Baptist & Reflector

Telling the Story of Tennessee Baptists Since 1835

SMALL CHURCH, GENEROUS HEART

FBC, Andersonville, supports both CP and a missionary couple

Each year, First Baptist Church,Andersonville, holds a missions market to raise enough money for the International Mission Board to fund one missionary couple for a year. Church members make and sell things like baked goods, knitted items and household decorations. They also auction off services like mowing lawns or cleaning windows. — IMB photo

Editor’s Note: Churches all across Tennessee and around the nation are in the process of collecting the annual Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions. Read how a Tennessee church meets the needs of a missionary couple while continuing to give more than 10 percent of its undesignated receipts through the Cooperative Program.

Baptist Press

ANDERSONVILLE  — A Tennessee Baptist church is proving that missions giving can be both/and, not either/or.

For the past several years, First Baptist Church, Andersonville, has taken on the challenge of supporting a missionary couple at the cost of $90,000 each year. [Read more…]

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REMEMBERING THE LORD OUR GOD IN 2018

By Randy C. Davis
TBMB President & Executive Director

You may be overrun with Christmas activities and see a busy 2019 blowing in like a thunderstorm racing across a Kansas prairie. Last minute gifts, parties, travel to be with loved ones, and on it goes. We get to this point of the year and it seems we try to squeeze about six months of activity through the funnel of a couple weeks. We seldom slow down or stop long enough to remember. [Read more…]

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WHAT THE INCREASE IN CP GIFTS REALLY MEANS

By Matt Tullos
Stewardship Development Specialist, Tennessee Baptist Mission Board

The ovation lasted longer than most at the October monthly staff meeting as Randy C. Davis shared the news that churches gave 2.2 percent more through the Cooperative Program than they did last year. Tennessee Baptists are the heroes in the narrative of Cooperative Program giving. While many state conventions struggle to fund ministries and missions, we’re experiencing growth. This increase appears to be nothing short of miraculous. We spent time together, thanking God for Tennessee Baptists and their pastors. Our churches said many things through their giving. Here are seven: [Read more…]

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SIXTEEN REASONS FOR TITHING TO THE CHURCH

Editor’s Note: Share these 16 reasons to tithe with your congregation on two Sundays this year by requesting two tithing inserts that can be placed in your Sunday worship bulletins. E-mail us at mtullos@tnbaptist.org and let us know how many you need. We will ship them directly to your church for free.

By Matt Tullos
Stewardship Development Specialist, TBMB

So, your pastor preaches on giving? Thank him. A pastor who invites members to tithe is inviting them into a life-changing, soul-transforming experience that affects every area of their life. In truth, it’s unfair to you if he’s not teaching you about this principle that has changed history in ways we’ll never completely know until we get to heaven!

Here’s the short list of reasons you should be giving a tithe (10 percent of your income) to your local church.

(1) It’s worship. Whether you’re in a church with electric guitars or pipe organs, everybody should have an opportunity to give because from Genesis to Revelation, giving is true worship. Think about what you are doing when you illogically say goodbye to a large slice of your income that you could be using somewhere else, doing something else. You are saying, “Lord, above everything, I believe in You. It all belongs to You! This is a symbol of my complete belief, trust, and dependence on You to be my everything.” [Read more…]

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TEN THINGS WE DON’T WANT TO SAY ABOUT THE CP

By Matt Tullos
Stewardship Development Specialist, TBMB

In the Go Fund Me era, it’s easy to minimize the Cooperative Program. We get so caught up in the daily grind of ministry and we forget all the things that make the Cooperative Program shine so brightly in a dark world. It begs the question, “What would your church, Tennessee, and the world look like without CP?” Here are a few uncomfortable realities.

Without the Cooperative Program, we would be saying: [Read more…]

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NEW SPECIALISTS JOIN TBMB STAFF

Baptist and Reflector 

Cole Campbell

FRANKLIN — The Tennessee Baptist Mission Board has announced the addition of three new specialists to its staff.

Cole Campbell has been promoted to manager of the Linden Valley Baptist Conference Center. Campbell began working part-time at the conference center in 2008 and began serving full time with the facility in 2014.

In his new role, Campbell will manage all facilities, activities, employees and functions of Linden Valley. He is a graduate of the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. Campbell lives in Linden with his wife Kazeray. [Read more…]

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TEN THINGS WE DON’T WANT TO SAY ABOUT THE CP

By Matt Tullos
Stewardship development specialist, Tennessee Baptist Mission Board

In the Go Fund Me era, it’s easy to minimize the Cooperative Program. We get so caught up in the daily grind of ministry and we forget all the things that the make the Cooperative Program shine so brightly in a dark world. It begs the question, “What would your church, Tennessee, and the world look like without CP?” Here are a few uncomfortable realities. [Read more…]

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TBMB DIRECTORS ADOPT NO-INCREASE BUDGET AT ANNUAL MEETING

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

Clay Hallmark, center, was elected as an officer of the TBMB directors. With him is current chair-elect Mike Kemper, left, and chair Cal Hampton. Kemper will become chair in November and Hallmark will serve as chair-elect.

FRANKLIN  — The directors of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board voted without opposition Sept. 11 to recommend a Cooperative Program budget goal of $34,500,000 for 2018-19.

The amount is the same as the 2017-18 budget, observed Steve Marcum of Bellevue Baptist Church, Cordova, chair of the Budget and Ministry Committee.

While the amount remains the same, the percentage that will be forwarded to the Southern Baptist Convention for national causes will increase from 46.64 percent in the current budget to 47.12 percent for 2018-19, Marcum said. The amount remaining in Tennessee will decrease from 53.36 percent to 52.88 percent. [Read more…]

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COUPLE’S COMMITMENT TO CP COMES FROM HEART

By Lonnie Wilkey
lwilkey@tnbaptist.org

Tom and Rachel Roddy hold their then infant daughter, Vivian, who is now 16 months old. The Roddys lost a second child earlier this year. They are honoring the memory of their son, Elijah David, with memorial gifts through the Cooperative Program.

CONCORD, N.C. — Tennessee natives Tom and Rachel Roddy have experienced the deep joy of having a child and also the excruciating pain of losing a baby at birth. [Read more…]

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