Telling the Story of Tennessee Baptists Since 1835
Baptist and Reflector
FRANKLIN — In an effort to serve churches, the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board is seeking to understand future Cooperative Program giving and how the TBMB can most effectively and strategically apply the Cooperative Program resources given by Tennessee Baptists.
The TBMB is asking Tennessee Baptists to complete a five-minute survey that can be accessed at www.surveymonkey.com/r/QHGLPMM. B&R
By Matt Tullos
Special assistant to the executive director, Tennessee Baptist Mission Board
It’s been heartbreaking to watch the conflict in Ukraine. Our hearts break as we’ve watched the suffering caused by a delusional despot wreaking havoc on innocent civilians. Those citizens include many believers and churches. Amid the senseless shelling, the blasts, the refugee crisis at their borders, the hour-by-hour toll of warfare on the people of Ukraine, we have also seen a picture of courage, determination and relentless tenacity.
And there are lessons to be learned. We’ve seen the difference between true leadership in Volodymyr Zelensky and an irrelevant, brutal, narcissistic insanity in Putin. The contrast could not be greater. One of the great quotes that we’ll never forget, came when United States officials offered safe passage to Zelensky from the missile torn city of Kyiv. When he received the offer, his answer was legendary: “The fight is here. I need ammunition, not a ride.” This terse response symbolically reflects the sentiment of every leader that is invested in the mission. Zelensky communicated that the mission was worth living for and even dying for. Against the Goliath of Russia, he stood ready for the fight rather than for the next flight out to Berlin. [Read more…]
Baptist and Reflector
FRANKLIN — The 2021-22 Cooperative Program budget year in the Tennessee Baptist Convention has gotten off to a tremendous start.
In February, TBC churches gave $3,636,598 through the CP giving channel. The amount is $668,440 or 7.6 percent over what was given after three months last year. [Read more…]
Baptist and Reflector
FRANKLIN — Tennessee Baptist Convention churches contributed $2,923,245 through the Cooperative Program in December.
After two months of the 2021-22 fiscal year, Tennessee Baptists have given $5,877,372 through the Cooperative Program giving channel which funds missions and ministries throughout the state, the nation and around the world.
The amount given thus far is $354,337 or 6.4 percent over the amount given after the first two months of the previous fiscal year. The amount also is $44,039 or 0.75 percent above budgeted needs. [Read more…]
By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
lwilkey@tnbaptist.org
FRANKLIN — Following 2020, a year that will forever be remembered for COVID-19, 2021 offered numerous headline opportunities for a nation still reeling from a worldwide pandemic.
Likewise, there was no shortage of news stories in the Tennessee Baptist Convention as leaders and churches dealt with a variety of challenges and opportunities during 2021.
Here’s a look at some of the headlines that shaped the landscape over the past 12 months: [Read more…]
By Jeff Iorg
For Baptist Press
“As you gain influence as a church leader, it is your responsibility to contribute to the next generation the way a previous generation has invested in you,” Gateway Seminary President Jeff Iorg tells incoming students.
ONTARIO, Calif. – My mother-in-law is an 88-year old loyal Southern Baptist who lives on a fixed income in a modest retirement center. She loves the Lord, her church and Southern Baptists. She has been a lifelong advocate of the Cooperative Program and understands, as a contributing member of a Southern Baptist church, she is a primary funder of Gateway Seminary. She reflects that understanding when she often asks, “How is my seminary doing?”
My mother-in-law is not a wealthy person. Her monthly gift to her church is a generous percentage of her income, but she would not be on anyone’s major donor list. Yet, her kind of giving is the backbone of the Cooperative Program. This ingenious funding mechanism does not depend on a few fat cats to bankroll our work. It depends on millions of people giving small amounts, that when added together, make a huge difference. Tens of millions flow to missions, ministry, education, and other causes because loyal Southern Baptist make thousands of small gifts consistently.
At every new student orientation at Gateway, I make a presentation about the Cooperative Program and its impact on our students. As part of that presentation, I tell my mother-in-law’s story and then say something like this. [Read more…]
Editor’s Note: Many churches across Tennessee observed the Week of Prayer for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions last week and are in the process of collecting the 2021 Lottie Moon offering. IMB missionaries Andy and Michelle Milam are on stateside assignment at Blue Mountain (Miss.) College. They traveled to Jackson recently for an interview with the Baptist and Reflector.
By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
lwilkey@tnbaptist.org
Andy and Michelle Milam, who serve as missionaries in Portugal for the Southern Baptist International Mission Board, recently returned for a visit at Union University, where the couple first met and felt the call into ministry, and eventually, the mission field. The Milams were appointed in 2008 to serve in Porto, Portugal, where they have worked as church planters for the past 13 years.
JACKSON — A recent trip to the Union University campus in Jackson brought back a flood of memories for Andy and Michelle Milam, missionaries in Portugal for the Southern Baptist International Mission Board.
Milam, the son of former Tennessee Baptist pastor Jerry (now deceased) and Nancy Milam, met his future bride, Michelle Sarratt, of Tupelo, Miss., during their freshman year of college at Union University. The two had similar interests, especially in the area of missions. They dated and eventually were married and lived in Union’s married student housing before their graduation in 1992.
While there, they met Ramona Mercer, an IMB missionary who was in her first year as Union’s first missionary in residence during that time. Milam recalled asking her, “How do you know God is calling you to missions?”
He noted that Mercer replied, “In His time, He will show you, if that’s His will.” [Read more…]
Baptist and Reflector
Pastor Bruce Chesser, center, and Bruce Raley, executive pastor of First Baptist Church, Hendersonville, present a check for $200,000 to Randy C. Davis, president and executive director of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board. The check represented an overage in the church’s funds this past fiscal year.
HENDERSONVILLE — When First Baptist Church, Hendersonville, finished the past fiscal year with an overage, church leaders decided to share the blessing with others.
First Baptist Church presented a check for $200,000 to Randy C. Davis, president and executive director of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board on Sunday, Dec. 5.
“Because of God’s blessings on our church this past fiscal year, we are excited to be able to bless others with this gift,” Chesser told the congregation. [Read more…]
Baptist and Reflector
FRANKLIN — In the second year of a worldwide pandemic, Tennessee Baptist Convention churches gave the largest amount through the Cooperative Program in 10 years.
For the month of October, Tennessee Baptists gave $2,827,483.
For the year-to-date, Tennessee Baptists gave $34,914,459. The amount is $710,916 or 2.1 percent over what was given for 2019-20 and fell just $85,541 or 0.24 percent of the budget goal of $35 million.
The last time Tennessee Baptist CP gifts exceeded $35 million was in 2011-12 when churches gave $35,684,975 through the Cooperative Program.
“Tennessee Baptist churches are focused on supporting global missions, local ministry, Christian education and compassionate outreach,” observed Randy C. Davis, president and executive director of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board. [Read more…]
Baptist Press
NASHVILLE — Since 1925, Southern Baptists have given more than $20 billion through the Cooperative Program to fund its entities and missionaries taking the gospel throughout the world.
That news was delivered Sept. 29 by SBC Executive Committee Chief Financial Officer Jeff Pearson on the eve of Cooperative Program Emphasis Month, which is celebrated throughout October.
Willie McLaurin, SBC Executive Committee vice president for Great Commission Relations and Mobilization, called the moment “a win for associations, state conventions, local and national entities and local churches.”
“Southern Baptist churches have modeled following Jesus by entrusting their treasure for Kingdom work,” he said, pointing to Matthew 6:22. “The heartbeat of SBC churches is evangelism and missions,” added McLaurin, a former staff member with the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board. [Read more…]
