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‘WE GOTTA TALK TO EACH OTHER’

January 16, 2022

By Chris Turner
Director of Communications, TBMB
cturner@tnbaptist.org

Sam was 11 years old when he set out on the Freedom March with his brother from Brown Chapel AME Church just blocks from Edmund Pettus Bridge. As he descended from the bridge Sam heard the tear gas cannisters being fired and people running as law enforcement on horseback beat people with nightsticks. “It’s a sight I’ll never forget,” he said.

Sam pointed across the road to the spot about 50 yards away where he first heard the distinctive “pop” of tear gas canisters fired at the long line of marchers descending from the Edmund Pettus Bridge. The group of 600 stretched from downtown Selma and over the Alabama River. It was the beginning of the 51-mile journey to the state capital in Montgomery to demand long-denied voting rights. Sam was 11 years old and trailing some distance behind his older brother when he saw him running from the consuming mist. 

Just 200 yards ahead, at the vanguard of the peaceful march, dozens of people lay scattered in the streets in pools of their own blood, some unconscious, after law enforcement officers brutally beat them with Billy clubs. Sam could see mounted police charging his way, wildly swinging nightsticks at people in panicked retreat, landing blows to their heads and backs. Petrified, he ran after his brother, away from the horror sweeping his way. 

I met Sam last week at the National Voting Rights Museum and Institute located adjacent to where the events of Selma’s Bloody Sunday (March 7, 1965) took place. He vividly remembers it all, every detail. “That was a bad day. A terrible day. I remember the looks on people’s faces as they ran in fear.” [Read more…]

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Filed Under: Featured, Opinion Column Tagged With: Chris Turner

THE ‘UGLY CRY’ OF COLLEGE GOODBYES

August 25, 2021

By Chris Turner
Director of Communications, TBMB
cturner@tnbaptist.org

My daughter just left for college, and I’ve mysteriously developed “ugly cry” syndrome. A friend tells me the correlation is not coincidental.

I should have seen it coming. Not too long ago I heard a pastor tell a young couple with a newborn to make the most of every opportunity because “the days are long, but the years are short.” I’ve learned over the past 48 hours the magnitude of that colossal understatement.

My wife and I just settled our only child at a university in Los Angeles. As she blended into the sea of people in her orientation group, all I could think about was walking her to the corner near our house when she was two to splash in puddles wearing her little rubber boots. I’m not certain how fast light speed is but I’m pretty sure the past 18 years qualifies.

Seeing her turn and walk toward her future left me an emotional mess. I’m bordering on a meltdown just writing this. I felt the heavy weight of impending loss pressing on my soul the week leading up to our journey from Nashville to L.A. I couldn’t shake it. “Surely,” I thought, “Surely Scripture can offer a word of comfort.” The Lord must have led me to Ecclesiastes because that is certainly not the book I’d normally choose when seeking a spiritual lift. [Read more…]

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Filed Under: Opinion Column Tagged With: Chris Turner

TBMB WEBSITE GETS ‘TOTAL OVERHAUL’

August 10, 2021

By David Dawson
ddawson@tnbaptist.org

Website visitors to the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board’s home page will notice a new design.

FRANKLIN — Those who are paying attention might have noticed that the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board’s website has a new look.

Actually, even those who aren’t paying close attention probably noticed. It’s kind of hard to miss. 

With the goal of making the site more user friendly and ascetically pleasing, the TBMB unveiled the redesign last month.

“I am excited about offering Tennessee Baptists a website that serves as a resource to help them reach their communities and hopefully the nations for Christ,” said Chris Turner, director of communications for the TBMB. “Our entire existence is to make Christ known by serving churches. The site will continue offering resources that will help them be successful.” 

Initially launched in 1998, the TBMB website has continually been restructured, upgraded and expanded through the years. But the latest changes — a project that has been in the works for more than a year — might be the biggest change yet. [Read more…]

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Filed Under: Featured, News, Tennessee Tagged With: Chris Turner

CRITICAL RACE THEORY AND CHRISTIAN OBLIGATION

February 25, 2021

By Chris Turner
Director of Communications, TBMB

Two years ago, few had ever heard of Critical Race Theory and now it is on the verge of becoming an ideological pandemic. Lines are drawn, passions are high, sides are forming, and the divide is widening.

For Christians, it gets complicated. Where should we fall on the issue?

Scholars generally agree that Critical Race Theory (CRT) seeks standards to determine how one’s race affects their social standing.

It arose from the legal field in the late 1980s to challenge the idea that racial inequality had been solved; that racial inequality was no longer an issue in American society following Civil Rights and Affirmative Action laws. Other categories (known as Intersectionality) then arose – such as ability, gender, age, class, and religion – to assist in determining inequality and to identify equitable solutions through social and legal actions to remedy issues like social justice and human dignity. [Read more…]

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Filed Under: Opinion Column Tagged With: Chris Turner

FACEBOOK USERS ARE THE PROBLEM, NOT FACEBOOK

October 12, 2018

By Chris Turner
Director of Communications, TBMB

I was recently talking with a friend about social media and primarily about Facebook. His perspective was pretty clear: Facebook was birthed in the pit of hell.

