Baptist & Reflector

Telling the Story of Tennessee Baptists Since 1835

PASTORS CONFERENCE ELECTS OFFICERS

Baptist and Reflector

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Randy C. Davis, executive director/treasurer of the Tennessee Baptist Convention recognized new and outgoing officers during the final session of the 2015 Pastors Conference held Nov. 9 at First Baptist Church, Millington. From left are Jim Collier, Kirby Woods Baptist Church, Memphis, 2017 president-elect; Todd Stinnett, Black Oak Heights Baptist Church, Knoxville, 2016 president; Michael Crandall, Hillcrest Baptist Church, Dyersburg, secretary-treasurer; Steve Gaines, Bellevue Baptist Church, Cordova outgoing president; and Davis. -Photo by Corinne Williams

MILLINGTON – Todd Stinnett, senior pastor of Black Oak Heights Baptist Church, Knoxville, will serve as president of the 2016 Tennessee Baptist Pastors Conference.

Stinnett served this past year as president-elect with 2015 Pastors Conference president Steve Gaines, senior pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church, Cordova. [Read more…]

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BCMS ON OPPOSITE ENDS OF STATE JOIN FORCES

Baptist Collegiate Ministries students from UTK and UofM stand at a station they offered at the University of Memphis. From left are Mason Thornton, Miranda Smith, Catherine Sharp, Katlyn Luthi, Vincent Nutt, Alex Rosas, Joe Drummer, associate pastor – college, Calvary Baptist Church, Knoxville, and Rebekah Luebbe.

Baptist Collegiate Ministries students from UTK and UofM stand at a station they offered at the University of Memphis. From left are Mason Thornton, Miranda Smith, Catherine Sharp, Katlyn Luthi, Vincent Nutt, Alex Rosas, Joe Drummer, associate pastor – college, Calvary Baptist Church, Knoxville, and Rebekah Luebbe.

By Connie Davis Bushey
News Editor, Baptist and Reflector

MEMPHIS — A Baptist Collegiate Ministries group in the state recently served “in partnership,” as one BCM director put it, with another BCM group in Tennessee. The BCM at the University of Tennessee – Knoxville, served with the BCM at the University of Memphis on the UofM campus as part of the fall missions trip of UTK BCM.

State BCM groups from several schools have worked together before, but this cooperative effort was very unusual in that one group considered the campus as a missions field and ministered there, said Bill Choate, collegiate ministries director for the Tennessee Baptist Convention. [Read more…]

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FBC MORRISTOWN WELCOMES HELP FROM TENNESSEANS

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

Volunteers from First Baptist Church, Morristown, circle to pray for a container of supplies that will be sent to the Holy Land as part of the church’s Harvest of Israel Missions Initiative. The church has sent seven 40-foot containers to Israel over the last four years.

Volunteers from First Baptist Church, Morristown, circle to pray for a container of supplies that will be sent to the Holy Land as part of the church’s Harvest of Israel Missions Initiative. The church has sent seven 40-foot containers to Israel over the last four years.

BRENTWOOD — In September the Executive Board of the Tennessee Baptist Convention approved a two-year volunteer missions initiative with First Baptist Church, Morristown.

Tennessee Baptist churches and associations are invited to join forces with First Baptist Church for the Harvest of Israel Missions Initiative. A partnership initiative involves the convention partnering with a TBC church to help them with a specific work, said Kim Margrave, volunteer missions specialist for the Tennessee Baptist Convention.

“The partnership initiative with First Baptist Church, Morristown, working with the Harvest of Israel Ministry, will give our churches an opportunity to be involved with on-the-ground ministry through the filling of containers that will be shipped to help ministry partners share the gospel,” Margrave said. [Read more…]

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COUPLE MAKES LONG-TERM COMMITMENT

Dale & Frances Matthews provide home, long-term care to 10 special needs children

By Connie Davis Bushey
News Editor, Baptist and Reflector

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Dale and Frances Matthews stand outside their home in Rutherford with 10 of their 11 adopted children and a friend who is staying with them. From left are, seated, Olivia, 17; Leah, 20; Elizabeth, 24; and Jesse, 22; standing, Tucker, 20; Joshua, 21; Dale; Kimberly, 33; Frances; Nicholas, 23; Emily, 21; Josh Baum, 18; and McKenna, 14.

