MEET THE NEW TBMB HARVEST FIELD LEADERS

Baptist and Reflector

FRANKLIN — In connection with the recent restructuring of the state’s Harvest Fields (see related story), the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board has also announced the list of Harvest Field leaders.

The Baptist and Reflector recently caught up with each of the Harvest Field leaders and ask them to tell us a little about themselves and ask them about their goals and visions for being HF leaders. The B&R also asked the men if there are specific ways in which Tennessee Baptists can pray for their ministry. 

Here is what each of the men had to say: 

Harvest Field 1: Danny Sinquefield
(part-time until Jan. 1, 2022)

I will begin my role as the new Harvest Field 1 Team Leader in January, 2022 on a full-time basis. It has been my privilege to serve as a Harvest Field Connector as a volunteer with the TBC for the past six years and I have been serving as the Acting HF1 Team Leader on a part-time basis since March of this year with the TBMB. 

My wife is Rhonda, and we have been married since we were freshmen in college (40 years). We have three grown sons: Jonathan, 36, Joshua, 33,  and Joseph, 28. They all live near us in the Bartlett area, and they have given us seven wonderful grandchildren – five grandsons and two granddaughters. 

I have served as the Senior Pastor for Faith Baptist Church in Bartlett since 1994 (27 years). We have been very active in all facets of our state convention through those years, and I have served as the TBC Pastor’s Conference President (2004) and as President of the TBC (2009).  I have also served as Chairman of the Committee on Committees and on the Nominating Committee for the TBC. 

I am so excited about serving more than 500 churches in West Tennessee. 

For nearly three decades, I have formed friendships and relationships with many of the pastors and leaders in the eleven associations in which I will be serving. 

It is my goal to come alongside the leaders in those associations to advocate for strong, healthy pastors, thriving churches and to see more churches become strategically involved in partnering together to reach lost people, make disciples, plant new churches and strengthen our mission giving in these churches through the Cooperative Program and our Golden Offering for Tennessee Missions. I love our simple and clear Mission Statement of the TBMB – “Making Christ known by serving Churches.” That is my passion and my primary goal. 

This new role as a Harvest Field Team Leader makes my heart beat fast. 

Please pray that I would model the leadership of Barnabas as an encourager to other pastors and leaders. Pray that our collective work would bring glory and honor to Jesus in every way possible. I am deeply grateful for this opportunity to serve churches, and I especially appreciate the prayer support! 

Harvest Field 2: Josh Franks

I’ve been with the TBMB almost 3 months. My wife’s name is Alisha. We have two boys: Noah, 11, and Josiah, 9.

Before joining the TBMB I was the pastor at First Baptist Church in Bruceton.

My biggest vision for my harvest field is to see genuine, earth-shaking revival happen in our churches. When God called me to this position, Acts 9:31 gripped my heart. “The church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.” To strengthen local churches and see them multiply in the power of the Spirit is my primary pursuit. I pray for and serve toward this end.

The best way to pray for me is to pray for peace and security for my family. Pray for me to have wisdom and discernment about how to best serve the churches in my harvest field. Pray that God would open the doors of opportunity wherever God would have me go. And pray that God would rend the heavens and come down!

Harvest Field 3: Robert “Bo” Irvin

I started at the TBMB on August 26, 2021.

My wife, Elizabeth, and I have two children – our son, Bo, 7, and our daughter, Olivia, 11. 

Before joining the staff at the TBMB, I was pastor of Shop Springs Baptist Church in Lebanon.

As a harvest field leader, my goal is to be an encouragement to pastors/churches and help make more of Jesus as we seek to WinTN for Christ for the glory of God.

Please pray for me to be faithful to the call of Christ on my life and to model (my actions) for the pastors and churches that I seek to help lead.

Harvest Field 4: Steve Pearson

This is my 16th year with the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board. 

My wife, Glenda, and I have been married for almost 40 years. We have a daughter, Loren, 30, and a son, Bailey, 33, and daughter-in-law, Jessie, with granddaughters Adeline 7 and Maggie 5.

Most of my 41 years in ministry have been spent as senior pastor in Texas, South Carolina, and Tennessee. I did spend three years with the State Convention of Baptists in Ohio.

(My main desire as a harvest field leader is that) I want to serve churches. I want to know the 11 associations and the 501 churches that are a part of the TBC network of churches in southeast Tennessee. I want to be the person that church leaders can call if they have a question related to their work or the work of the TBMB.