“Just look at what’s on there,” he said. “Nothing but discord and dissension. We’d have been better off if there was no such thing as Facebook.” [Read more…]

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Filed Under: Opinion Column Tagged With: Chris Turner

GOD’S MERCIES ARE NEW EVERY (SUNNY) MORNING?

August 23, 2018

By Chris Turner
Director of Communications, TBMB

I was afraid to breath for fear that the virtual silence of exhaling would shatter the tranquility of the motionless lake. There wasn’t a ripple, not a single one. It was like the entire scene spread out before my kayak — the lake, the surrounding hills, the pre-dawn sky — was sealed in a vacuum.

Suddenly, a bass jumped exploding the serenity. I exhaled and began to paddle. Stroke. Stroke. It’s about a mile-and-a-half to the spillway from here. [Read more…]

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Filed Under: Opinion Column Tagged With: Chris Turner

HOLSTON’S ANGEL TREE PROVIDES FOR KIDS

December 22, 2017

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

Lily and Hosea Shrader “adopt” children from the Angel Tree sponsored by Holston Baptist Association in Johnson City. Their dad, Daniel Shrader, is pastor of West Hills Baptist Church in Jonesborough.

JOHNSON CITY — Even after serving the residents of Tyler Apartments and the surrounding area in Johnson City for more than 40 years, the Johnson City Baptist Center is still finding new ways to meet needs.

For the first time the Baptist Center, sponsored by the churches of Holston Baptist Association, created an “Angel Tree” designed to supply Christmas presents to the local children.

The Angel Tree ended up supplying presents to 57 children who were adopted by the association’s 98 churches. [Read more…]

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Filed Under: News, Tennessee Tagged With: Chris Turner

CAUGHT IN BRO. RAY’S CROSSHAIRS

May 2, 2017

Editor’s Note: Ray Newcomb was a leader in the Tennessee Baptist Convention for decades. Over the years we developed a mutual respect for and friendship with each other. The highest compliment I could give Bro. Ray is this. If I lived anywhere near a church where he was serving, I would join in a minute and be honored and proud to call him “my pastor.” — Lonnie Wilkey

By Chris Turner
Director of Communications, TBMB

Chris Turner, director of communications for the Tennessee Baptist Convention, visited with his former pastor Ray Newcomb at the Summit. Newcomb baptized Turner more than 30 years ago while serving as pastor of First Baptist Church, Millington.
— Photo by Corinne Williams

You did not want to get caught in Ray Newcomb’s crosshairs if you were goofing around while he was preaching.

I did. One time.

“You two boys down there. You need to quit talking and pay attention.”

I’m not sure if I was more mortified by Bro. Ray calling me out in church or by contemplating the impending consequences that would crash upon my teenaged shore when we got home. The irony is that I was actually helping my friend find the correct Scripture passage, that time. But I’ve always sort of just considered this one justice for the times I was goofing around and didn’t get hammered. [Read more…]

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Filed Under: Opinion Column Tagged With: Chris Turner

NOT ALL ROCKS ARE EBENEZERS

February 21, 2017

By Chris Turner
Director of Communications, TBMB

rock
There is an 80-pound rock in my flower bed that looks like a meteorite. I pried it loose from a mountaintop in North Carolina about 13 years ago. I then grunted, pushed, rolled, chucked, yelled at, and tripped over it trying to get it — and me — to the bottom of a challenging descent. It was supposed to be my “Ebenezer,” but it felt a lot more like a millstone.

You know, “Ebenezer,” like the one found in 1 Samuel 7:13-14. It’s mentioned at the end of a passage where God intercedes on Israel’s behalf to defeat the Philistines in a decisive battle. To commemorate the divine victory, “Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, ‘Thus far the LORD has helped us’ ” (verse 12). That rock served as a visual reminder of the Lord’s power and protection. [Read more…]

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Filed Under: Opinion Column Tagged With: Chris Turner

IS FACEBOOK FROM THE PIT OF HELL?

February 10, 2017

By Chris Turner
Director of Communications, TBMB

FacebookThumbsI was recently talking with a pastor and the conversation migrated to social media. It didn’t take long to understand his perspective. 

“Facebook is straight from the pit of hell,” he said. “All it does is cause problems.”

He’s not the only person who feels that way, and it isn’t a new conversation. I remember years ago being told the same thing about television. My argument then is the same as it is with social media. The medium itself is neither good nor evil. It is the created content that determines if either has any redeeming value.  [Read more…]

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Filed Under: Featured, Opinion Column Tagged With: Chris Turner

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