evangelism Archives - Page 23 of 25

LACK OF EVANGELISM A DISCIPLESHIP ISSUE

July 5, 2016

By Harper McKay
Baptist Press

Robby Gallaty

ST. LOUIS — The lack of evangelism among Southern Baptists is at its heart a discipleship issue according to panelists at the Replicate Ministries breakfast.

“I think the challenge we have in our convention and our churches is that we have seen discipleship and evangelism as pitted against each other,” said Robby Gallaty, president of Replicate Ministries, during the June 14 gathering at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in St. Louis.

Gallaty, who also is pastor of Long Hollow Baptist Church, Hendersonville, moderated the panel that included David Platt, president of the International Mission Board; Steve Gaines, pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church, Cordova; J.D. Greear, pastor of The Summit Church, Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; and Johnny Hunt, pastor of First Baptist Church in Woodstock, Ga.

Gallaty’s questions centered on the decline of baptisms and church attendance in the SBC and how evangelism and discipleship factor into those numbers. [Read more…]

THOMASES LIVE OUT MISSIONS CALLING

June 30, 2016

By Connie Davis Bushey
News Editor, Baptist and Reflector

John and Kaye Thomas, left, of First Baptist Church, Sevierville, who serve as full-time missions volunteers, pause recently in Palmer, Alaska, with Southern Baptist missionaries Gary and Shirley Bearce. The Thomases will assist the Bearces this summer with missions teams coming to serve there.

PALMER, Alaska — John and Kaye Thomas can be found in their Sevierville home about 100 days a year — mostly for Kaye’s part-time job. The rest of the time they are away doing missions work. Even while they are at home they often are found plugging into missions opportunities.

Currently they are based out of their RV in Palmer, Alaska, on an assignment which will extend through July. Then the journey home will require an additional three weeks.

The couple’s job there is something they are looking forward to and experienced at — coordinating missions teams coming to assist Gary Bearce, a Southern Baptist church strategist in Alaska. [Read more…]

‘IT WASN’T ABOUT THE SHOWERS’

June 30, 2016

By Connie Davis Bushey
News Editor, Baptist and Reflector

Praying for a man who had just become a Christian are Tennessee Baptists, from left, Tony Broyles, Phil Whitaker, Liz Thompson, Tal Thompson, Les Guinn, Beverly Jones, and George Jones.
— Photo by John Thomas

DAMASCAS, Va. — Tony Broyles was a little out of his comfort zone. A lot of the folks he was meeting at Damascas Trail Days for “through hikers” of the Appalachian Trail were different from most folks he knows.

“Back in the 60s, when folks like these became popular, I was just a kid,” explained Broyles. And he didn’t live around any such folks. He has always lived in rural East Tennessee.

Of course, there were regular people attending Trail Days, he added. [Read more…]

STUDY: UNCHURCHED WILL TALK ABOUT FAITH

June 30, 2016

Baptist Press

NASHVILLE (BP) — Americans who don’t go to church are happy to talk about religion and often think about the meaning of life, according to a new study released today (June 28).

They’re also open to taking part in community service events hosted at a church or going to a church concert, the research revealed. But only about a third say they’d be interested in going to a worship service, and few think about what happens after they die.

Those are among the findings of a new online survey of 2,000 unchurched Americans from LifeWay Research. The survey, conducted in partnership with the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill., found more than half of Americans who don’t go to church identify as Christians.

But they are mostly indifferent to organized religion, said Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research.

“Unchurched Americans aren’t hostile to faith,” he said. “They just don’t think church is for them.” [Read more…]

BELLEVUE’S STEVE GAINES ELECTED TO LEAD SBC

June 29, 2016

Tennessee Baptists second in number of Southern Baptist Convention messengers with 824

By David Roach
Baptist Press

Editor’s Note: Due to the publication schedule of the Baptist and Reflector, this issue contains a condensed wrap-up of the SBC annual meeting held June 14-15 in St. Louis. Extensive stories were posted on the B&R web site last week.

