LEADERS
Jason Hartley has been called as pastor of Biltmore Baptist Church, Elizabethton. He had been serving as interim pastor.
Steve Evans has been called as pastor of Pilgrim New Covenant Baptist Church in Maryville.
Five retirees of Carson-Newman University are inaugural members of the Robert Reedy Bryan Society. The recognition took place during C-N’s May 6 spring undergraduate commencement featuring 303 graduates. Those honored were Vickie Butler, Mark Heinrich, Mary Phipps, Frank Pinkerton and Joe Bill Sloan. Named after the university’s second president, the society honors the dedicated and selfless service of retired faculty, staff and others whose service to the university is exceptional and meritorious. The society is named for Robert Reedy Bryan, who in 1849 joined four other men under an oak tree and discussed the need for a Baptist college in East Tennessee. His vision, along with that of the other four, forever etched them into Carson-Newman lore as “The Oak Tree Five.” Bryan served as primary professor of what began as Mossy Creek Missionary Baptist Seminary, as well as its second and sixth president. He provided extensive fundraising and bold leadership to the school devastated by the Civil War. [Read more…]