Opinion Column Archives - Page 2 of 95

ANNUAL MEETING WAS A WELCOMED RELIEF

July 1, 2021

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
lwilkey@tnbaptist.org

-Photo: Baptist Press

Southern Baptists came to Nashville in droves for the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in mid-June and they were a welcome sight for a city and state still trying to recover from the economic shutdown caused by COVID-19 in 2020.

If you walked anywhere in the downtown area, you saw people lined up outside, waiting to get into restaurants. And, for the most part, those waiting didn’t seem to mind. It gave them added opportunity for fellowship with friends they had not seen since the Birmingham annual meeting in 2019. [Read more…]

OBSERVATIONS FROM THE SBC MEETING

June 29, 2021

By Randy C. Davis
TBMB President & Executive Director

-Photo: Adam Covington, Baptist Press

We wanted to gather, and we did … in droves.

After a year without an annual Southern Baptist Convention because of the pandemic, and with much on our minds, Nashville hosted the largest gathering of Southern Baptists since 1995 with more than 20,000 messengers and guests.

Prior to the convention, I put out a call for Tennessee Baptists to show up and show why we are known as the Volunteer State. You did it.

I am extremely proud of the servant leadership and kind hospitality Tennesseans provided as the SBC gathered under the banner, “We Are Great Commission Baptists.” From those who served as ushers and greeters, to disaster relief volunteers who coordinated childcare, to our friendly Tennessee Baptist Mission Board staff who spent an enormous amount of time extending a red-carpet welcome to folks from all around the globe, Tennessee Baptists did a great job helping to host the SBC. [Read more…]

HELPFUL HINTS FOR JULY 4 WORSHIP SERVICE

June 24, 2021

By Scott Shepherd
Worship & Music Specialist, TBMB

Independence Day is approaching rapidly. And this year’s patriotic holiday is rather unique: For the first time in eleven years, the 4th of July will fall on a Sunday.

Tennessee Baptists will choose to gather on this Lord’s Day in different ways. Some will hold festive patriotic celebrations, but others will opt for more typical worship gatherings. Most will find middle ground somewhere between these two poles. [Read more…]

COOPERATIVE PROGRAM UNITES TBC CHURCHES

June 23, 2021

By Matt Tullos
Assistant to the executive director, TBMB

It seems like the past two years have been a season of unexpected change and challenge. Who would have expected that we would have seen a racial reckoning, a pandemic, and despite all that, a time of miraculous generosity?

We have been amazed as churches who have experienced so much challenge, change and controversy continued to heighten their passion for Jesus and the Great Commission through missions giving. The fact is, we should have seen it coming.

Tennessee Baptists are a collection of diverse believers. We have liturgical, charismatic, multi-cultural, African American, Hispanic, Anglo, Chinese, Samoan (and a barrel full of other ethnic categories), innovative, Gen-Z, purpose-driven, traditional, NIV, NASB, CEV, KJV only, country, urban, cowboy, organ only, drums acceptable, Crocs OK, loud preaching, truck stop, ties please, jeans the norm, wide-screen, always streaming, house church, hats off, caps OK, multi-site, circuit-riding, Sunday School-centric, small group focused, recovery groups available, hip-hop sounding, gamer-focused, and a thousand other gently nuanced church models.

We are a collection of spirit-filled mutts, who find their true pedigree in Matthew 28:19-20. The Cooperative Program unites us. [Read more…]

INFLUENCE CAN CHANGE CULTURE

June 22, 2021

By Jay Barbier
Youth Specialist, TBMB

Influence is, was and will always be one, of the greatest tools for a follower of Jesus.

Baptist Press recently published an article that shared the results of a survey conducted by Pew Research. The survey revealed that teenagers’ views of religion follow very closely to that of their parents. So, what does this mean? This actually brings me so much joy to see that influence really does make a difference. We can use this information as a motivator for believers to show how close relationships can make a difference. [Read more…]

WELCOME TO TENNESSEE — A MISSION FIELD

June 14, 2021

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
lwilkey@tnbaptist.org

Tennessee Baptists extend a warm welcome to our Southern Baptist brothers and sisters in Christ who are in Nashville this week for the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Many of you may be in Nashville for the first time while this may be a regular place to visit for others. Even without Opryland, a theme park that used to bring thousands of people to the city each summer (the park closed in 1997), there is still a lot to see and do in Music City.