RUTHERFORD — Dale Matthews admits that he was “drug kicking and screaming” into his current situation, which is being a father to 11 special needs children, including 10 who are still in their home.

With a smile, he blames Frances, his wife, who sheepishly agrees that she was the instigator. She has always been drawn to children and wanted a big family, she explained.

Frances operated a day care and they fostered over 100 children before they adopted their first special needs child in 1991. Many of the children they had fostered were challenges because they were teenagers so in that way they had some preparation, explained Frances. At that time, Dale was still in the U.S. Air Force. He retired after 21 years. They also have two other children who aren’t special needs. [Read more…]

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RACISM SATAN’S TOOL, FLOYD TELLS BAPTISTS

By Diana Chandler
Baptist Press

SBC President Ronnie Floyd and Jerry Young, president of the National Baptist Convention USA, Inc., delivered joint keynote addresses at Mission Mississippi's racial reconciliation celebration at the Jackson Convention Center Nov. 4.

SBC President Ronnie Floyd and Jerry Young, president of the National Baptist Convention USA, Inc., delivered joint keynote addresses at Mission Mississippi’s racial reconciliation celebration at the Jackson Convention Center Nov. 4.

JACKSON, Miss. (BP) — Racism is from Satan and his demonic forces, and the only hope for its defeat is the church of Jesus Christ united across societal divisions, Southern Baptist Convention President Ronnie Floyd told a culturally diverse group of Baptists in Mississippi Nov. 4.

“I believe that the issue of racism is from Satan and the demonic forces of hell,” Floyd told hundreds gathered at Mission Mississippi’s racial reconciliation celebration at the Jackson Convention Center. “Racism is completely opposite from the message of Jesus Christ; it is completely opposite of the message of love, it is completely opposite of the message of dignity, value and the sanctity of human life. It is completely opposite of the message of reconciliation.”

Floyd spoke to Southern Baptists, National Baptists and others at the event aimed at exhorting and energizing pastors and the church to demonstrate the love of God in ending racism in Mississippi and the nation.

“One of the reasons I came to this city was to notify Satan and his demonic forces that … enough is enough,” Floyd said. “The power of God is greater than the forces of evil, even the evil of racism, because greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world.” [Read more…]

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MISSIONARIES MAKE TOUGH DECISION

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

Peter & Jennie Stillman

Peter & Jennie Stillman

MOUNT JULIET – Jennie and Peter Stillman, 35-year career missionaries with the Southern Baptist International Mission Board, were pre­paring to leave for Tennessee for stateside assignment in September when they received notice in late August that the IMB was going to have to reduce its missionary/staff personnel by 600-800 people.

The first wave of cuts was slated to come from voluntary reti­r­­ement ­incentives for missionaries/staff over the age of 50 who have been with the IMB for at least five years. [Read more…]

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VOLUNTEERS PROVIDE HELP, HOPE

Tennessee Baptist DR volunteers continue to help South Carolina flood victims

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

A disaster relief team from First Baptist Church, Sevierville, gathers around to pray for Joe Ashley McClary Jr., and his friend Gail Hill. The team provided flood recovery for a home located on the banks of the Black River owned by McClary’s mother.

A disaster relief team from First Baptist Church, Sevierville, gathers around to pray for Joe Ashley McClary Jr., and his friend Gail Hill. The team provided flood recovery for a home located on the banks of the Black River owned by McClary’s mother.

MANNING, S.C. — Driving past homes in the low country region of South Carolina between Columbia and the coast, one might not suspect that less than a month ago many roads were impassable.

