baptisms Archives - Baptist & Reflector

HOLY SPIRIT MOVING AT MOUNT JULIET HIGH SCHOOL

January 17, 2022

By David Dawson
Baptist and Reflector
ddawson@tnbaptist.org

MOUNT JULIET — It didn’t take long for Jonathan Jennings to sense that God was up to something big at Mount Juliet High School.

Jennings — the students and missions pastor at Victory Baptist Church and the chaplain for the Mount Juliet football team — has had a front row seat during a powerful move of God that has included 13 football players making professions of faith in recent months.

“The spirit is moving at Mount Juliet High School, and God is doing some awesome things,” said Jennings. “We knew there was something special happening in that (football) locker room.” [Read more…]

CARSON-NEWMAN FOOTBALL TEAM GAINS ‘TRUE’ VICTORIES

October 26, 2021

Eleven players baptized in Mossy Creek after recent professions of faith

Carson-Newman news office

Alan Duncan (left) and Marty Blakely baptize Carson-Newman football player Levi Myers in Mossy Creek as members of the football team watch from the creek bank. Meyers was one of 11 players who were baptized. — Photo by Charles Key

JEFFERSON CITY — Mossy Creek has held a special place in the hearts of Carson-Newman University students and alumni for generations. On Sept. 29, the creek became the scene of a life-changing event for 11 members of the Eagles football team.

Following afternoon practice, the 11 teammates walked from the University’s Burke-Tarr Stadium down the hill to the banks of the creek. They were accompanied by fellow players, coaches, administrators and staff, all gathering to witness and celebrate the athletes’ shared decision to make public professions of faith after accepting Christ. Historic Mossy Creek provided the appropriate backdrop.

Helping officiate the event were Marty Blakely, director of Lakeway’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and Alan Duncan, who serves on staff at Morristown’s Manley Baptist Church. Over the last four years, the duo has baptized over 50 C-N players. Blakely noted that prior to his participation, Dr. Dean Haun, pastor of Morristown’s First Baptist Church, had helped with the team’s baptisms. [Read more…]

ARDMORE CHURCH JOURNEYS FROM COVID-19 TO CHAOS TO SALVATIONS

August 30, 2021

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
lwilkey@tnbaptist.org

Pastor Michael Cothren prepares to baptize his daughter, Laken. She was one of 18 people baptized at Kelly’s Creek Baptist Church in Elkton in August. The baptisms were held in the Elk River.

ARDMORE — A small country church “in the middle of nowhere” is doing quite well as it continues to rebound from an off year due to COVID-19, says pastor Michael Cothren of Kelly’s Creek Baptist Church.

This summer, Kelly’s Creek held camps for youth and children and the result was 11 decisions for Christ at camp and three more who made decisions in the aftermath of camp.

As a result of some other salvations, Kelly’s Creek recently baptized 18 new believers in the Elk River, Cothren said. Among the believers was his daughter, Laken, and some of the family who own the land adjoining the river where the baptisms were held. [Read more…]

DECLINING CHURCH FINDS NEW LIFE AFTER COVID-19

August 11, 2021

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
lwilkey@tnbaptist.org

East Alcoa Baptist Church baptized 10 people, including two girls who made professions of faith during Vacation Bible School, in the Little River in Townsend on July 25.
In this photo, East Alcoa Baptist Church pastor David Kirkland, right center, prepares to baptize Randall Prater while Prater’s wife, Bethany, left, and daughter, Violet, look on. They were later baptized, along with Randall’s father, Mark Prater, and brother, Jesse Prater.

ALCOA — In November of 2020, following a year of challenges caused by COVID-19, the future did not look very bright for East Alcoa Baptist Church.

Attendance had dwindled down to eight people and the church was holding regular yard sales to raise money to pay utilities. The church’s Sunday School rooms were filled with items for the yard sales and there was no hot water in the building. The church could not afford to pay a pastor and local ministers were taking turns preaching at East Alcoa.

In November, David Kirkland, who then was minister of music and worship at Oak Street Baptist Church in Maryville, was asked to take a turn. Kirkland preached two weeks in a row and noted that God began to lay a burden on his heart to help the struggling church. As a bivocational minister, no salary was not a detriment to Kirkland. “I didn’t want to get paid. I just wanted to help them get to the point that they could pay a pastor,” he recalled.

Kirkland left Oak Street and began serving as pastor at East Alcoa Baptist on the first Sunday of January this year. It is his first pastorate after 30 years in youth and music ministry. [Read more…]

A SHOT OF GOOD NEWS FOR A CHANGE

August 2, 2021

By Randy C. Davis
President and executive director, Tennessee Baptist Mission Board

Let’s get real for a moment. There is a relentless barrage of daily bad news circulated through news outlets and social media. It is saturated with a great deal of misinformation, rumor, innuendo and flat out lies born in the pits of hell.

A lot of it lands on my desk, or at least in my inbox. Unfortunately it tends to also bleed over into congregations which is why I welcome the opportunity to dialog with anyone about issues that concern TBC churches and their leaders.

Such was the case when leaders from Wheelerton Baptist Church (WBC) asked to meet with me. The church is in a small community not far from the Alabama-Tennessee state line.

