Jeremy Blaschke, associate professor of biology at Union University, speaks at the Sept 9 EQUIP apologetics conference for youth. — Photo by Lauren Steed

JACKSON — More than 250 youth, parents and church youth leaders attended the EQUIP Youth Apologetics Conference at Union University’s Carl Grant Events Center last month.

Hosted by Union University’s School of Theology and Missions in partnership with the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, the conference sought to equip middle schoolers, high schoolers and recent high school graduates to properly wrestle with doubt. Four talks throughout the day sought to answer students’ real questions about Christianity.

“If you are going to be equipped to answer other people’s questions with both patience and humility, and also with deep, persuasive answers, you have to wrestle with those questions yourself and discover what you believe and why you believe it,” said Gregory Poore, associate professor of philosophy, apologetics and ethics at Union.  [Read more…]

Carson-Newman University graduate student Matthew Setsor, of Morristown, displays a piece of melted lead uncovered at the dig site. — Photo courtesy of Matthew Setsor

JEFFERSON CITY — A child-sized ring, measuring only about one centimeter in diameter, tells the story of a distant past, but also the future of a university program. 

The gold circular object inlaid with a turquoise stone, is one of several items discovered during an initial groundbreaking excavation project in the northern Judean Desert — more specifically, the ruins of Herod the Great’s desert fortress, Hyrcania. 

 Carson-Newman University, in support of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Institute of Archeology and in collaboration with the American Veterans Archeological Recovery (AVAR), united this summer on the site. The effort is already yielding significant results. [Read more…]

Alabama Campers on Mission who worked at Carson Springs Baptist Conference this summer to begin renovations of Maple Lodge included, from left, Judy and Jerry Berry, Randy and Joan Clemons, Velma and Lynn Brown, John and Linda King, Jackie and Greg Merrell, Kay and Gary Moran, Joyce and Eugene Corley, Rhonda and Jim Barton, Joanne and Ken Knowles and Elwanda and Dennis Mason. — Photos by Kevin Perrigan and Lonnie Wilkey

NEWPORT — Just to be perfectly clear — Campers on Mission are not part-time help looking for a summer job, says Linda King of Woodburn, Ky.

“We don’t come in as part-time helpers. We come in to take the load off of the staff for just a little while and to walk alongside them and be like the people who helped Moses raise up his staff,” she affirmed.

“We help get things done that might have been delayed for a while,” added King, who participates with her husband, John, in the Alabama chapter of Campers on Mission.

Kevin Perrigan, manager of Carson Springs Baptist Conference Center in Newport, is a strong proponent of Campers on Mission, especially teams from Alabama and Tennessee. [Read more…]

Randy C, Davis, president and executive director of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, and his wife, Jeanne, were at the Nashville airport on Oct. 11 to welcome home a team from First Baptist Church, Dyer, who was in Israel when Hamas attacked the country on Oct. 7. From left are, back row, Doug Duncan, Rachel Self, Larry Reagan, Jeanne and Randy C. Davis; front row, Judy Shanklin, Karen Duncan, Kacie Agee (team leader), Darlene Land, Grace Jones, Grant Jones and Susan McCullar.

FRANKLIN — At least three Tennessee Baptist church teams were in Israel on Oct. 7 when Hamas militants brutally attacked the country, which has retaliated with airstrikes on Gaza.

As of Oct. 11, the reported death toll was near 2,000 people killed and 2,700 injured in Israel and at least 900 people killed and 4,500 injured in Gaza.

Two churches — Sunnyside Baptist in Kingsport and First Baptist, Dyer — have left the country.

Forty-eight members of Sunnyside Baptist, including pastor Bill Sims, were able to leave Israel on Oct. 10, flying to Atlanta where they took a bus to Kingsport late in the evening. [Read more…]

Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers joined with other volunteers from the area for the first food distribution from the Missions Mobilization Center in Mount Juliet. Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief is working with the Midwest Food Bank to be a monthly distribution site for food given to non-profit organizations to donate to needy families in Middle Tennessee. — Photos by Wes Jones

MOUNT JULIET — Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief is hosting the Midwest Food Bank to provide food distribution in Middle Tennessee.

The Midwest Food Bank is a faith-based organization which distributes nearly $34 million worth of food monthly to more than 2,200 non-profit organizations each month from 12 locations in the United States and in East Africa and Haiti. The organizations then distribute the food to needy families in their communities.

Midwest Food Bank began food distribution to agencies around the Middle Tennessee area last month out of the Missions Mobilization Center (MMC) in Mount Juliet, said Wes Jones, disaster relief specialist for the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board. [Read more…]

MOUNT JULIET — Tennessee Baptists are joining Southern Baptists around the globe in responding to the devastating attack on Israel by the terrorist group Hamas in the early morning hours of Oct. 7.

CNBC News reported Oct. 10 that nearly 2,000 people have been killed and 2,700 injured in Israel and at least 900 people killed and 4,500 injured in Gaza, according to Palestinian and Israeli health services.

Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief issued a callout Oct. 9 for funds and donations of items that will be shipped to Israel as soon as possible (see list HERE). [Read more…]

NASHVILLE — A statement has been released by the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission called the Evangelical Statement in Support of Israel condemning the attacks on Israel, calling on Christians to pray for Israelis and Palestinians and urging policymakers to use their power to protect innocent life in the Middle East. The statement bears the signatures of dozens of pastors, SBC entity and state convention leaders and leaders of various Christian organizations.

“These repugnant atrocities by Hamas should shake us to our core. Hundreds of innocent Israeli lives have been struck down by a rampaging enemy. There should be no question that the Israeli government has the right to defend its citizens and sovereignty that have been so grossly violated,” said Brent Leatherwood, ERLC president, in a release. [Read more…]