Telling the Story of Tennessee Baptists Since 1835
January 17, 2019
By Christian Index & BP Staff DULUTH, Ga. — Evangelist Bailey Smith, who helped sustain the Conservative Resurgence at its outset in the Southern Baptist Convention, died Monday morning (Jan. 14) at his home in Duluth, Ga. He was 79. Smith’s election as SBC president in 1980 was the second victory for conservatives following the […]
January 17, 2019
By Diana Chandler Baptist Press LOS ANGELES — Protecting children from obscenity on television has never been more difficult than in 2019, the Parents Television Council (PTC) said in listing the top five reforms the entertainment industry needs to make this year. “Even with the most diligent parental oversight, the industry has exceptional power and […]
January 17, 2019
By Aaron Earls Lifeway Research Church pews may be full of teenagers, but a new study says college students might be a much rarer sight on Sunday mornings. Two-thirds (66 percent) of American young adults who attended a Protestant church regularly for at least a year as a teenager say they also dropped out for […]
January 11, 2019
By Art Toalston Baptist Press EUREKA, S.C. — Rick Stanley, a stepbrother to Elvis Presley who turned to Christ two months after Presley’s death in 1977 and, as an evangelist, spoke at Billy Graham-sponsored events and in a multitude of other settings, died Saturday evening, Jan. 5, in Aiken, S.C. Stanley returned to First Baptist […]
January 11, 2019
By David Roach Baptist Press BRUNSWICK, Ga. — Jimmy Allen, a former Southern Baptist Convention president and entity leader known for his gregarious personality and engagement with cultural issues, died Jan. 8 in Brunswick, Ga. He was 91. The last SBC president to serve before the convention’s Conservative Resurgence, Allen also was a confidant of President […]
January 8, 2019
By Aaron Earls LifeWay Christian Resources NASHVILLE — The economic recovery has reached the offering plate, according to a study from Nashville-based LifeWay Research. Today, eight in 10 Protestant pastors (79 percent) say the total offerings at their church this year are at or above last year’s levels, including 42 percent who say this year is […]
January 4, 2019
By Tim Ellsworth Baptist Press CLEMSON, S.C. — Despite being a big-time college football player headed to the NFL, Miguel Chavis was on a path to destruction. Self-centered and vile. Hedonistic and drunk. A tough brute who partied hard and pursued every fleeting pleasure he could think of. You name it, and Chavis, during his early […]
January 4, 2019
By Tim Ellsworth Baptist Press TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama running back Josh Jacobs and three other Crimson Tide football players provided a pleasant surprise for a 13-year-old boy while delivering a mattress and bed to a Tuscaloosa home in partnership with Calvary Baptist Church’s S.D. Allen Ministry. Jacobs walked into the house, and the boy […]
January 3, 2019
By David Roach Baptist Press FORT WORTH, Texas — Bill Tolar, a preacher-scholar who provided transitional leadership at key junctures for Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and multiple Southern Baptist megachurches, died Dec. 29 following a battle with cancer. He was 90.
December 14, 2018
By Trennis Henderson WMU National Correspondent JENKINS, Ky. — Bessie and Lester McPeek are known throughout eastern Kentucky as the Diaper Lady and the Diaper Man. They wouldn’t want it any other way. The McPeeks, who have been married for 24 years, started a unique diaper distribution and parent education ministry in Jenkins, Ky., in […]
December 7, 2018
By Tom Strode Baptist Press WASHINGTON — The continued drop in the number, rate and ratio of abortions in the United States is a cause for celebration but also for further efforts to protect children and assist women in need, Southern Baptist pro-life advocates say. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported Nov. 23 […]
December 5, 2018
By Art Toalston Baptist Press NASHVILLE — W.C. Fields, a forerunner in denominational journalism as vice president for public relations for the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee from 1959-1987, died Monday (Dec. 3) in Nashville at age 96. As an Executive Committee vice president, Fields was the SBC’s press representative and director of Baptist Press, the […]