The pastor and deacons were concerned about issues related to the Southern Baptist Convention. We blocked two hours at the TBMB Church Support Center here in Franklin to have some frank conversations. [Read more…]

GILES COUNTY CHURCH GOING STRONG, BAPTISMS ON THE RISE POST-COVID-19

July 27, 2021

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
lwilkey@tnbaptist.org

Wheelerton Baptist Church pastor Paul Mason baptizes 19-year-old Bree Johnson in the Elk River.

DELLROSE — Like many churches throughout Tennessee, Wheelerton Baptist Church in Giles County was hit hard by COVID-19 last year.

Just the year before, the church, with the assistance of deacon Keith Bennett and others, guided the church through a construction project that doubled the size of Wheelerton’s facilities. For the most part, the church did not get to enjoy the new building until this year. Members were poised for growth.

And, while it was delayed a year by the worldwide pandemic, the church is beginning to see results.

In 2019, the church baptized four people and added two more in 2020. Through June of this year, the church has baptized 15 and has at least nine more scheduled to be baptized on Aug. 8.

All the baptisms now take place in the Elk River, said pastor Paul Mason. He recalled how that has become a tradition at the church. In 2017, a young boy, Bo Lewter, came forward to accept Christ as his Savior and announced that he wanted to be baptized “today.” [Read more…]

NEARLY 50 BAPTIZED IN GIBSON COUNTY LAKE

May 12, 2021

Baptist and Reflector

Todd Kirk, right, associate pastor of Salem Baptist Church, Trenton, baptizes a believer at the Gibson County recreational lake on the night of April 19.

Gibson County recreational lake was the site of 48 baptisms, including a large number of inmates from the Gibson County correctional facility, on the night of April 19.

Roughly two weeks earlier, the correctional facility had hosted a “one-night revival” — organized by Sheriff Paul Thomas — that featured 11 separate services held simultaneously in the living pods on the campus. [Read more…]

LONG HOLLOW SEES 1,000 BAPTISMS SINCE DECEMBER

April 27, 2021

By Scott Barkley
Baptist Press

Long Hollow senior pastor Robby Gallaty (left) assists Dylan, a former Satan worshiper who recently gave his life to Christ, in baptizing his friend Patricia, who had also worshiped Satan. — Photo courtesy of Jacob McKaig, Long Hollow Baptist Church

These days at Long Hollow Baptist Church, interruptions aren’t considered bad. The plan isn’t as crucial as the response. Things flow from a position of prayer, ultimately pointing toward Christ.

Structure exists, sure. There’s still an order of worship. Trained childcare workers remain ready and available. Pastor Robby Gallaty prepares and prays over his sermons. But anyone feeling led to come to the altar can do so at any time. Gospel conversations occur throughout the week. Baptisms are conducted while worshipers sing. They also take place after Gallaty’s message and invitation, continuing as long as 45 minutes after the benediction regardless of lunch plans.

Such steps are needed to meet the response the church has witnessed since December. That marked the beginning of a wave of baptisms that exceeded 1,000 on April 11. Gallaty, who began at the church in 2015, estimates that 70-75 percent of those are from first-time confessions of faith and 83 percent are adults.

He’s quick to point out that it is all due to God. And really, it couldn’t occur until Gallaty got out of the way. That realization happened after the suicides of two of Gallaty’s close friends: ministers Jarrid Wilson and Darren Patrick.

“Both of those men preached at Long Hollow within six months of their passing,” he said. “They both sat at my dining room table. It made me realize that the last person to say he’s burning out or that ministry is tough is usually the one burning out. [Read more…]

STARTED ON FAITH, SUSTAINED BY FAITH

February 11, 2021

Two-year-old church plant baptizes 45 people during pandemic

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
lwilkey@tnbaptist.org

Joel Kirk, pastor of Realife Church in Bristol, delivers his message.

BRISTOL — Pastor Joel Kirk has a simple formula for planting a church: “It’s impossible to please God without faith.”

So far, that formula has produced miracle after miracle for Realife Church in Bristol, a congregation that will not be three years old until the Sunday after Easter this year.

Kirk recalled that on Palm Sunday in 2018 he and his wife, Angela, met with about 20 people at a coffee shop in Bristol and he laid out a vision for a church that didn’t even have a name yet. [Read more…]

NO PAUSE FOR THE PANDEMIC

January 27, 2021

FBC McMinnville sees surge in baptisms despite COVID

By David Dawson
Baptist and Reflector
ddawson@tnbaptist.org

Jeff Owens, pastor of First Baptist Church, McMinnville, left, baptizies Morgan West, a 19-year-old college student. West came to the church through FBC’s new college/career ministry called “The Bridge.”

McMINNVILLE — Although the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a tidal wave of cancelations and postponements over the past 10 months, the virus certainly hasn’t canceled the evangelism efforts at First Baptist Church, McMinnville.

It has only reshaped them.

When the virus first took hold last spring, the church staff at FBC began examining some of its outreach strategies — and began moving in a new direction with several of its ministries.

Those efforts, coupled with the church’s ability to adapt and adjust, led to a surge in baptisms in 2020. [Read more…]

Eleven players baptized in Mossy Creek after recent professions of faith

Two-year-old church plant baptizes 45 people during pandemic

FBC McMinnville sees surge in baptisms despite COVID

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