Outgoing TBC president Jay Hardwick gave his president’s address during the Tuesday morning session of the 2025 Summit. – Photo by Jim Veneman
JACKSON — Tennessee Baptist Convention president Jay Hardwick delivered his final presidential address Tuesday morning with a simple charge: Be a Barnabas.
Drawing from Acts 9:26-31, Hardwick emphasized how Barnabas lent credibility to the newly converted Paul when the disciples doubted Paul’s transformation, ultimately helping launch one of Christianity’s most influential apostles.
“Rather than piling on the fear and the doubt, Barnabas took a completely different approach,” Hardwick said during the 2025 TBC Summit’s Tuesday morning session. “In what he did with Paul and the disciples, we see why everyone needs a Barnabas.”
Hardwick’s message centered on a core Southern Baptist principle: cooperation.
“In the bedrock of who we are as Southern Baptists, we believe fundamentally that we are better together,” he said. “This mission that God has called us to is greater than any one leader can accomplish on their own.”
Transformed Lives
Hardwick traced Paul’s journey from persecutor to preacher, noting that three years after his conversion, the disciples still hesitated when he tried to join them.
“You can also understand their doubt,” Hardwick said. “Wait a minute, is this really you? We’re talking about Saul?”
But that skepticism raised a question that churches still wrestle with today: Do we really believe in the power of the gospel we preach?
“When you look back at Paul’s story, you see the power of God and you see the power of the gospel on full display,” he said.
Hardwick warned that many Christians have grown numb to the gospel’s power, fed instead by social media posts and other outlets designed to invoke fear.
“Do not let the algorithm and do not let the news cycle and do not let the talking heads take away your fire to keep on preaching the gospel,” he said. “It is the power of God to save and transform. Keep preaching it, keep sharing it, keep training our people to share it.”
Multiplying Leaders
Hardwick referenced Danny Sinquefield’s new book “Everybody Needs a Barnabas: Creating a Culture of Encouragement in the Local Church,” which explores how Barnabas lent Paul credibility when he had none.
He highlighted how Barnabas didn’t just defend Paul — he invested in him. When Barnabas saw grace at work in Antioch, he traveled to Tarsus to find Paul and bring him to serve there.
The partnership bore fruit. Acts 9:31 records that “the church throughout all Judea, Galilee and Samaria had peace, was strengthened, living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit.”
Eventually, the biblical narrative shifted from “Barnabas and Paul” to “Paul and Barnabas” as Barnabas took the back seat.
“Maybe there’s even a lonely leader in your community,” Hardwick said. “Maybe it’s even another pastor or leader in another church. Maybe there’s a hurting and burned-out leader that you can take in, speak life into and speak up for, serve alongside prayerfully.”
A United Church
Hardwick emphasized that Southern Baptists succeed through cooperation.
“Churches in our community are not competition — they are co-laborers,” he said. “Our posture is one of collaboration, not competition.”
He reminded messengers that Jesus cast a vision in Acts 1 for his disciples to be witnesses “in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
“They had no concept of what ends of the earth might mean and what that might require of them and what that might cost them,” Hardwick said. “The vision and the mission that Jesus gave his disciples was far beyond anything they could have ever imagined or accomplished on their own.”
That’s why cooperation matters, according to Hardwick.
“That’s why we’re Southern Baptists,” he said. “We have a clear confession, and we have a commitment to cooperation. The mission is too big for any one church to accomplish on its own. It’s the gospel and mission that brings us together.”
Hardwick noted that Tennessee’s Baptist churches represent diverse sizes and locations but share one mission.
“I want you to know that as expansive as our 3,200 churches are, the types of churches we are and where we are, we are one church with one mission,” he said.
As the early church endured persecution, it remained encouraged by the Holy Spirit because believers advanced together, resulting in the kingdom’s expansive growth.
Hardwick, left, shakes hands with new TBC president Dan Spencer. – Photo by Jim Veneman
“I know that as we’re laboring for the gospel here, our brothers and our sisters are laboring for the gospel alongside of us so that the sun never sets on the advance of the gospel,” Hardwick said.
He concluded with a reminder that any church, anywhere, can advance God’s kingdom.
“We’re seeing the beginning, but the mission field is still vast,” he said. B&R
NOTE: Dan Spencer was elected TBC president and begins his term Nov. 12. You can read Spencer’s sermon from Sunday night here.
