Baptist & Reflector

Telling the Story of Tennessee Baptists Since 1835

GHOST TOWN CHURCH SEES HOLY GHOST REVIVAL

By David Roach
Baptist Press

Faith Christian Fellowship in Organ, N.M., has seen 500 percent growth over the past four years despite its location in an area classified as a ghost town. -Photo by Joe Seale

Faith Christian Fellowship in Organ, N.M., has seen 500 percent growth over the past four years despite its location in an area classified as a ghost town.
-Photo by Joe Seale

ORGAN, N.M. (BP) — With numerous dilapidated buildings and only 323 residents according to the 2010 U.S. census, Organ, N.M., appears on at least one website listing American ghost towns. But Pastor Mitch Newton prefers to think of it as a Holy Ghost town because of the surprising work God has done through the town’s Baptist church.

Over the past three years, Faith Christian Fellowship has grown from five worship attendees to more than 25. The congregation has baptized six people over that span, with three more baptisms scheduled for the coming weeks.

On one occasion, a man jumped in the baptistery while his 80-year-old parents were being baptized, professed that he also wanted to be saved and was baptized with them.

“God is so faithful,” Newton, 71, told Baptist Press. “… He is doing the whole work. I don’t do anything. I just open my mouth” after a week of study and preparation, “and we let the Lord take it from there.” [Read more…]

Facebooktwittermail

TENNESSEE LEGISLATORS KILL BATHROOM BILL

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

public restroom signs male female gender bathroom toiletNASHVILLE — Tennessee state legislators will not act upon the so-called “bathroom bill” for the second consecutive year.

The bathroom bill (SB771) would prohibit public schools from having policies that would allow students to use the bathroom or locker room of their choice based on what sex the student chooses to be. [Read more…]

Facebooktwittermail

‘JESUS’ FILM REACHES MILLIONS

Baptist Press

A group of kids in South Asia watch a version of the "JESUS" film adapted for children. Since the film was first released in 1979, it has been reworked and adapted many times for different audiences in addition to being translated into 1,500 languages.

A group of kids in South Asia watch a version of the “JESUS” film adapted for children. Since the film was first released in 1979, it has been reworked and adapted many times for different audiences in addition to being translated into 1,500 languages.

ORLANDO — The “Jesus” film will be translated into its 1,500th language this month.

Josh Newell, the Jesus Film Project’s director of marketing and communications, told Baptist Press that the latest translation — into Daasanach, a language spoken by an ethnic group inhabiting parts of Ethiopia, Kenya, and Sudan — is part of the project’s initiative to reach the world’s remaining 865 language groups that have 50,000 or more speakers.

It’s a “big milestone,” Newell said — “a celebration of a partnership from Bible translators to church planters to individuals who use it throughout the world to reach people from far-flung corners to city high rises.” [Read more…]

Facebooktwittermail

TEAM SEES 9,000-PLUS DECISIONS

Baptist and Reflector

Latonya Chilcutt of Woodland Baptist Church, Brownsville, shares a testimony during a crusade in the Philippines.

Latonya Chilcutt of Woodland Baptist Church, Brownsville, shares a testimony during a crusade in the Philippines.

SOMERVILLE — A team of nine missions volunteers serving on the Cross Partners Ministry team recently returned from two weeks in the Republic of the Philippines where they served with about 40 churches in three different Baptist associations.  

The team participated in more than 100 evangelistic crusades with Filipino Baptists on Luzon Island and saw 8,663 professions of faith and more than 400 other decisions for Jesus Christ.    [Read more…]

Facebooktwittermail

HELPING REFUGEES IN LIGHT OF U.S. POLICY

By Connie Davis Bushey
News Editor, Baptist and Reflector

Ilsa Nagel, a student at Belmont University, Nashville, tutors Sangolo Mtambala, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo, during a tutoring session at Woodmont Baptist Church, Nashville. Mtambala is a member of the Swahili Baptist Church of Woodmont, which meets at Woodmont.

Ilsa Nagel, a student at Belmont University, Nashville, tutors Sangolo Mtambala, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo, during a tutoring session at Woodmont Baptist Church, Nashville. Mtambala is a member of the Swahili Baptist Church of Woodmont, which meets at Woodmont.

NASHVILLE — Refugee resettlement is in the news.

President Donald Trump recently issued a revised policy on refugee resettlement in the United States which is being challenged in court.

