NEWPORT — Randy Runions, senior pastor of Lincoln Avenue Baptist Church, has always been a supporter of both the Tennessee Baptist Convention and the Southern Baptist Convention and a strong believer in cooperative giving.
But after going through the devastation left behind in Newport and throughout Cocke County, cooperation “is way greater than I thought,” Runions affirmed.
Cooperation is not people in Nashville cutting checks, he said. “Cooperation is seeing different disaster relief teams (our fellow Baptists) come to our communities and provide help where it is needed.”
Runions has learned firsthand the truth of how “Baptists are stronger together.
The Newport pastor has long known that Tennessee Baptists have one of the best disaster relief programs in Runions the nation, but “I never dreamed our church would be on the receiving end of DR.”
Runions also has seen cooperation among his congregation, local churches, the state convention and sister churches from across the state.
Lincoln Avenue became “a safe haven” for those in the community and a distribution point. The church had members who worked 14-16 hours a day for several days in a row and volunteers who came from a variety of places to help.
Runions
Runions has lived in Cocke County for 26 years. “I have never seen the people in our community look to churches for direction more than now.” He credited Mike Hensley,
director of missions for East Tennessee Baptist Association, for pulling Cocke County churches together. “He has been phenomenal,” Runions said of his DOM. “This community looked for churches to be there and we (Cocke County churches) were.”
He noted that if someone came to Lincoln Avenue for something and they did not have it, he would text other pastors in the association and if they had what we needed, they would tell us “to come get it.” Runions is grateful for all the help given to Lincoln Avenue by churches and others not only from Tennessee, but across the nation.
In the early days after the flooding and Newport and Cocke County was without water, “every time our bottled water was on the verge of running out, a transfer truck load of water would be delivered, Runions said.
It was a humbling experience, he shared. “I felt like the children of Israel wandering in the wilderness. I was surprised every morning that the Lord supplied manna.”
Runions especially is grateful to First Baptist Church, Sevierville. He said some of FBC’s staff came over a few days after the flooding. “They came with wisdom and dis-cernment,” he recalled. They knew that the need for immediate help with food and water would die down so they were looking ahead, he said.
Instead of doing their own established fall festival, Craig Wells and other First Baptist ministerial staff, including pastor Dan Spencer, asked if they could provide a fall festival at Lincoln Avenue Baptist.
FBC leaders only asked one thing from Lincoln Avenue. “They did not want us to use their name. They did not want the attention focused on them. They wanted to bless a com-munity that is hurting but they also wanted the community to look to us (Lincoln Avenue).”
Runions said FBC leaders came to Lincoln Avenue several times to plan the event which was held on Oct. 23. “They came on a Wednesday night two weeks before the fall festival just to pray for the event,” he related.
An estimated 1,200-plus people attended the fall festival. “God answered their prayers,” Runions said. B&R — See separate story on the fall festival in this issue. B&R
