Baptist & Reflector

Telling the Story of Tennessee Baptists Since 1835

Let’s Come Together As a Family

By Larry Robertson
TBC President, & Pastor, Hilldale Baptist Church, Clarksville

Larry Robertson

Larry Robertson

In a few days Tennessee Baptists will gather in Brentwood for this year’s Summit. I ask that you make every effort to pray for and participate in this 140th annual session.

Our theme this year is “Whatever It Takes,” representing the mindset and missional conviction necessary to breach the lostness of our state and beyond. I am expecting this year’s gathering to be a catalyst for deeper Great Commission passion, participation, and penetration.

I was in a meeting of Southern Baptist leaders from across the country recently where a pastor from another state said matter-of-factly that state conventions are now irrelevant and not worthy of our support. To be honest, I’ve heard that kind of talk before but I still cringe when I hear it.

Having served on state convention staffs in Alabama and Tennessee, perhaps some would say I have a biased opinion about the value of state conventions. I like to think I have an informed opinion. [Read more…]

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Rising to a ‘Golden’ Opportunity

By Randy C. Davis
TBC Executive Director

Randy C. Davis

Randy C. Davis

I can imagine W.C. and Mildred Golden sitting at a candlelit table over 114 years ago working tirelessly to write letter after letter to Tennessee Baptists. The flicker of light probably danced across the materials spread out before them waiting to be slid into an envelope and sent out with the following day’s mail.

The Goldens wrote hundreds of letters and mailed hundreds of packages containing promotional materials calling Tennessee Baptists to pray for Great Commission work across our state. Can you imagine being so passionate about accomplishing a God-sized vision that you’d be willing to do whatever it took to see the task through? There were no typewriters, no computers, no Facebook accounts or Twitter feeds; just a desire to mobilize Tennessee Baptists to see God’s Kingdom come to Tennessee. [Read more…]

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Look Who’s Calling Us Hypocrites

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

Lonnie Wilkey

Lonnie Wilkey

We have all heard the accusation. Christians are just a bunch of hypocrites. They preach one thing, but live the exact opposite.

Sadly, there are Christians who do just that. But there are also Christians who try the best they can to match their words with their actions.

Christians, however, do not have the market on hypocrisy.

For those who read the Baptist and Reflector regularly, you are well aware that the paper and the Tennessee Baptist Convention, led by our executive director, Randy C. Davis, has taken up the banner for Yes on 1 (see stories on page 1 of this issue). [Read more…]

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Hunger Is a Reality in Today’s World

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

Lonnie Wilkey

Lonnie Wilkey

Hunger. For most of us, we have no idea of what true hunger is. We all perhaps have gone a day or so without food, but we seldom can say we are really hungry.

I recently had a colonoscopy which means I went without eating solid food for more than 24 hours.

And though I was “hungry” I knew I would have something to eat after my procedure.

Many people today don’t have the luxury of knowing when they will get their next meal.

According to Feeding America, a hunger organization, 49 million Americans struggle with hunger, including 17 million children. That means that one in six people do not get enough food to be healthy, according to Feeding America. [Read more…]

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I Love to Tell the Stories

By Randy C. Davis
TBC Executive Director

Randy C. Davis

Randy C. Davis

There’s a homeless man who lives in Chattanooga tucked under a towering overpass. He abused crack cocaine and alcohol. Physically, his life was a wreck and heading for death. Spiritually, he was heading for hell. But about a year ago, someone navigated quarry stones, briar bushes and the threat of personal harm to share the gospel with him.

Today, “Tree Man” Smith is clean and sober, and is a missionary because he is taking the gospel to others ranked among society’s outcasts.

There’s a Mexican man living just south of Knoxville who never read a Bible and never heard the story of Jesus. Actually the only time he really ever heard Jesus’ name was when it was taken in vain. He lived just outside the Bronx, in New York, for more than 20 years, but he heard the gospel on a visit to Knoxville during a neighborhood dinner in a trailer park. Conviction hit hard and grace descended quickly. He was baptized on a rainy July Sunday afternoon in a lake near Oak Ridge. [Read more…]

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Cooperative Program & Popcorn

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

Lonnie Wilkey

Lonnie Wilkey

I love good popcorn, but not necessarily the microwave variety.

In my household, I usually am the one designated to make popcorn. I use a deep pot with a lid on the stove top. I place oil and butter in the pot and let the butter melt into the oil. Then I place the popcorn kernels into the mixture.

At first, not much happens. The kernels float in the oil and butter as it gets hotter and hotter. Then, one by one, the kernels begin to pop.

Slowly but surely the once dormant kernels turn into fluffy popcorn. As all the kernels are popped, they gradually rise to the top of the pot. Before you know it, the popcorn has lifted the lid off the pot (you better have bowl in hand).

A single kernel could never lift that heavy lid but numerous kernels working together can accomplish that feat. [Read more…]

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Pastor’s Insurance May Be Taxable Income

By Richard Skidmore
Financial Support Specialist, TBC

Richard Skidmore

Richard Skidmore

It is quite possible that beginning this past January your pastor or other church staff member began being taxed on their health insurance premium.

It will be the church’s responsibility to report the amount of the premium as taxable income as part of the salary paid to this person.

How can the Affordable Care Act that had as its centerpiece making health insurance more accessible and more affordable have this result? That is a question that seems hard to fathom but it’s a reality churches and ministers must face. [Read more…]

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Do We Really Need More Churches?

By Randy C. Davis
TBC Executive Director

Randy C. Davis

Randy C. Davis

There are churches everywhere in Nashville.

Let’s take a ride. For instance, nine large churches sit adjacent to Franklin Road in a two-mile stretch if you drive north from Old Hickory in Brentwood. If you drive south another two or three miles through Brentwood you can add another five large churches, bringing the total to 13 just in that one short stretch. Travel that distance east to west and you can add probably a dozen more. Expand the circle to the greater Nashville area and word is there is easily more than 1,000 churches. It begs the question: Do we really need any more churches?

The short and emphatic answer is … yes! [Read more…]

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TBC Giving Below Budget for Year

By Baptist and Reflector

BRENTWOOD — Tennessee Baptist Convention churches gave $2,421,683 through the Cooperative Program in August.

For the year-to-date, Tennessee Baptists have given $27,893,395.

The amount is $801,328 or 2.8 percent below what was given at the same point last year.

With two months remaining in the 2013-14 budget year, Cooperative Program receipts are $2,523,271 or 8.3 percent below budget needs. [Read more…]

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Cooperative Program Is ‘Best Strategy’

By Larry Robertson
President, TBC, & Clarksville Pastor

I didn’t grow up in a strong Cooperative Program giving church. When I got to Blue Mountain (Miss.) College as a ministerial student, however, my eyes were opened to the unparalleled strategy Southern Baptists have to fund missions and ministry.

Dr. James Travis, longtime biblical studies professor at Blue Mountain, taught us that being Southern Baptist is more than geography or theology. Our distinctive bond is our commitment to cooperation, namely through the Cooperative Program.

In the first church I pastored as a 19-year-old boy, we ran 22 on a good day. Yet we were connected to missions and ministries far beyond our abilities and limitations as a congregation. I was able to remind those precious people that ten cents out of every undesignated dollar they gave supported 8,000 missionaries (at that time) at home and abroad, six SBC seminaries, and a whole host of other denominational causes. [Read more…]

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