Telling the Story of Tennessee Baptists Since 1835
February 21, 2019
By Willie McLaurin Special assistant to the executive director, TBMB Decades ago, Martin Luther King Jr. called the 11 a.m. hour on Sunday morning “the most segregated hour in America.” Statistics show that it still is. A vast majority of American churches have congregations that are primarily made up of one racial group, rather than […]
February 20, 2019
By Lonnie Wilkey Editor, Baptist and Reflector lwilkey@tnbaptist.org A church family can make the difference in someone’s life. If you don’t believe it, just read the story of Paul Chitwood, new president of the International Mission Board, Southern Baptists’ largest missions-sending institution. Chitwood grew up in a single-parent home for much of his childhood. He […]
February 19, 2019
By Jerry Drace FRIENDSHIP, Tenn. — I had just walked into my house. The tree cutters were splitting the last of the limbs from the hundred-year-old hickory tree which had to be taken down due to a virus. Suddenly I heard someone banging on our door. Rushing to the door to open it, I looked […]
February 12, 2019
By Robert Tyson Director of missions for Robertson County Baptist Association On Dec. 12, Ross Douthat, an opinion writer for The New York Times, wrote an article entitled the “The Return of Paganism.” Douthat is Catholic and a theological conservative. He is concerned that the Christian church has lost its focus. He means church members, […]
February 11, 2019
By Randy C. Davis TBMB President & Executive Director It is a heavy blow when God determines to bring to light that which is hidden in the shadows. Sometimes the Body of Christ must bear the weight of His judgment when He does. Such a blow was delivered yesterday morning in an article that appeared […]
February 8, 2019
J. Travis Tyler Pastor, Grace Baptist Church, Elizabethton On Sunday morning, Jan. 13, Pastor Vic Wallace preached his last sermon as pastor of Oak Hill Baptist Church in Jonesborough. Beginning in the mid-1950s, Pastor Wallace began a ministry lasting over six decades of pastoral ministry including Flag Pond, Mosheim, Mountain City, Kingsport, and Fall Branch. […]
February 7, 2019
By Lonnie Wilkey Editor, Baptist and Reflector A few years ago, I was flipping through the seemingly thousands of channels on our television set, not having any luck in finding something worth watching. I finally settled on a program entitled “Homicide Hunter,” a television show detailing the criminal investigations of Joe Kenda, a retired detective […]
February 6, 2019
By Randy C. Davis TBMB President & Executive Director Here’s a riddle for you. What do a banker, a contractor, an elementary teacher, a chemist, an engineering professor and a farmer all have in common? Answer: They are all faithful pastors. Unbelievably, approximately 60 percent of the pastors in Tennessee are bivocational. Let that sink […]
January 30, 2019
By Chris Turner Director of Communications, TBMB Lois Jodie Jamieson Perkins, “Mottie” as her family called her, closed her eyes and peacefully slipped into eternity last week at the age of 97. For most of the world, she was a “nobody.” To my mother-in-law and the rest of her family, and the people who knew […]
January 24, 2019
By Benjie Shaw Collegiate ministry specialist, Tennessee Baptist Mission Board I serve as the director of a campus-based ministry. Campus ministry is the only full-time ministry that I’ve ever known. Working with college students and young adults is great because it affords an opportunity to influence a person in what is probably the most formative […]
January 22, 2019
By Randy C. Davis TBMB President & Executive Director The most gut-wrenching and soul-devastating site in the world is seeing women militantly demanding the right to kill their unborn babies. I was reminded of this last week when I saw a photo of women vociferously protesting for the right to “keep abortion legal.” How I […]
January 17, 2019
By Todd E. Brady Vice President for University Ministries, Union University On Jan. 18, thousands will gather in Washington D.C. as they have done each year for over 40 years for the March for Life Rally. Billed as the world’s largest pro-life event, people there will march “to end abortion and to share the vision of […]