Baptist & Reflector

Telling the Story of Tennessee Baptists Since 1835

NEARLY 90 YEARS OLD, CORLEY KEEPS SERVING

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

Damon Corley, left, pastor of West Fentress Baptist Church, Jamestown, visits with Chris Ward, director of missions for Riverside Baptist Association, based in Livingston.

Damon Corley, left, pastor of West Fentress Baptist Church, Jamestown, visits with Chris Ward, director of missions for Riverside Baptist Association, based in Livingston.

LIVINGSTON — Damon Corley will be 90 years old in November, but you would never know it by looking at him.

Still spry and active, Corley is not only the pastor of West Fentress Baptist Church in Jamestown, he also just recently accepted the role of associate moderator of Riverside Baptist Association, based in Livingston. He has been the moderator of the association before and would be in line for another term if elected in October.

“He has more energy than many of our young pastors,” observed Chris Ward, director of missions for Riverside Association. [Read more…]

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TBC CP GIFTS ABOVE BUDGET

Baptist and Reflector

cplogoBRENTWOOD — Tennessee Baptist Convention churches contributed $2,729,426 through the Cooperative Program in July.

For the year-to-date, Tennessee Baptists have given $25,998,780 through the CP giving channel.

After nine months of the 2015-16 budget year, CP gifts are $519,926 or 2 percent over the amount given at the same time last year. [Read more…]

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TBC CP GIFTS REMAIN ABOVE YEARLY BUDGET

Baptist and Reflector

cplogoBRENTWOOD — Tennessee Baptists are continuing to support missions and ministry causes in their state and around the world by their giving through the Cooperative Program.

In June, Tennessee Baptist Convention churches contributed a total of $2,965,451 through the CP giving channel.

The amount is $869,931 or 3.9 percent more than was given after the first eight months of last year. [Read more…]

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TBC GIVING STILL UP FOR YEAR

Baptist and Reflector

Five Objectives 5 ObjectivesBRENTWOOD — Tennessee Baptist Convention churches gave $2,554,604 through the Cooperative Program in May.

In the first seven months of the 2015-16 fiscal year, Tennessee Baptists have given $20,303,904 through the CP giving channel to meet missions and ministry needs in Tennessee and around the world. [Read more…]

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TENNESSEE CP GIVING TRENDING UPWARD

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

cplogoBRENTWOOD — Tennessee Baptists’ giving through the Cooperative Program is trending upward.

For the first time in five years (since the 2010-11 budget year), Cooperative Program gifts from Tennessee Baptist Convention churches not only are up over the previous year, but they are above projected needs midway into the budget year which ends Oct. 31. The increase also is only the second increase since 2007.

After six months of the current fiscal year (which ended April 30) Tennessee Baptists have given $17,749,300, an increase of $672,460 or 3.9 percent over the previous year. The total also was $624,300 or 3.65 percent over projected budget needs. [Read more…]

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TBC CP GIVING REMAINS ON TARGET

Baptist and Reflector

cplogoBRENTWOOD — Giving from Tennessee Baptist Convention churches through the Cooperative Program remains on target after the first six months of the budget year.

Tennessee Baptists gave $3,037,222 through the Cooperative Program giving channel in April.
For the year-to-date, Tennessee Baptists have given $ 17,749,300, an increase of $672,460 or 3.9 percent over the amount given at the same time last year. [Read more…]

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MOVING FORWARD WITH THE IMB

By Randy C. Davis
TBC Executive Director

Randy C. Davis

Randy C. Davis

It’s not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game.

We’ve all heard that sports cliché and frankly it is one I don’t particularly like. Yes, it does matter how you play the game, but the point of playing the game is to win. However, how we deal with setbacks reveals our true character and builds resiliency. Like Thomas Edison once said, “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like hard work.”

Southern Baptists, it is time to put on our overalls and get back to the hard work that defined us as people who had a passion for sharing the gospel and building great universities, seminaries, hospitals, and mission boards. We did the hard work of sacrificial giving to fuel all these endeavors, often during some of the most economically depressed times in our country’s history. Hard work is in our DNA, and it is time to seize the opportunities that lie ahead. [Read more…]

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TBC CP GIFTS INCREASE

By Baptist & Reflector

cplogoBRENTWOOD — Tennessee Baptist Convention churches gave $2,747,830 through the Cooperative Program in March.

For the year-to-date, Tennessee Baptists have given $14,712,077.

After five months of the current fiscal year, the total is $1,101,628 or 8.1 percent over the amount given at the same time last year. It also is $441,244 or 3.09 percent ahead of current budget needs. [Read more…]

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BAPTISTS AND A STRANGE IGNORANCE ABOUT MISSIONS

By Johnnie Godwin
Contributing Columnist, B&R

Johnnie Godwin

Johnnie Godwin

I was born in 1937, which was just 12 years after the Cooperative Program of the Southern Baptist Convention was born. The Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and the Annie Armstrong Easter Offerings for missions were already institutions. For 79 years I’ve known these three factors as the sources for financing SBC missions. I also got educated about Baptist history, the SBC’s birth in 1845, the various SBC agencies and entities, and the beloved Woman’s Missionary Union of 1888. Mother taught me tithing when I was 9. Royal Ambassadors, Vacation Bible School, Sunday School, church, seminaries, etc., did the rest.

A strange ignorance among Baptists today. Most Southern Baptists today are ignorant of what you just read, or, at best, they have minimal knowledge. I’m not here to impress you with how much Baptist history I know or solutions to missionary downsizing in 2016. I am here to testify what I have experienced. [Read more…]

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IMB ADDRESSES BAPTISM NUMBERS

By David Roach
Baptist Press

A decrease in international baptisms reported is due largely to changes in data-reporting methods, the International Mission Board said. -BP photo.

A decrease in international baptisms reported is due largely to changes in data-reporting methods, the International Mission Board said.
-BP photo.

NASHVILLE (BP) — Decreases in the number of baptisms and new churches reported by International Mission Board missionaries during the past decade reflect changes in data-reporting methods and missions strategy, not a lack of evangelistic ministry.

That’s the conclusion of a March 21 IMB news release issued in response to observations that overseas baptisms for 2015 are at their lowest level since 1969 — 54,762, according to the IMB’s 2016 Ministry Report to the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee, down from a high of 609,968 reported for 2007. [Read more…]

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