Telling the Story of Tennessee Baptists Since 1835
Baptist and Reflector
MOUNT JULIET — An urgent need still exists for Tennessee volunteers to help flood victims, according to Wes Jones, Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief specialist.
Volunteers with different gifts and skills are needed. “Almost anyone can help,” Jones added.
In West Virginia, anyone with some construction skills — whether or not they are a disaster relief volunteer — can help the many flood victims there get into their homes before winter comes. [Read more…]
Baptist and Reflector
BRENTWOOD — Tennessee Baptist Convention churches gave $3,140,779 through the Cooperative Program in August. It was the fourth time during this budget year that gifts exceeded $3 million in a month.
For the year-to-date, Tennessee Baptists have given $29,139,559.
With two months to go in the current fiscal year the amount is $1,278,882 or 4.6 percent over the amount given at the same time last year and is $597,892 over current budget needs.
“It is humbling and encouraging to see Tennessee Baptist churches growing in their giving through the Cooperative Program to financially support Great Commission ministries in Tennessee and around the globe,” said TBC Executive Director Randy C. Davis.
Baptist and Reflector
BRENTWOOD — When the books closed on Aug. 31 for the 2015-16 Golden Offering for Tennessee Missions, the final tally for the year totaled $1,713,258.
The total was a 5.3 percent increase over the amount given for the 2014-15 GOTM. In addition, 1,220 churches gave to the offering in 2015-16, a net increase of 44 over the previous year.
This year’s increase is an important step as Tennessee Baptists move forward in their GOTM goal of realizing an increase in annual giving for the Golden Offering for Tennessee Missions that reaches at least $3 million by 2024 (Objective 5). [Read more…]
By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
BRENTWOOD — The Tennessee Baptist Convention’s annual Summit: The Gathering of Tennessee Baptists is expanding this year.
As always, the Summit (scheduled for Nov. 13-17) will include the Tennessee Baptist Pastors Conference and the annual business meeting, but this year will include the “Tennessee Reunion” on Sunday night, Nov. 13, and a golf tournament on Thursday, Nov. 17. [Read more…]
The Committee on Boards respectfully submits the following report to the messengers to the annual meeting of the Tennessee Baptist Convention and recommends its adoption and therefore the election of the individuals listed to the boards and committees and terms as indicated. The Committee represents to the messengers that each individual meets the criteria for the position as defined by the Convention bylaws, including the requirement that persons elected to a position “will if elected, covenant to serve in accordance with, and not contrary to, the Baptist Faith and Message 2000.”
By Diana Chandler
Baptist Press
NASHVILLE (BP) — When two fellow classmates approached Rachel Joy Scott on the lawn of Columbine High School and questioned her belief in Jesus, she affirmed her faith and was shot to death at point-blank range.
The story of her martyrdom has been told perhaps countless times in books, sermons and interviews in the past 20 years, but Pure Flix Entertainment hopes its upcoming film of Scott’s 17 years on earth inspires students nationally to accept and boldly proclaim Jesus as Lord and Savior.
Beginning a month in advance of the Oct. 21 opening of “I’m Not Ashamed,” the Pure Flix Faith and Family Alliance ministry and ad hoc partners will kick off the national six-week “I Am Hope” evangelistic and discipleship movement targeting students. [Read more…]
By Aaron Earls
LifeWay Christian Resources
As Louisiana recovers from historic flooding, LifeWay Christian Resources wants to help churches, pastors and other victims. Part of the effort includes restoring Bible study material and pastoral libraries lost in the floodwaters.
-Photo provided by Baptist Message.
NASHVILLE (BP) — As Louisiana recovers from historic flooding, LifeWay Christian Resources wants to help churches, pastors and other victims.
Part of the effort includes restoring Bible study material and pastoral libraries lost in the floodwaters.
“LifeWay provides biblical solutions for life,” said Thom Rainer, president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources. “We want to support these pastors and churches during the good times, but even more during the difficult times. Replacing some of what was lost is a way for LifeWay to stand with pastors and churches through these heartbreaking circumstances.” [Read more…]
By Connie Davis Bushey
News Editor, Baptist and Reflector
Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers pause Sept. 1 during their work with homeowner Mary Hillen in Denham Springs, La. They are members of a team led by Woodland Baptist Church, Brownsville. From left are Lee Eyster; David White; Hillen; and Bill Cox, pastor, Trinity Baptist Church, Brighton.
DENHAM SPRINGS, La. — Bert Porch of Woodland Baptist Church, Brownsville, felt for Mary Hillen of Denham Springs. As she stood in her gutted living room, Hillen, a widow, explained that her family and friends had helped her but couldn’t do it all.
She still needed help and didn’t have flood insurance to pay for it. The disaster relief team of 11 led by Woodland Baptist began removing commodes, shower tile, and insulation and then sprayed for mold.
“There was mud on her chandelier,” said Porch. The water in her house was about 7 feet deep as 31 inches of rain fell in a few days, he added.
“When you see the amount of damage our help was definitely needed. There’s no way in this size of disaster for people to completely help themselves,” said Porch. [Read more…]
Baptist Press
NASHVILLE — Nearly a third of the 102 institutions of higher education on a pro-homosexual activist group’s list of “the absolute worst colleges for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth” have Southern Baptist ties.
All schools on the list, which was published Aug. 29 by the college-focused organization Campus Pride, have a religious affiliation, with the vast majority affirming historic, orthodox Christianity. Thirty-one institutions listed (30.4 percent) cooperate either with the Southern Baptist Convention or a Baptist state convention that partners with the SBC. [Read more…]
By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
Ternae “T.J.” Jordan Jr., left, recently attended a meeting at the Tennessee Baptist Con-vention’s rented office space in Brentwood with his father, Ternae Jordan Sr., center, and his brother, Jamichael. The elder Jordan is pastor of Mount Canaan Baptist Church, Chattanooga, while T.J. is his assistant pastor.
BRENTWOOD — Just looking at Ternae “T.J.” Jordan Jr., one would never suspect that that he once lay in a hospital bed with a bullet in his head, fighting for his life.
More than 23 years later, Jordan still has that bullet in his head but he has no visible scars at the bullet’s entry point.
He now serves as assistant pastor at Mount Canaan Baptist Church, Chattanooga, where his father (Ternae Jordan Sr.) is serving as pastor.
T.J. Jordan, then 15, and his sister, Dejuan, were sitting in a local YMCA (in Indiana where his father was serving as pastor at the time) after taking piano lessons, waiting to be picked up by their mother, when he was hit by a stray bullet fired during a fight outside the facility. [Read more…]
