realizing at their annual meeting in April that almost none of them had visited the country before. He said he was blessed to be able to work with Union to provide that opportunity. Willie McLaurin represented the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board on the trip. [Read more…]

Facebooktwittermail

‘ROLLING’ RIGHT ALONG

The dates that helped shape Rolling Hills Community Church

Fall of 2002: God leads Jeff Simmons and a few others to plant what is now “Rolling Hills Community Church.” It begins with a core team of 15 people gathering in the Alara Farms apartment clubhouse on Thursday nights (photo on right). During this time, the church develops its philosophies and begins its dedication to missions by sending a team of 18 people to Moldova. [Read more…]

Facebooktwittermail

BUILT ON FAITHFULNESS, MIRACLES

By David Dawson
Baptist and Reflector

Thriving now, Rolling Hills Community Church started as small church plant

Before moving to its new building, Rolling Hills Community Church met at the Marriott in Cool Springs — and pastor Jeff Simmons baptized new believers in the indoor swimming pool.

FRANKLIN — Jeff Simmons wasn’t so sure he wanted to start a church. He wasn’t convinced that people would come, and he wasn’t certain the church would ever get off the ground.

Then God brought something to his heart that completely changed his perspective.

“God reminded me that he hasn’t called us to be successful,” said Simmons. “He has called us to be faithful.” [Read more…]

Facebooktwittermail

TBC CP GIFTS UP

Baptist and Reflector

FRANKLIN — Tennessee Baptist Convention churches gave $3,416,389 through the Cooperative Program in January.

For the year-to-date, Cooperative Program gifts total $9,263,010.
After the first quarter of the 2017 fiscal year, gifts are $233,474 or 2.6 percent more than was given at the same time last year. CP gifts also are $638,010 or 7.4 percent above budget needs. [Read more…]

Facebooktwittermail

BEAR CREEK BAPTIST SUFFERS ‘TOTAL LOSS’

Fire destroys building; congregation stays strong

By David Dawson
Baptist and Reflector

Bear Creek Baptist Church caught fire on the night of Jan. 31.
— Photo submitted by Adam Wood.

PARSONS — On the night of Jan. 21, Adam Wood, the pastor of Bear Creek Baptist Church in Parsons, was making his normal drive home after a normal Sunday night service and business meeting.

Then things took a very abnormal turn.

Around the midway mark of his roughly 20-minute commute home, Wood received a phone call from one of the members, who told him that the church was on fire. The member had heard the call go out while listening to the police scanner. [Read more…]

Facebooktwittermail

TENNESCENE FEB. 7-20

LEADERS

Bob Brown, executive director of Lakeway Christian Schools, Morristown, is serving as interim pastor of First Baptist Church, Pigeon Forge. He formerly served on the staff of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board.

Scott Patty

Scott Patty, founding pastor of Grace Community Church, Nashville, has written Words of Grace: A 100 Day Devotional. The book is a pastor’s encouragement, written with the congregation in mind, to build a life centered on God’s Word. Each day’s reading starts with the Scripture and the devotion expands on the Scripture and is designed to shape the reader’s mind by a vision of God and stir their heart’s affection for Him. The book will be released on March 1 and is available at LifeWay Christian Stores and everywhere books are sold. [Read more…]

Facebooktwittermail

TENNESSEE PASTORS ‘PAID A BIG PRICE’

By David Roach
Baptist Press

Pastor Paul Turner of First Baptist Church in Clinton, Tenn., told the congregation Scripture “never compromises with sin” the week after he was beaten by segregationists.
– Screen capture from YouTube.

NASHVILLE — Striving for racial reconciliation was costly for some Southern Baptist pastors, (including two who served in Tennessee) in the 1950s through the 1970s. It cost Jack Kwok his property and Paul Turner a beating by angry segregationists.

But Kwok, who has served as executive director of the State Convention of Baptists in Ohio since 1996, says the price pastors and other ministers paid was worth the result. Today, though more progress is needed, nearly one in five Southern Baptist churches is non-Anglo, and about half of North American Mission Board church plants are predominantly non-Anglo. [Read more…]

Facebooktwittermail

SENIOR ADULT CONVERSIONS ON THE RISE?

By David Roach
Baptist Press

NASHVILLE — When evangelist Phil Waldrep agreed to preach a revival at a nursing home, he didn’t expect a huge response. After all, he reasoned, aren’t most older people already Christians?

But of the 40-60 nursing home residents who attended the services, 21 made a profession of faith in Christ as their Lord and Savior, and about 10 were later baptized at a local church. [Read more…]

Facebooktwittermail

AFTER ’08 TORNADO, UNION WAS ‘UNITED AS NEVER BEFORE’

Nathan Handley & Tim Ellsworth
Baptist Press

Union students join in worship during a Feb. 2 chapel service — part of a day-long celebration of the university’s recovery from a 2008 tornado. Photo by Kristi Woody/Union University

JACKSON, Tenn. — At the 10-year point since a tornado devastated the campus, Union University marked the anniversary with a day of activities Feb. 2 featuring former administrators, students and others closely involved with the event.

Former Union President David S. Dockery, in a Founders’ Day chapel address, spoke on providence, hope and unity the university experienced from the Feb. 5, 2008, tornado. [Read more…]

Facebooktwittermail

Address

4017 Rural Plains Circle
Franklin, TN 37064

Contact Information

Mail: Baptist & Reflector, P.O. Box 682789, Franklin, TN 37068
Physical Address: 4017 Rural Plains Circle, Franklin, TN 37064
Email: bandr@tnbaptist.org
Phone: 615-371-2003

2025 © The Baptist and Reflector. All Right Reserved.