Hardwick
What a great couple of years.
It has been a joy and honor to serve Tennessee Baptists these two years as president of our Tennessee Baptist Convention and as chair of the Acts 2:17 vision team.
The Lord gave me a front-row seat to what he is doing in and through our family of churches. I can confidently say God is at work, and I am excited about our future together!
I love our TBC vision “to be a collaborative network of spiritually healthy churches reaching Tennessee and beyond for Christ.” I’ve seen this in action over these last few years.
We’re not competing but collaborating because we know we are better together. We genuinely want all 3,200 TBC churches to have pastors and to effectively impact every Tennessee community for Christ. And that passion stretches to the nations.
I have seen our institutions consider how they might fulfill our vision.
For example, our colleges, Union University and Carson-Newman University, have launched new strategies to strengthen a ministry pipeline of young leaders pursuing God’s calling.
Our Tennessee Baptist Children’s Homes continue ramping up efforts to help more Tennessee Baptist families foster and adopt so every child has a home and a gospel foundation. Our Tennessee Baptist Foundation is working with more churches and individuals to fund the advance of the Great Commission for generations to come.
I have also enjoyed getting to know the collaborative work of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board’s Harvest Field leaders working with associational leaders who have taken seriously the need to ensure every pastor is connected and resourced for effective ministry.
I’ve also seen this Kingdom-minded partnership help churches collaborate for greater effectiveness in revitalization, evangelism and serving their communities in Jesus’ name.
Perhaps nothing has shown the strength of our collaboration more than how Tennessee Baptists responded to the Hurricane Helene tragedy by giving or serving through Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief.
In this 100th year of Tennessee Baptist Collegiate Ministries, it has been a blessing to be on university campuses and with many of our BCM leaders. I’ve seen firsthand the spiritual awakening among students as they passionately follow, share and serve Jesus.
I love the vision of Stacy Murphree, the TBMB’s new state director of collegiate ministries: that Tennessee will be the No. 1 state for collegiate missions mobilization.
I have visited with pastors across our state and determined we have some of the finest ministry leaders I have ever been around. They love where they serve, what they do and being Tennessee Baptists. They share the burden for reaching every Tennessean with the gospel, for raising up more pastors and leaders, and for planting and revitalizing more churches.
Tennessee continues to be a leader in baptisms, Cooperative Program giving and mission mobilization because of our great pastors.
Finally, I want to commend our tremendous TBMB staff and the leadership of president and executive director Randy C. Davis. These men and women love our state and love Tennessee Baptists. They bring fresh perspective, reimagined ministry and launched new opportunities to strengthen and multiply gospel leaders, evangelistic disciples and healthy churches.
I am grateful for their passion and courage.
It is great to be a Tennessee Baptist. We can celebrate 151 years of God’s faithfulness and an incredibly bright future of working together.
Thank you for the opportunity to serve you these last two years as president of our state convention.
Now more than ever, it’s time to boldly advance together in fulfilling the Great Commission.
Let’s go! B&R
