Baptist & Reflector

Telling the Story of Tennessee Baptists Since 1835

IMB: MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

Lonnie Wilkey

Lonnie Wilkey

Earlier this year when the Southern Baptist International Mission Board announced that it needed to eliminate 600-800 positions, Southern Baptists were saddened and shocked.

IMB leaders have allowed the idea to propagate among Southern Baptists that there is a financial shortfall. The cutbacks did not occur because Southern Baptists didn’t give. Cooperative Program giving on the national level has increased in small increments over the past few years and the IMB gets the largest percentage of that offering. Just three years ago (2013), Southern Baptists gave more than $154 million to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, a record amount. Gifts topped $153 million the following year. In addition, the TBC began moving in 2011 toward a 50-50 distribution of wealth for Cooperative Program funds. This is resulting in hundreds of thousands of more dollars being funneled out of Tennessee and through the SBC for Great Commission causes. When the cutbacks were announced IMB leaders acknowledged that they had overspent millions of dollars over the past few years. Throwing more money at something won’t help it until the main problem of managing its money is corrected. [Read more…]

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I LOVE TO TELL THE STORY

By Randy C. Davis
TBC Executive Director

Randy C. Davis

Randy C. Davis

I love a good story and I love good storytellers and that may be one of the reasons I love the Bible. Talk about good stories. Begin at Genesis and read all the way through and you have real people living lives of suspense, drama, espionage, intrigue, romance, comedy, and more. However, the greatest story in the Bible is the overarching story of God’s activity in history culminating in the crucifixion and resurrection of His Son to save His enemies, to save us. What a story.

My friend and state missionary, Paul Clark Jr., and I share a favorite hymn: “I Love to Tell the Story.” I really love telling God’s story and I especially love sharing it with my grandkids. That’s exactly what the Bible tells us to do. Psalm 145:4 says, “One generation shall praise Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts.” [Read more…]

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SPORTS: AN AMERICAN ‘BAAL’

By Mark Schutzius
Associate & Youth Pastor, Mount Vernon Baptist Church, Halls

sports, fans, basketball, arena, worship, audience, people, gymLet me preface everything I’m about to say with this: I love sports. I played organized sports all the way through high school and college and I follow just about every major sport. I do not think anything involving a ball is of the devil.

I want to tackle this subject with patience, grace, understanding, and honesty. In Jeremiah, the southern kingdom of Judah had fallen so far from God that they had committed hideous acts for the sake of worshiping their false gods, especially Baal. Read Jeremiah 19:4-5. [Read more…]

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THE CP STILL WORKS

By Paul Chitwood
Executive Director, Kentucky Baptist Convention

cplogoI received a letter recently from one of our International Mission Board missionaries who is taking the early retirement offer from the IMB but desires to return to the field. Without support from the IMB, the missionary is hoping to raise his own support from his network of relationships with pastors, associational directors of missions, and laypeople who might donate to his cause. Knowing all of the challenges that accompany “faith-funded” missions work, I felt great sympathy for this dear brother. Instead of remaining on the field, he is taking precious time away from the gospel work in order to raise financial support and will live with the stress of knowing his work is always in jeopardy if the pledges of support aren’t kept.

As much as my heart went out to this faithful brother, the letter also reminded me of my calling and how grateful I am for the churches and pastors who support Great Commission work through the Cooperative Program. Why am I so thankful? Four reasons rise to the top among many. [Read more…]

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DAD PONDERS QUESTION, ‘IS CHRISTMAS DONE?’

By Todd Brady
Vice President For University Ministries, Union University, Jackson

Todd Brady

Todd Brady

Although 2015 Christmas celebrations are getting smaller and smaller in our rear view mirrors, a recent question by my toddler several weeks ago continues to linger in my head. On the first Friday in December, we gathered with friends for one of the holiday’s first Christmas parties. We enjoyed the tasty food and the great conversation. A unique twist on our Christmas ornament gift exchange had us all cracking up. It was a lot of fun.

