By Chris Turner
Director of Communications, TBC

Lindy May, a senior at the University of Memphis and a member of the BCM, befriended international students there which led her to international missions service.

MEMPHIS — Lindy May stood on a busy street in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and felt utterly alone.

Horns blared as thousands of people shuttled by on bicycles and motor scooters and others hurried by on sidewalks and past storefronts. The rhythmic chaos resembled the movements within an ant colony.

Yet May felt alone, overwhelmed because she knew the semi-ornate storefront just across the street was nothing more than a facade around a doorway to a living hell. The banner hanging outside promoted Pepsi-Cola, but the real commodity inside was women — many of them still girls — enslaved and tangled in the snare of sex trafficking. Their bondage wasn’t just physical, it was spiritual, and May could sense it. [Read more…]

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

BRENTWOOD — To hear the other side tell it, abortion will be illegal in Tennessee if voters approve Amendment 1 of the state ballot on Nov. 4.

There is also a rampant myth that churches can’t legally encourage people to vote for or against public policy issues.

Nothing can be further from the truth.

Such statements are “scare tactics” offered by opponents of Amendment 1 to confuse the issues, say leaders in the state who support efforts to pass Amendment 1 in November.

Abortions are now legal in Tennessee and will continue to be legal the day after the election regardless of the outcome of the vote on Amendment 1, observed Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, based in Nashville. [Read more…]

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

Randy C. Davis, right, executive director/treasurer of the Tennessee Baptist Convention, stands with newly elected officers of the TBC Executive Board — Roc Collins, center, pastor of Indian Springs Baptist Church, Kingsport, chair; and Michael Crandall, pastor, Macedonia Baptist Church, Ripley, vice chair. — Photo by Connie Bushey

BRENTWOOD — The Executive Board adopted a budget of $34,250,000 for the 2014-15 budget year.

The action was one of several that took place during the Executive Board’s Sept. 9 meeting at Brentwood Baptist Church here.

Board members were informed that the new budget is a reduction of $2,250,000 or 6.16 percent from the 2013-14 budget. The new total is more consistent with income for the previous 12-month period, according to information supplied to board members. [Read more…]

But not spirit at Cumberland

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

LEBANON – An early morning fire on Sept. 3 destroyed the Baptist Collegiate Ministries building at Cumberland University here, but it did not destroy the spirit of those involved with the BCM.

“There are no accidents with God,” observed Dave Shelley, director of missions for Wilson County Baptist Association, which owns the BCM building. “There will be good that comes out of this,” he affirmed.

Evan Owens, BCM director at Cumberland, was notified of the fire at 5:15 a.m. by Tyler Smith, BCM president, and Nick Sackman, BCM vice president, who lived in the BCM residence apartment upstairs. [Read more…]