Van Nestie

According to the latest reports, more than 12 percent of Tennessee Baptist churches are without a pastor. That is about 400 churches. Among the pastors we do have, the average age is increasing dramatically because fewer and fewer young men are entering the ministry, and men who are ready to retire must be pressed back into service. 

Our rural churches are particularly hard hit. Many of the people of God are shepherdless at a time when there are four million lost people in Tennessee. 

I am most accustomed to thinking of international missions when I read Matthew 9:35-38, but it is also true of Tennessee. “And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.  [Read more…]

Lonnie Wilkey

Two weeks ago I traveled to southeastern Kentucky to provide news coverage of rebuilding efforts from flooding which hit that region last summer. See articles and photos in this issue.

I was in Newport, so I plugged in the address in my phone’s GPS and off I went.

For this particular destination, my GPS took me up through Tazewell, into Harrogate and across the state line into Kentucky. 

Normally, when I am on the road I am supposed to be, I check the mileage to the next turn off and the name of the road. Unfortunately, I neglected to follow my usual routine. [Read more…]

According to the dictionary, the term New Year’s resolutions is defined as “making goals for the New Year.” We aren’t certain when this custom started, but this practice was recorded by early Babylonians more than 4,000 years ago. These people believed that whatever that person did on the first day of the year had an important impact on their life for the next 12 months. 

As 2023 begins, Tennessee Baptist families will be optimistically setting New Year’s resolutions. The most common goals for adults include: to eat healthier, get more exercise and to save more money. But what about our children and youth? How can parents and teachers use this time to honor God and to find a way to serve Him and others?  [Read more…]

Tennessee is the home I’ve returned to after 18 years away. My life as a Baptist missionary has taken me across four continents and through many cultures. I left Tennessee from the parking lot of my small Baptist church with no expectations of ever returning. I left a young man, but returned as a family. 

During my travels, God gave to me a beautiful wife and two wonderful boys. For the first time my children call Tennessee home. They have learned to read English and speak with my accent. Yet, it is easy to mistake changes within me for changes around me. As I have visited and preached in many churches this past year, change constantly confronts me. 

Online-church and offering apps, now commonplace, didn’t exist in the Tennessee of my youth. In the years of my absence, our churches have endured seismic political shifts, an unrelenting pandemic and this faltering economy.  [Read more…]

It may be that the best thing you can do for your kids is to sit the whole family down and have dinner together. Research is showing that there is a significant number of kids who never actually sit down with their family to enjoy a meal together, and it may be that parents are the ones who are contributing to a society that is more overweight, more anxious and more depressed. 

Sure, if Johnny doesn’t make it to football practice, he may not perform as well on the field. If Suzy doesn’t make it to ballet practice, she may not dance like she should. While those realities may be true, we need to realize that Johnny will probably never be a professional athlete, and Suzy probably is not going to dance on Broadway. 

As much as we might want our kids to excel in sports, music and other extra-curricular activities, we need to remember that if our kids don’t ever eat with their families, they may not do well on life’s stage.  [Read more…]

Paul Chitwood

“Will you make the first and most expensive Christmas gift this year a gift to our Global Missions Offering?” Sitting in the sanctuary of Calvary Baptist Church in Winston Salem, N.C., on the first Sunday of December, I heard pastor Will Toburen ask that question of his congregation. 

Why does generous giving to support missionaries matter? Reality for every human being is this: No matter where they are, who they are, where they have been or where they are going, who they know, what they do, whether or not they have an education, whether they can or cannot see, can or cannot hear, can or cannot walk, live in plenty or poverty, enjoy peace or endure war, whether they are free or imprisoned, sober or addicted, short or tall, eastern or western, tribal or urban, Asian, European, African or Middle Eastern, it is appointed unto every human being, once to die, but after this the judgment. 

The author of Hebrews states this clearly: “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (9:27). John’s vision, recorded in Revelation 20, reveals the consequences of that judgment: “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (v. 15). Because all have sinned, no one who is apart from Christ is able to escape God’s judgment, nor the eternal consequences of their sin. 

This is the world’s greatest problem. [Read more…]

Obstacles are real! Have you ever noticed that everywhere you go, you are always facing obstacles? Some of these obstacles are relatively small, but at other times we face obstacles that look insurmountable from our point of view. 

As we enter into 2023, the outlook seems to be filled with many obstacles. For some, the obstacle is a financial one either in your own life or at the church. Recession is a reality that affects all of us on many levels. For others, the obstacle may be related to your family or your fitness. Still, for others the obstacle is one of faith. 

I talked to a lot of our Tennessee Baptist Convention family at the 2022 Summit and discovered that many are struggling with their faith. It is not that they are uncertain of their salvation, but they are struggling to trust their all to God because of the many obstacles, anxieties and distractions they are facing in both their lives and in ministry. 

I am reminded of the story of Joshua and the people of God approaching the walls of Jericho in Joshua 5. The obstacle of Jericho’s walls is an obstacle that many of us can identify with as God’s people. [Read more…]