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

Often seen as a guise for right-wing, political machinations, the term “family values” is easier to trumpet than it is to live. Society is well served when men live their family values in practical ways rather than merely advocating for family values in theoretical ways. The old adage is true:  What you are doing speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you say.

Family values are often tested when the rubber meets the road. Professional baseball player, Daniel Hudson of the Washington Nationals recently decided to not step on the rubber of the pitching mound so he could be present for his daughter’s birth. 

For him, family values had names — Sara, his wife, Briley (5) and Parker (3), his two other daughters, and Millie, his soon-to-be born daughter. [Read more…]

By Steve Holt
Church Services Director, TBMB

The Southern Baptist Convention has designated Oct. 20-26 as the Week of Prayer for Baptist Associations. Let me encourage you to join me in praying for the 65 associations in Tennessee as well as the hundreds of others across North America.

Associations have been a vital part of Baptist life in America for over 400 years. I believe Baptist associations served as the building blocks on which the structure and organization of Baptist state conventions and the Southern Baptist Convention were constructed.  [Read more…]

Editor’s Note: This is part two of a two-part series on “When the Bible Comes Alive.”

By Johnnie Godwin
Contributing Columnist, Baptist and Reflector

Until my college years, the King James Version was the only Bible I had and read. Yet, even in those early years, the Bible had begun coming alive for me in my own personal study of the King James Version. And I still use that version.

Yet, no one Bible translation can meet all the needs a Bible translation requires in coming from Hebrew and Greek into modern word meanings and scholarship today. Tyndale, Wycliffe, and the Geneva Bible all preceded the King James Version from original Hebrew and Greek into English. And no language remains unchanging — not even English. That’s why we keep on having new English dictionaries. Though God’s Word is unchanging, English keeps changing. And to be true to God’s Word, translators need to accurately translate the faith of our fathers into the language of our children. [Read more…]

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

For those who have five minutes (or less if you’re a fast reader), I would encourage you to read the Baptist Press story about Brenton Winn. It’s incredible.

In February of this year, Brenton Winn broke into First Baptist Church of Conway, Ark., and destroyed $100,000 of church property, including laptops, cameras and other electronics. According to the story, he was addicted to methamphetamines. He doesn’t remember much about that night because he “was high on drugs,” according to the article. [Read more…]