Refugee resettlement agencies are downsizing and closing offices in Tennessee in response.

Tennessee became the first state in the nation to sue the federal government over refugee resettlement. The lawsuit filed on March 13 argues that the federal government has unduly forced states to pay for the refugee resettlement program, reported The Tennessean.  [Read more…]

Facebooktwittermail

DISCIPLE-MAKING TASK FORCE CONTINUES

By Diana Chandler
Baptist Press

Robby Gallaty

Robby Gallaty

NASHVILLE — A group tasked with encouraging and teaching disciple-making among Southern Baptist churches will extend its work an additional year, task force chairman Robby Gallaty told Baptist Press.

Gallaty, hosting a task force meeting here March 9, said the group will not issue a report at the 2017 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Phoenix. The task force will instead seek an additional year to evaluate discipleship and strategize. They plan to give their report at the 2018 SBC annual meeting in Dallas. [Read more…]

Facebooktwittermail

TENNESCENE MAR. 22-APR. 4

SCHOOLS

For the fourth year in a row, Carson-Newman University’s forensics team won the Tennessee Intercollegiate Forensics Association state championship. Capturing the university’s ninth state championship in 11 years, the Carson-Newman team placed first with a total of 325 points, while the team from Middle Tennessee State placed second with 165 points.

Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary, based in Cordova, and Crossroads Baptist Church, Eads, will present the passion play, “The Scarlet Thread,” April 7-9 in the chapel of Mid-America Seminary. It will be directed by James Whitmire. For more information, contact www.MABTS.edu/PassionPlay or 901-751-8453. [Read more…]

Facebooktwittermail

ERLC ‘UNITY’ STATEMENT PRAISED BY GAINES, GRAHAM

By David Roach
Baptist Press

ERLC President Russell Moore (right) -- pictured here at a 2015 press conference with then-SBC Resolutions Committee chairman Steve Gaines -- was commended by Gaines following release of a March 20 extended statement, "Seeking Unity in the Southern Baptist Convention." -BP file photo by Bill Bangham

ERLC President Russell Moore (right) — pictured here at a 2015 press conference with then-SBC Resolutions Committee chairman Steve Gaines — was commended by Gaines following release of a March 20 extended statement, “Seeking Unity in the Southern Baptist Convention.”
-BP file photo by Bill Bangham

NASHVILLE (BP) — An extended statement by Russell Moore and the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission executive committee, “Seeking Unity in the Southern Baptist Convention,” has drawn praise from SBC President Steve Gaines and former SBC President Jack Graham among others.

Meanwhile, Christian worldview analyst John Stonestreet said in a radio interview that controversy surrounding Moore, the ERLC’s president, gives Southern Baptists an opportunity to “model what it looks like to have deeply held differences … on political issues” yet “keep the main things the main things and move forward in a way that improves the reputation of the Gospel.” [Read more…]

Facebooktwittermail

RALLY: TALK ABOUT JESUS AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY

By Nathan Handley
Union University

Steve Gaines speaks March 5 at the second annual West Tennessee Evangelism Rally in Union University’s G.M. Savage Memorial Chapel. -Photo by Kristi Woody

Steve Gaines speaks March 5 at the second annual West Tennessee Evangelism Rally in Union University’s G.M. Savage Memorial Chapel.
-Photo by Kristi Woody

JACKSON — Steve Gaines, pastor at Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova and president of the Southern Baptist Convention, said evangelism should be the priority of every Christian.

“Heaven and hell are looming in the balance, and that’s a lot more important than anything else,” Gaines said March 5 at the West Tennessee Evangelism Rally at Union University.

Gaines was the featured preacher at the rally, sponsored by Union and the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board. He spoke to pastors and church members from churches across the West Tennessee area. [Read more…]

Facebooktwittermail

MOORE, ERLC TRUSTEES ISSUE ‘SEEKING UNITY’ STATEMENT

By Art Toalston
Baptist Press

Russell Moore -BP file photo.

Russell Moore
-BP file photo.

NASHVILLE (BP) — An extended statement, “Seeking Unity in the Southern Baptist Convention,” has been issued by Russell Moore and the executive committee of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.

Moore, in a 1,691-word portion of the March 20 statement, clarified criticism he had leveled at Christians who supported Donald Trump for president in the November 2016 election.

The ERLC executive committee, in a 536-word portion of the statement, affirmed Moore’s ongoing leadership as president of the SBC entity. [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.