By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

It’s that time of the year that causes church and associational secretaries to cringe.

Budget planning? Well, that too, but primarily this is the time of the year when the Annual Church Profile is promoted and collected by Baptist state conventions across the nation, including the Tennessee Baptist Convention. Reports are then forwarded on to the Southern Baptist Convention to LifeWay Research which in turn compiles the data for the entire convention. [Read more…]

By Randy C. Davis
TBC Executive Director

I can’t think of a single good reason why anybody would want to be in pastoral ministry if God hasn’t called him. But if God has called, I can’t think of any vocation more rewarding. [Read more…]

By Johnnie Godwin
Contributing Columnist, B&R

“I’m ready for football; I’m tired of baseball,” said my brother Bill in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado as we watched a football replay instead of a live baseball game. He and I like all sports to one degree or another, but there is a significant difference between football and baseball: Football games are timed for 60 minutes of actual play; baseball is untimed. A baseball game can last forever — and seems to sometimes between the pitcher’s checks to the first-base runner and when he actually pitches across the plate. But I’m writing about football. [Read more…]

By Vickie Anderson
Executive Director of Tennessee Woman’s Missionary Union

According to www.nationaldaycalender.com, September has a variety of things to observe or celebrate during the month: classical music, fall hats, baby safety, self-improvement, better breakfast, whole grains, square dancing, blueberry popsicles, chicken, courtesy, honey, mushrooms, the piano, rice, and more. For Tennessee Baptists, September brings the opportunity to observe and participate in the season of prayer for state missions and the Golden Offering for Tennessee Missions. And while the offering is taken year round and the ministries happen through the year, we spotlight in September how together we support missions and ministries in Tennessee. [Read more…]

By Chris Turner
Director of Communications, TBC

The proverbial elephant in the room is quickly growing, so let’s talk about it.

There is a conversational crescendo regarding our historical Cooperative Program giving model in the wake of the International Mission Board’s shocking announcement that it will downsize by 600 to 800 people, this despite giving increases to the Cooperative Program and Lottie Moon Christmas Offering over the past few years. Questions are being raised (again) about whether Cooperative Program giving should either bypass state conventions and go to the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, or if money should be directly routed to the IMB. [Read more…]

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

The choices we make as individuals have consequences. Refer to Adam and Eve in Genesis 1.

Life is full of choices. Do I eat the double scoop of chocolate peanut butter ice cream on half price scoop night at Baskin-Robbins or do I skip it? Eat it and I gain five pounds. Skip it and I miss a wonderful treat.

Denominational entities and churches have to make choices all the time as well. [Read more…]

By Randy C. Davis
TBC Executive Director

When Eric Watkins strides into one of the most dangerous housing projects in Memphis to take the light of Christ, Tennessee Baptists go with him. When Kent Hightower stands in the loose dirt of a rodeo arena in Morristown and preaches the gospel, Tennessee Baptists are with him. When Doylene and Ritchie Farley distribute food to hundreds of families in one of Tennessee’s most impoverished counties, Tennessee Baptists are there too.

Tennessee Baptists financially giving through the Golden Offering for Tennessee Missions are fueling the missions fires across our state. From the inner city of Memphis, to the hills and hollows of Middle and East Tennessee, to Baptist Collegiate Ministries on 24 campuses across our state, Tennessee Baptists — you — are touching lives with the love of Christ and making an eternal difference. In fact, during the 2014-2015 year you gave the second highest GOTM amount ever recorded, totaling $1,626,579.33! And that is just a little more than $23,000 short of our goal for the year. That’s an increase each of the past two years. [Read more…]

By Michael Ellis
TBC President & Pastor, Impact Baptist Church, Memphis

In 1968 Philip Knight, a former track athlete at the University of Oregon, and his college coach, William Bowerman, each invested $500 to form and stock their own shoe company, Blue Ribbon Sports. They later had their logo designed by a college student for $35. As a result of Knight and Bowerman’s “just do it” attitude their company, which is known today as “Nike,” became the top selling athletic apparel company in the United States. Their company’s slogan “Just Do It” is known all over the world. Two simple guys did it. [Read more…]