Opinion Column Archives - Page 3 of 71

WHEN WILL WE EVER LEARN FROM OUR PAST?

September 11, 2019

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

Eighteen years ago today, the Executive Board of the Tennessee Baptist Convention (now Tennessee Baptist Mission Board) was preparing for its September meeting. Before it started, however, news of the terrorist attacks on Washington, D.C. and New York City began to spread.

People stood around a television set in the building and watched the horror unfold.

Then TBC executive director James Porch observed that “our world, our state, your hometown and mine have changed. It will never be the same again.” Describing the events of the day as “this generation’s Pearl Harbor,” Porch asked, “Can this nation become one under God? I hope that we will.” And, for a very brief time, we did. [Read more…]

YOUR GOTM GIVING AND YOUR KINGDOM IMPACT

September 10, 2019

By Randy C. Davis
TBMB President & Executive Director

I spend a lot of time crisscrossing the state on Interstate 40, so much so that I jokingly call it “Randy Davis Boulevard.” The landscape constantly passes, but rarely changes. It’s the people, however, who make Tennessee special.

And the people change. One way we change is our increasing numbers. Our population is rapidly growing. People are relocating here from around the country and around the world bringing racial, ethnic, economic, religious — and non-religious — diversity. There are more dissimilar people now living in Tennessee than ever before.

However, as significant as our diversity is, it is more important to focus on what we have in common. People need Jesus — to be saved, baptized and set on the road to discipleship. Our population is growing faster than the gospel is advancing. The result is that every year our state is becoming more spiritually lost. The reality: any way you slice it, Tennessee is a mission field.

I’ve been saying that for the past several years. It’s a belief based on what I see as I travel Tennessee’s interstates and backroads. [Read more…]

NO ROOM FOR RACISM IN THE CHRISTIAN HEART

September 4, 2019

By Chris Turner
cturner@tnbaptist.org

“Are you gonna let that n—r coon sit in our class?’ a boy shouted at me. ‘We can kick the crap out of this n—-r. Look, it’s 20 of us and one of her. They ain’t nothing but animals …Go back where you came from.’ ” — From Warriors Don’t Cry

I don’t recall ever reading a book as emotionally taxing as, Warriors Don’t Cry, by Melba Pattillo Beals, one of the “Little Rock Nine” who integrated Central High School in 1957. The amount of physical brutality and emotional abuse those children — children my daughter’s age — faced every day for the entire school year is incomprehensible. They endured attempted lynchings, beatings, acid in the eyes, constantly being spit on, being trapped in bathroom stalls while white students stood on toilets in adjacent stalls and rained burning paper on them, and so much more, just because they were black.

The cruelty was inhumane; it was satanic. At times, Melba’s story physically nauseated me. White parents and their children went to extremes to drive them from Central High. For example, parents employed Ku Klux Klan psychologists to coach the students on how to make life hell for Melba and her classmates. The book is a raw look at racism, prejudice and segregation in the South in the 1950s. [Read more…]

STATE CONVENTION HELPS CHURCHES REACH STATE, WORLD FOR CHRIST

September 3, 2019

By Dr. Paul Chitwood
President, International Mission Board

My first international mission trip took place on a farm in central Kentucky.

As a new pastor in the community, I found myself interacting often with migrant workers from Central and South America. And I soon realized that most were spiritually lost. From conversations with farmers, I learned many of them were as concerned as I was about the eternal state of the souls of these (mostly) men who were so far away from their homes and families. As we began to pull together churches in our association and piece together a plan to begin a migrant ministry, we found an organization ready and eager to help us: our Baptist state convention. With the assistance of our state convention staff, we were soon seeing people from all over Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua come to Christ — though we never left Kentucky. [Read more…]

LABOR DAY: MORE THAN SUMMER’S END

September 2, 2019

By Todd E. Brady
Vice president for university ministries, Union University, Jackson

We celebrated our nation’s 243rd birthday in July, and now we celebrate those who have worked to build our nation into what it is.

While Labor Day may conjure good feelings of time off and laid back gatherings with friends and family at the end of summer, it actually is our country’s tribute to the American laborer and all that these workers have accomplished. [Read more…]

HOW TO KNOW YOUR BIBLE AND EXPERIENCE GOD

August 27, 2019

By Johnnie C. Godwin
Contributing columnist, B&R

“Turn to Hezekiah 1:1 in your Bible for the text of today’s sermon.” In my high school days, the pastor of our large church would sometimes begin his sermon this way. Sure enough, you could hear some Bible pages begin to flip.

Newbies or other folks would be searching for the book of Hezekiah. Then the pastor would chuckle and announce his real biblical text. He would add that he had just been testing how well we knew our Bible and that, of course, there was no Bible book named Hezekiah. [Read more…]

COOPERATION IS ALWAYS IN STYLE

August 26, 2019

By Roc Collins
Director of Strategic Objectives, TBMB

Roc Collins

Before the inception of the digital age, before the first plane lifted from the sandy straights of Kitty Hawk, before the technologies of steam, coal, and fossil fuel, an ancient crowd heard an astounding challenge, “Go into all the world. … Teach all nations. … Go to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the world!”

In a world where jets soar over the seas in less than a day, it’s easy to forget how mindboggling that call must have been. The ends of the earth? How? Emboldened by the glimpse of their resurrected Savior, they dared to dream it was possible. [Read more…]

WHY DOES THE SBC HAVE A ‘BAPTISM SUNDAY’?

August 23, 2019

By J.D. Greear
President, Southern Baptist Convention

For several years now, I have been greatly burdened by the declining number of baptisms across the Southern Baptist Convention. I believe the baptism numbers serve as one of the best indicators of evangelism in our churches. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost, and that means that proclaiming the gospel is the core of who we are — not only as Southern Baptists, but most importantly, as disciples of Jesus Christ.

That’s why I’m challenging every Southern Baptist church to call for baptisms in services on Sept. 8, the date our SBC Executive Committee has designated as “Baptism Day” on the SBC calendar. [Read more…]

TENNESSEE BAPTIST LIGHT SHINES AMID DARKNESS

August 21, 2019

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

Evil is real. Don’t let anyone tell you it’s not.

How do we really know? “For the Bible tells me so.”

Do a “Google” search on the internet and you will find a multitude of verses that proclaim evil is real. I John 5:19 leaves no doubt: “We know that we are of God, and the whole world is under the sway of the evil one” (CSB). That’s about as plain as it gets. [Read more…]

TENNESSEE BAPTISTS RALLY FOR THE CAUSE

August 20, 2019

By Randy C. Davis
TBMB President & Executive Director

Randy C. Davis

We really can do more together. That isn’t just a catchy phrase tossed around to describe the Cooperative Program. Last week I experienced it in the form of tangible support.

Throughout 2019, our Tennessee state legislature has wrestled with proposed “heartbeat bills” in the hope of protecting unborn children in Tennessee and creating a law that would overturn Roe v. Wade. [Read more…]

“Are you gonna let that n—r coon sit in our class?’ a boy shouted at me. ‘We can kick the crap out of this n—-r. Look, it’s 20 of us and one of her. They ain’t nothing but animals …Go back where you came from.’ ” — From Warriors Don’t Cry

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