And, unless there was the obvious sign of water-logged furniture piled across the front yard awaiting trash pickup, one might not suspect that as much as 24 inches of rain fell upon the area in a three-day period between Oct. 3-5.

Yet, looks can be deceiving. Just ask the owners of those homes whose furniture and belongings have not been removed and the stench of mold and mildew fill the air.

Unfortunately, a month following the historic flooding caused by Hurricane Joaquin, there are many homes still untouched. And, numerous others that have been cleaned out still face massive rebuilding efforts. Some residents have insurance to handle the cost of remodeling/rebuilding. The majority of them do not. [Read more…]

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CHURCH PUTS OTHERS BEFORE SELF

Gives large gifts to Southern Baptist missions/ministries while building new facility

By Connie Davis Bushey
News Editor, Baptist and Reflector

David Worley, right, pastor, Bethel Baptist Church, Greenfield, thanks Jeff Perkins, worship leader of the church and chair of the building committee, on Oct. 18. From left are other members of the building committee, Larry Pentecost, Judy Huffstetler, and Martha Allen. Not pictured is Jeff Rush.

David Worley, right, pastor, Bethel Baptist Church, Greenfield, thanks Jeff Perkins, worship leader of the church and chair of the building committee, on Oct. 18. From left are other members of the building committee, Larry Pentecost, Judy Huffstetler, and Martha Allen. Not pictured is Jeff Rush.

GREENFIELD — Bethel Baptist Church here celebrated a momentus day on Oct. 18. The congregation began meeting in its new facility.

Church members did this with a clear conscience — they had continued their tradition of strong support for Southern Baptist missions and ministries while building the facility.

The new $3.5 million facility was built over the past couple of years, said David Worley, pastor.

During that period the only basic change in the financial situation and plan of the church was the increased total giving which was up from 2014 by 41 percent. Members were asked to help pay off the building debt so they gave designated gifts to the building fund which may have led to that increase, explained Worley. [Read more…]

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SUMMIT BEGINS NEXT WEEK IN MILLINGTON

By Chris Turner
Director of Communications, TBC

151103ReachNOW_LogoBRENTWOOD — It will be a convention of milestones when Tennessee Baptists gather for the annual Summit next week at First Baptist Church, Millington.

This year is the 180th anniversary of the Baptist an­d ­Ref­lector, the convention’s newspaper and one of the oldest continuously published newspapers in the country; it is the 90th anniversary of the Cooperative Program, which was created in 1924 in Memphis (and launched in 1925) at the annual meeting of Southern Baptists; and it is the Tennessee Baptist Convention’s 35th anniversary of partnership missions. It also brings to a conclusion the term of Michael Ellis, the TBC’s first-ever African-American president.

“It has been an amazing year of traveling across our state, preaching and seeing God at work,” Ellis said. “It is a real privilege and a joy to be serving as president as Tennessee Baptists come to West Tennessee for the Summit. It is going to be a great meeting and I look forward to the Pastors Conference speakers and then being together with our larger Tennessee Baptist family.” [Read more…]

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THREAT OF DIVORCE HARD TO SPOT AMONG CHURCHGOING COUPLES

By Lisa Cannon Green
LifeWay News

church divorce survey 3NASHVILLE – Before a divorce, churchgoers in troubled marriages look a lot like their happily married counterparts at church—participating, serving, and leading at similar rates.

After a divorce, the differences can be stark. Twenty percent have dropped out of church entirely. In many cases, their children have stopped attending too. A third give less to the church than they did before. Their churches report leadership voids and fractured relationships.

Yet pastors may have difficulty helping couples save their marriages, because churchgoers on the brink of separation often keep quiet at church about their marital woes.

Those are among the findings of new research by Nashville-based LifeWay Research. The study, sponsored by Focus on the Family, surveyed Protestant pastors, churchgoing Americans in healthy marriages, and churchgoing Americans who divorced in the past five years. [Read more…]

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