I would daresay that many of our visitors think they have arrived at the “buckle of the Bible belt.” After all, Nashville is the home of the SBC Executive Committee and Lifeway Christian Resources, the publishing and distribution arm of the SBC.

No doubt that every other person you pass on the street will be sitting in a pew on Sunday morning, right? Well, not really.

Lewis McMullen, church planting specialist for the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, summed it up well when he addressed seminary students who were in town last week to participate in Crossover, an evangelistic event that has been held in the host city of the annual meeting for more than 30 years.

He told the students, “The belt has broken.” [Read more…]

I LOVE BEING A TENNESSEE BAPTIST

June 14, 2021

By Randy C. Davis
President and executive director, TBMB

I love being a Tennessee Baptist, and there are countless reasons why, beginning with our rich history and continuing with our very bright future.

Just a few years ago, the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board exhumed the remains of Tidence Lane, the first Baptist pastor to journey over the Appalachian Mountains and into East Tennessee to invest his life in church planting, the pastorate and actively participating in associational ministry.

His remains were in a family plot in the middle of a pasture on land he received for distinguished service during the Revolutionary War, just a couple hundred yards from the spring near where he planted Bent Creek Church in the 1780s. That’s a decade-plus before Tennessee even became a state.

His remains, along with that of his wife and other family members, were reinterred about a mile away, at Whitesburg Baptist Church, which is the direct descendant of Bent Creek. [Read more…]

BEST GIFT FOR DAD? YOUR PRESENCE

June 11, 2021

By Carolyn Tomlin
Contributing Writer, B&R

When I was a small child, my father often called me to help him with a task. Sometimes it was holding a board he was sawing with a hand saw. Another time, he needed me to help plant corn in the family garden. And I recall the numerous times I was called to sit on the ice cream freezer, holding it down, while my father turned the hand-crank as the custard hardened.

Looking back, he could have accomplished all these things by himself. But with his daughter nearby, we could talk and laugh about things. It wasn’t my skills he needed; it was my presence.

This Father’s Day, instead of the fancy package with beautiful paper and ribbon, how can we honor those men in our lives who have given us so much? The answer is by giving them our ‘Time.’ Give experiences, not things. Could some of these ideas work for your father? [Read more…]

FAMILY UNITY REQUIRES EFFORT FROM ALL

June 10, 2021

By Scott Shepherd
Worship And Music Specialist, Tennessee Baptist Mission Board

“What’s Critical Race Theory?”
“Why did Russell Moore resign?”
“Can women be pastors?”
“Who are you going to vote for as SBC president?”
“Why did Beth Moore leave the Southern Baptist Convention?”

No, these aren’t hallway conversation predictions for the Southern Baptist Convention. Rather, they’re the types of questions I’m asked at home every day — at the dinner table, during morning coffee chats, car drives and a never-ending volley of text messages and Facebook Messenger replies.

The same discussions that dominate our national discourse (and, at times, fuel our Southern Baptist debates) have slipped into the Shepherd household.

And here’s the hard part: Sometimes members of my family come to drastically different conclusions. It’s challenging enough when I disagree with folks in a church or denominational setting, but how am I supposed to walk through these issues with the ones I love most?

I think the apostle Paul has a perfect answer:“Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” — Ephesians 4:1-3 [Read more…]

A GRADUATION LIE AND FOUR TRUTHS

June 5, 2021

By Ray Van Neste
Dean and professor of Biblical studies for the School of Theology and Missions, Union University

It’s graduation season, and I’d like to congratulate all you graduates, as well as your parents, family and friends. This is a momentous accomplishment for which you should be justly proud.

I have long thought if ever I gave a graduation address, I would speak to what I call “the graduation lie,” which shows up in many commencement addresses. The lie is this: “You can be whatever you want to be.” It is not true.

The fact is you have been created as a unique and particular individual with specific gifts, as well as distinct limitations. The family into which you were born, the place you were born, and the era in which you were born all shape and limit who you are. We are all limited, or directed, by our genetics, our interests, our opportunities.

God, the Creator of the universe, made you for something. You are not an amorphous entity ready to be shaped into anything you desire. God has given you certain gifts. There is a lot of potential in those gifts, but you are not self-determining to create your own realities. [Read more…]

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