Baptist & Reflector

Telling the Story of Tennessee Baptists Since 1835

15 WORSHIP ‘HELPS’ FOR REGATHERING CHURCHES

By Scott C. Shepherd
Tennessee Baptist Mission Board music and worship specialist 

Many churches in Tennessee will be opening their doors in the coming weeks.

In the coming weeks and months, churches across Tennessee will make the decision to gather again for worship. These services — though COVID-19 restrictions have been reduced — will not be a return to “worship as usual.” 

Here are 15 worship-related helps for churches to consider as they prepare to regather.

Maintain social distancing in worship. Restrictions have been lessened, but social distancing must continue. 

• Arrange the congregation so families are at least six feet apart from other families. Block off certain pews or remove chairs, and utilize staff, ushers and deacons to direct traffic, but these guides should also maintain social distancing. 

• Model social distancing on the platform. If you can’t have your full worship team on the platform and still preserve social distancing, reduce the size of your team for this season or alternate smaller teams each week. 

• Ministers are exceptionally good at “working the room,” and they ought to be! You want to greet our attendees, shake their hands, and give them hugs. Now, however, the most loving thing you can do is not touch your members. Greet, smile, and wave, but keep your distance. Practice what you preach. [Read more…]

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COVID-19: IT’S NOT A MATTER OF BLACK AND WHITE

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

Maryville Baptist Church in Hillview, Ky., made national news recently when the church chose to hold in-person worship services on Easter Sunday, defying the Kentucky governor’s stay at home order.

What’s more, Kentucky State Police officers patrolled the church parking lot, handing out citations. The church sued the state but a judge tossed it out of court.

On one side, people are screaming that the government is violating the freedom of religion clause in the United States Constitution. [Read more…]

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DO YOU HEAR GOD WITH YOUR GOOD EAR?

By Randy C. Davis
TBMB President & Executive Director

One of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board ‘s very best servant-leaders has some hearing loss in one ear. If he and I are conversing, he will position himself so he can hear me with his good ear. You might say he “inclines his ear to hear.”

In John 10:27 Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice.” I sense that the God of this universe is speaking to the inhabitants of Planet Earth through the current COVID-19 pandemic. What is He saying to you? Are you listening? Have you positioned yourself so you can hear God with your good ear? [Read more…]

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PASTORS AND DEPRESSION (Part 1)

Editor’s note: This article is the first of a two-part series about pastors and depression. Reprinted with permission of SBC Life. Part II of the series can be found HERE. 

By Tony Rose

Depression is an invisible sickness. It cannot be seen. A broken leg is obvious. But a broken soul—is there such a thing?

Many seem to think that our depressed friends just need to get up, quit feeling sorry for themselves, and get going. Right? This attitude reflects a misunderstanding of what depression is, what causes it, and how to deal with it.

[Read more…]

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PASTORS AND DEPRESSION (Part 2)

Editor’s note: This article is the second of a two-part series about pastors and depression.  (SEE PT. 1 HERE.) Reprinted with permission of SBC Life.

By Tony Rose

Christopher Love wrote, “Melancholy (depression) in a man darkens the understanding and troubles the fancy (imagination). It disturbs the reason, saddens the soul, and clothes it in mourning weeds. And when these meet together, it must cast the man down and suspend the sense of God’s favor from him. Melancholy is the mother of discomfort and discontent; it is the nurse of doubts.” 1 He penned these words in the seventeenth century. Obviously the malady of depression has been with us for a while.

[Read more…]

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FLOYD: WE WILL NOT RETREAT: THE REAL REASON FOR SUPPORTING THE COOPERATIVE PROGRAM

EDITOR’S NOTE: Ronnie Floyd is president and CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee. April 26 is Cooperative Program Sunday in the Southern Baptist Convention.

By Ronnie Floyd 

Ronnie Floyd

NASHVILLE — When the coronavirus (COVID-19) began to spread across the globe, our work as Southern Baptists did not stop.

And as we approach and celebrate Cooperative Program Sunday in the SBC on April 26, it’s possible that in our lifetimes, we have never had greater reason to continue to generously support the Cooperative Program.

Our missionaries are still on the field, both overseas and in North America. Our seminary students are still being trained for ministry and missions. Our work together in each of our respective regions, states, nation and world is still alive and active. Disaster Relief ministry is still operating through state conventions in this critical hour, along with our Send Relief ministry. Our chaplains are still ministering. [Read more…]

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COVID-19 AS GOD’S INSTRUMENT OF INSTRUCTION

By Kevin Shrum
Pastor, Inglewood Baptist Church, Nashville

The invisible enemy of COVID-19 has brought the most powerful nation(s) in the world to its knees. In fact, COVID-19 is a “global pandemic,” impacting every nation on the globe. We thought our national humbling would come at the hands of a terrorist cell or as a by-product of a dictator gone awry. Little did we know that an unseen germ would bring our reckoning.

What can the COVID-19 pandemic teach us? What is our sovereign God up to in this pandemic? That is the question. He is neither surprised nor ‘caught off guard’ by what is a surprise and shock to us. In fact, God has ordered all things according to the counsel of His secret and hidden will (Deuteronomy 29:29). Nevertheless, we should be asking, ‘What is God up to? What is He teaching us?’ [Read more…]

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CARING FOR YOURSELF – FOR THE SAKE OF OTHERS

By Mike Pennington

The flight attendant has a definite life-saving purpose when she tells you to put your oxygen mask on first if you’re flying with a small child. In those critical moments of life or death, your life must be safe before you secure the life of others. How secure is your mask today? [Read more…]

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THE PATH FROM BROKENESS TO WHOLENESS

By Kristi Pennington

Three years ago, I found myself running on empty, long before the current pandemic crisis we find ourselves in today. I was a busy minister’s wife. I was involved in things I loved! Bible Study Fellowship came to my town and I got on board. I joined a small church to help meet needs in music and children’s ministries and within the span of a three month period we took two mission trips: one international (Latvia) and one stateside, a church plant in Boulder, Colo. Mike led both mission teams plus doing his regular work as a director of missions. [Read more…]

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WILL COVID-19 MAKE YOU REEVALUATE PRIORITIES?

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

COVID-19 has turned lives upside down all over the world. Thousands of people have died and thousands have gotten the disease. Thankfully, many have survived and have recovered from the virus.

Millions of people, however, have not gotten the disease but their lives also have changed. Whoever heard of “social distancing” a month ago? [Read more…]

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