As our family began gathering our things and heading out the door to go back home, 3-year-old Miller grabbed my pants leg and asked “Is Christmas done?” [Read more…]

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REMINISCENCES OF A DECEASED FRIEND

By Chris Turner
Director of Communications, Tennessee Baptist Convention

Chris Turner

Chris Turner

An old and influential friend died Jan. 13 and the best way I know to honor my friend is to reminisce about the good times.

My friend actually isn’t a person, it is – or was – the communications department of the International Mission board made up of extremely gifted people who became my friends. At one time, many of these friends, before I knew them as friends, bordered on being my idols. I read their stories, I gazed endlessly at their photos and let their videos wash over me. I wanted to be like them.

The writers who produced copy for The Commission magazine were rock stars to me. I knew them by name and could give you a rundown of their story packages from around the world like reciting stats from the back of a Ryne Sandberg baseball card. I still can 20 years later. People like Erich Bridges, Mike Creswell, Don Martin, Craig Bird, Mark Kelly, Marty Croll, Mary Jane Welch and Anita Bowden took me places I had to find in an atlas. And then there was Mary Speidel. [Read more…]

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NEWSPAPERS MOST EFFECTIVE IN PRINT, ONLINE

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

Lonnie Wilkey

Lonnie Wilkey

As a person who has spent the better part of his career and adult life in the production of newspapers, it is sad whenever I hear that a print publication has “bit the dust.”

Such was the case last week  as I held the last print copy of the The Christian Index in my hand. The Christian Index has been in existence for 193 years, making it older than the Baptist and Reflector which celebrated its 180th anniversary last year.

The Christian Index has long laid claim to the fact that it is the oldest continuously published religious periodical in the nation. [Read more…]

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DO YOU SUFFER FROM SPIRITUAL INERTIA?

By Randy C. Davis
TBC Executive Director

Randy C. Davis

Randy C. Davis

Winston Churchill could see the dark clouds gathering above Germany and drifting across Europe. It was the early 1930s and the future British Prime Minister repeatedly sounded the alarm at the growing German military might under the direction of Adolph Hitler. Churchill was often shouted down and ridiculed for what many considered much ado about nothing. The “British Bulldog” recognized his countrymen were overcome with a “political inertia” that endangered Great Britain’s future. “Spiritual inertia” endangers Christians, and especially pastors and ministry leaders if they don’t remain vigilant. The word inertia means, “lack of movement or continuous movement in a particular direction unless affected by something that alters that direction.” Another way we might define inertia is, “stuck in a rut.” [Read more…]

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GOD’S SPECIAL TOOLS

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

Before it Hits the PressIn 1981 I had been out of college for one year and was employed in the development office of Baptist College at Charleston (now Charleston Southern University) in South Carolina. I mostly edited their alumni publication but assisted with pamphlets and brochures and the dreaded “other duties as assigned.”

One of those duties included being asked to assist the former Southern Baptist Education Commission (which was disbanded in the late 1990s) with their annual meeting that was being held in Charleston.

I was assigned to assist Juanita Wilkinson who was the administrative assistant to the late Arthur L. Walker Jr., executive director of the Education Commission. I just helped her with some of the logistics since the meeting was held on the Baptist College campus. Little did I know that we would form a lifelong friendship. [Read more…]

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PRAYING FOR AN ISLAMIC SAUL

By David Evans
TBC Evangelism Specialist

David Evans

David Evans

We should be praying for the Islamic Saul to rise among their ranks.

Over the past few years there have been so many terrorist attacks, public bombings, and mass shootings. At the center of the majority of these events are groups like ISIS, ISIL, and Al Qaeda. Terrorist groups. Groups that have one reason for existence — world domination through fear, power, and death. As we watch media commentaries on such events we hear of many different solutions to the problems of terrorism. While the church listens to such solutions, the church has its own solution: prayer and sacrifice. With every organization considered the church is the only one that is tasked with the job of prayer and to be sacrificial. The church cannot afford to sit idly around waiting for another organization to save the day. The church must take the issue to our Eternal Father, pray specifically for a solution, and be ready to be sacrificial. [Read more…]

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