Baptist & Reflector

Telling the Story of Tennessee Baptists Since 1835

A QUESTION FOR EVERY SUNDAY SCHOOL LEADER

By Mark Miller
Sunday School Specialist, TBC

Mark Miller

Mark Miller

Over the last year, I have had the joy of sitting in on over 35 different Sunday School classes or groups. These groups have been from churches that averaged 15 to 1,800. At least three things took place in every one of these classes or groups. People were prayed for. Some type of fellowship took place among the members. And the Bible was taught.

WOW! If that is all Sunday School is, it is worth doing.

But this experience has caused me to ask a question. It has become a question that I ask in almost every conference. It is a question that I often used to start every consultation. And it is a question that I have even asked from the pulpit. Here’s the question:

If all Sunday School does is teach those who show up, pray for those who show up, and fellowship with those who show up, is that enough? [Read more…]

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MISSIONS SUPPORT: NO RESERVES, NO RETREATS, NO REGRETS!

Blake Montgomery
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Sneedville

Blake Montgomery

Blake Montgomery

As I began planning for sharing this year’s information on the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering at our church, I recently read the inspiring account of another missionary who God called and used in a unique way. William Borden’s life is a story that should challenge every church and Christian in the areas of missions, leadership, and ministry.

William Whiting Borden was 16 years old in the early 1900s when he graduated high school. He was an heir to the Borden Dairy fortune. Before he started at Yale University, his parents gave him a trip around the world for his graduation present. [Read more…]

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LOVING THE STRANGER

By Carlos Ferrer
Executive Vice President, NAMB

Carlos Ferrer

Carlos Ferrer

I escaped communist Cuba in 1962 as an 11-year-old boy hiding at the bottom of a cargo ship with my family. We had nothing but each other when we arrived in the United States. Through the love and hospitality of Southern Baptist strangers, my family received assistance that not only helped us in our journey toward citizenship, but helped us in our faith journey as well.

That experience has forever colored how I view today’s immigrants. Years later, when my wife Cindy and I were attending First Baptist Church, Woodstock, Ga., we met Ron and Cathy Frost. They asked us help launch a Spanish-language Sunday School class. Together we visited trailer parks and houses making friends with the Hispanic people throughout the county. After several months a few regulars began attending. As we shared Christ we also helped them find jobs, learn English, and establish citizenship. [Read more…]

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TBC CHURCHES NEED THOSE ‘AHA’ MOMENTS

Editor’s Note: It’s not too late to attend a Church Revitalization Conference March 14-15 at Union University in Jackson. For more information, contact Steve Holt at sholt@tnbaptist.org.

Bob Brown
Church Revitalization Specialist, TBC

Bob Brown

Bob Brown

I suppose everyone has experienced that moment when something about which you were clueless suddenly becomes very clear. I have vivid memories of such a moment in my ninth grade algebra class. I had struggled for a good portion of the year, trying to grasp the finer concepts and meaning of this noble subject. Everything I tried amounted to no avail. The tutoring, the trying harder, the tearing and tossing of paper in frustration … all was useless. Then one day while gazing at the black board, inexplicably and without expectation it came to me. It was an “Aha” moment. [Read more…]

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IT’S TIME FOR YOU TO CHOOSE: HOW WILL YOU VOTE?

By Chris Turner
Director of Communications, TBC

Chris Turner

Chris Turner

I sat down in a movie theatre with my 13-year-old daughter and I located the doors as I did. We would have been the first fatalities if someone stormed in with guns blazing. We moved.

I was recently at an upscale mall and passed two ladies who were obviously Muslims. I looked closely to see if I could detect any sign of an explosive device strapped to their bodies. I didn’t, but I quickly moved on.

Paranoia? Racial profiling? Xenophobia? Do those labels describe me? I don’t believe so. I’ve been a missionary, traveled extensively overseas and love other people and their cultures. So why such anxiety? I’ve searched for a word to describe the suspicion I feel toward the world around me and think I’ve finally found one. It came while enduring the political debates and listening to candidates belligerently hash through the issues of national security, immigration, and gun control. [Read more…]

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WILL COMMON SENSE PREVAIL?

Before it Hits the PressBy Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

Tennessee legislators have an incredible opportunity next week to prove that common sense is alive and well in the Volunteer State.

Whether they have the courage to make such a decision remains to be seen.

Legislators are considering HB2414 which is sponsored by Rep. Susan Lynn, R-Old Hickory, and Sen. Mike Bell, R-Riceville. The bill is referred to as the “Bathroom Bill.” See story in The Tennessean. The bill would “require that a student use student restroom and locker room facilities that are assigned for use by persons of the same sex as the sex indicated on the student’s original birth certificate.” [Read more…]

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ANSWERS STARTING TO COME FROM IMB

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

Lonnie-WilkeyIn the Jan. 27 issue I wrote a column expressing concern about the lack of information coming out of the International Mission Board. The IMB had made some major decisions about needing to cut between 600 and 800 missionary/staff positions due to overspending by $210 million over the past five years or so.

In addition, the IMB announced it was eliminating its Communications Center in Richmond with 30 of the 40 employees losing their jobs. Ten were reassigned to other areas.

I was critical of the IMB for their lack of information. President David Platt was not available to the media. I stand by what I wrote at the time. It was valid and needed to be brought out. [Read more…]

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THE IMB: HOW DID WE GET HERE?

By Randy C. Davis
TBC Executive Director

Randy C. Davis

Randy C. Davis

It was a dark day two weeks ago when International Mission Board President David Platt stepped to the microphone to inform Southern Baptists that 983 missionaries and 149 IMB staffers were stepping away from their involvement in taking the gospel to the nations. Dr. Platt described it best when he spoke of the “heaviness” of the day. I agreed, and wondered, “How’d we get here?”

That’s a question worth exploring. It is important to learn from our past so that we can make necessary changes that positively impact our future. There are lessons here for all of us, and as Christians, we need to pause and take stock in how this applies to us individually and collectively. [Read more…]

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WILL TENNESSEE’S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION FLUSH BIOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES DOWN THE TOILET?

By David Fowler
President, Family Action Council of Tennessee

160308toiletWhen I got into state politics 22 years ago, I never thought I would see the legislature having to debate certain things like who can use a bathroom designated for males. But perhaps the most shocking thing of all is that the Tennessee Department of Education is officially okay with our public schools allowing boys to use the restrooms and locker facilities designated for girls.

A bill will be heard March 8 in the House Education Administration and Planning Subcommittee that would prohibit our public elementary, secondary, and post-secondary schools from allowing someone of one biological sex to use the facilities designated for use by those of the opposite biological sex. It does allow those educational institutions to construct or allow sex-confused students to use a separate bathroom or locker room facility. [Read more…]

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THE INTERSECTION OF PASSION AND NEED

Chad Morris
Assoc. Dir., Campus Ministries, Carson-Newman University, Jefferson City

man, carrying, cross, mission, trip, journey, determination, dark, silhouette, struggle, burdenIt happened in a group from Carson-Newman University when a student, who was determined to party and to “get away from it all,” found Jesus.

It happened while students hiked into the hills of Guatemala to give clean drinking water access to a mother of nine.

It took place while providing medical care and praying with individuals in small remote villages of Haiti who had put their faith in voodoo. [Read more…]

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