I want every church in southeast Tennessee to recognize the beauty of the cooperative program. It is an amazing thing when a church in Troy, Tennessee gives and that gift impacts the Ministry Center of Ducktown, Tennessee and the 12 supporting churches of the Copper Basin Baptist Association. 

In a very real way I want to help our associations and churches discover those places where there is no gospel centered ministry, a gospel desert if you will, and show and share the love of God until there is no place left that has not heard.

I want to help our churches and associations remove all barriers to the gospel, whether they be location or language. Helping them to start and restart ministries, all for the sake of the Gospel.

Please pray for open eyes to see where God is working and to see the need. Any way you slice it, Tennessee is a mission field (quote from Randy Davis). Please pray for the lost of southeast Tennessee. Whether they be downtown Chattanooga among the urban revitalization happening around the base of Lookout Mountain or among the marginalized population of the folks in the hills east of Tellico Plains. On a personal note, I would ask you to pray for my dad, Ellis, and my sister, Judi, who are both dealing with cancer.

Harvest Field 5: Joe Sorah

I joined the staff at the TBMB in October 2014. I have been here 7 years.

My wife, Teresa, and I have a son, Josh Sorah (age 31), married to Lauren. They are the parents of Everly (age 3) and Jacob (age 1). They live in Hendersonville, Tennessee and are members of Hendersonville First Baptist Church. We have a daughter, Natalie Vaughn (age 26), married to Dustin Vaughn, parents of Neyland (age 10 months). They live in Corryton, Tennessee and are members of Buffat Heights Baptist Church, Knoxville, where Dustin serves as Worship Pastor.

I served as pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, Elizabethton from December 1991 – October 2014. Before serving Calvary, I served as pastor of Mountain Terrace Baptist Church, Memphis, and on staff at Holly Springs First Baptist Church (Miss.), Calera Baptist Church (Ala.), Marrero First Baptist Church (La.), Southland Baptist Church (Memphis), and Shelby Forest Baptist Church (Millington).

As a harvest field leader, I seek to serve our pastors, churches and associations. I desire to walk alongside pastors to encourage, resource and coach as needed.  I want to partner with our AMSs to work together to meet the needs of our churches and pastors. In every Harvest Field, there are pastors who serve in isolation. I want to be available to serve such pastors and for them to know they are not alone. We want to bring the resources of the TBMB to the local church, to assist each church to win their community, and in order to do so, we must know our pastors, churches, and associations. That is the beauty of having Harvest Field Team Leaders living throughout the state in each Harvest Field.

Please pray for wisdom and discernment as I seek to serve our leaders. Please pray for safety and protection as our Harvest Field Team Leaders travel throughout the state. Please pray that I will be continually filled with the Holy Spirit and that I will be faithful to God’s call upon my life.

Harvest Field 6: Randy Pressnell

I have been with the TBMB since May 1, 2020 after previously serving as a pastor.

My wife is Debbi. We have two adult children. Both are married and have blessed us with four grandchildren.

As a harvest field leader, I would love to continue developing relationships with pastors, staff members and associational mission strategists in this harvest field. 

These relationships connect individual churches and associations of churches to the work of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board and ultimately allow us to partner with them in fulfilling the Great Commission in their Jerusalem as well as their Judea and then on to Samaria and the ends of the earth. 

In the also category, I would love to work closely with vocational pastors of numerically smaller churches and bivocational pastors to help them understand how vital they are to our TBMB strategic goal of reaching the unreached people in our harvest field.

I have been given the awesome opportunity to serve Christ through serving the churches of our harvest field. So, I would covet your prayers that I might be found faithful in doing so (1 Corinthians 4:1-2).

Harvest Field 7: Ethnic congregations: William Burton

I have been with the TBMB for eight and a half years.  

My wife, Maria, and I have two daughters — Hannah, 21, and Isabella, 15. 

Prior to joining the TBMB, I served as pastor at Iglesia Bautista La Gran Comision, Morristown.

As ethnic harvest leader, my vision is to assist ethnic churches and to strengthen their relationships with other churches in their Harvest Field as well as engage with our network of Tennessee Baptist churches.

You can pray for me by asking God for His protection as I travel across the state, and by asking God to bring mother churches to assist in planting new ethnic churches. B&R