Members of Grace Baptist Church, Tullahoma, from left, Landon Shelby (youth pastor), Wade Hampton, Claire Hampton, Mike Shelby and Jackson Kennington, passed out the “Jesus” DVD, evangelistic tracts and information about their church.

TULLAHOMA — Duck River Baptist Association, based in Tullahoma, held its first annual Missions Day on May 18. 

Duck River teams visited and ministered at a nursing home, staffed an evangelism tent at the High on the Hog festival, conducted door to door visitation distributing 800 evangelism packets and more.

“Like a lot of associations, we do well doing missions away from home,” observed Matt Ledbetter, director of missions. [Read more…]

David Majors, a member of Springdale Baptist Church for 55 years, points out where the original building, constructed in 1882, was located. Fire destroyed the building, which had been added onto over the years, in the early evening hours of June 1.

TAZEWELL — In the early evening hours of June 1, word began spreading among members of Springdale Baptist Church that their building was on fire.

By the time most members arrived, fire had engulfed the structure, burning the building which included the original structure from 1882, to the ground. 

A fellowship hall which has been added to the building received some fire damage but mostly had water and smoke damage. Church leaders are not yet sure if it can be salvaged. The exact cause of the fire was still unknown two days after the fire. [Read more…]

Seen here working at her laptop, Tiffany Hudson, collegiate ministry specialist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, and her fellow Baptist Collegiate Ministry (BCM) leaders are in the midst of an important three-month stretch. 

NASHVILLE — Instead of the normal buzz of activity and laughter, the only noises inside the BCM building at Vanderbilt University is the gentle hum of the air conditioner and a vacuum cleaner.

No sounds of a ping-pong ball bouncing back and forth. No studying groups chatting about their projects and upcoming tests. No foot traffic moving up and down the stairs or loud talk coming from the patio.

Mostly just silence. Almost like a library.  

“It’s pretty quiet around here in the summer,” said Tiffany Hudson, collegiate ministry specialist at Vanderbilt. “The summer months are usually mostly just me, organizing and sprucing up around the building.”

The same is true at most all of the BCM buildings across Tennessee during June and July, when most of the students are either home for summer break or traveling to various parts of the country. 

So, where does that leave the collegiate ministry specialists and other BCM leaders? Do they have mountains of free time on their hands? Do they spend the summer months feeling like a shepherd without a flock?  [Read more…]

FRANKLIN — Although some Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief teams have already responded to the recent storms in Kentucky, more team are needed, said Wes Jones, DR specialist for the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board. 

In an e-mail sent out on Friday (June 14) morning, Jones made a second call-out for trained chain saw and trained heavy equipment operators to respond to parts of western Kentucky that were recently hit with tornados and straightline winds.

Jones noted that the DR teams who are already western Kentucky had received more than 200 work orders. They are hoping to finish those jobs by mid-July, Jones said. [Read more…]

First Baptist Church, Kingsport, began Providence Medical Clinic in 2010 and remains active in it today. Leaders involved with the clinic at First Baptist include deacon Loyce “Ardie” Aredmagni, left, who serves as president of the clinic’s board of directors and pastor Marvin Cameron.

KINGSPORT — Members of First Baptist Church, Kingsport, had a vision in 2005 of reaching out to their community, especially in ways to provide avenues of medical care for Sullivan County residents who could not afford it.

As a result, Providence Medical Clinic of Kingsport opened in 2010 to provide not only physical care to area residents, but spiritual support as well. The clinic offers free health care to uninsured residents of Sullivan County and the greater Kingsport area as well as those who are at least 150 percent below the poverty level in Tennessee.

Pastor Marvin Cameron affirmed that while the health needs of the people are vital, so are their spiritual needs. “We listen to the people and provide spiritual counseling,” he stressed. [Read more…]

Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers John Van Dyke, left, and his son, Matthew, on the tractor, clear away tree branches at a resident’s house in Spring Hill on May 20.  — Photos by David Dawson

SPRING HILL — With chain saws buzzing and tractors rumbling,  Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers spent the week of May 20-25 checking off a long series of job requests in Maury County.

Trees were downed and many roads were closed throughout Spring Hill and the surrounding areas after deadly storms swept through the area — and other parts of Tennessee — on May 8-9, leaving many homeowners with extensive damage and power outages. 

Tennessee Baptist DR teams have helped many of the storm victims put the pieces back together. As of May 23, Tennessee Baptist DR teams had completed 42 jobs in Maury County and had about a dozen more to go. [Read more…]