Outgoing Southern Baptist Convention President Ronnie Floyd, left, together with presidential nominee J.D. Greear, center, congratulate Steve Gaines, pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova after he is elected president of the SBC. Greear withdrew from the race and moved that the convention elect Gaines by acclamation during the SBC’s annual meeting at America’s Center in St. Louis on June 15. — Photo by Bill Bangham

ST. LOUIS — The election of Tennessee pastor Steve Gaines as president on the third ballot and a historic repudiation of the Confederate battle flag were among the highlights of the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting June 14-15 in St. Louis.

The convention’s resolution on the Confederate battle flag capped an emphasis on racial reconciliation throughout the meeting that included the election of a 2017 Committee on Nominations with 25 percent of its members drawn from ethnic minority groups and a panel discussion on “racial unity in America” featuring Jerry Young, president of the historically African American National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.

The unofficial total of 7,321 registered messengers — up from 5,407 last year — also devoted an entire session to praying for awakening in America, listened to a panel discussion on “pastors and the church in American politics today,” and addressed on multiple occasions whether Baptists should support Muslims’ right to build mosques in the United States.

When registered guests, exhibitors, and others are included, the count of those at the annual meeting was tallied, as of June 15, at 11,581. Tennessee ranked second in number of messengers to the annual meeting with 824, trailing only host state Missouri’s 877 messengers. [Read more…]

A LIGHT IN MOUNTAINS OF DARKNESS

June 17, 2016

By Chris Turner
Director of Communications, TBC

Lucila Huamani (wah-MAHN-ee) is a widow. She faithfully maintains God’s house every week and puts fresh flowers at the altar. On Sundays, she opens the church, reads her Bible, prays, and sings hymns. Many weeks she’s the only one there. She daily faces ridicule from neighbors for her Christianity. She perseveres. Her prayer request is that the church will one day be filled and that the gospel will spread across the mountains that surround her village of Machahuay (mah-CHAH-why). Pray that God will reward her faith by granting her prayer request.

VIRACO, Peru — Julissa knelt beside her daddy and urged him to get back on the donkey. He’d collapsed by the side of the road, torso in the bushes, legs and feet stretched out into the dusty mountain road.

“C’mon Papi. We need to go home.”

But he was barely conscious and unable to move, a stupor brought on from a morning of heavy drinking.

Julissa’s plight is not that uncommon from many other children living in the isolated Andean Mountains of Peru where there is a high level of alcoholism among men. Much of the bacchanalia centers around the veneration of Catholic saints, such as Saint Ursula, who is the patron saint of the town of Viraco (vee-RAH-co), located in the shadows of the dormant volcano, Coropuna.

Saint Ursula is uniquely recognizable. Most female Catholic saints have crowns atop their heads. Not Ursula. She wears a cowgirl hat. Legend has it that Ursula appeared to the Inca people here in the 1500s to warn them of an impending Spanish ambush. The people rallied and defeated the Spanish, solidifying Ursula’s significance in perpetuity. [Read more…]

CHURCH SEES 34 BAPTIZED IN FIVE MONTHS

June 16, 2016

Small East Tennessee congregation, Pastor Dwight Torbett featured on Reaching app

By Connie Davis Bushey
News Editor, Baptist and Reflector

David Evans, left, TBC evangelism specialist, interviews Dwight Torbett, pastor, Westside Baptist Church, Madisonville, recently for the Reaching app.

MADISONVILLE — Westside Baptist Church, Madisonville, is making waves in its community, which is why its pastor, Dwight Torbett, is featured on the new “Reaching” app of the Tennessee Baptist Convention, explained David Evans, TBC evangelism specialist.

Evans said he is thrilled at the response to the app. About 1,000 people have downloaded it in just two months. The free app features daily devotions, interviews, an evangelism blog, and evangelism tools.

Torbett is interviewed in the video section of the app. He is included partly because his small church, which draws about 110 people on Sunday mornings, has baptized 34 people in the first five months of 2016, explained Evans. This occurrence is not an anomaly. Since 2011 Westside Baptist has baptized an average of 26 people each year with a high of 42 in 2015.

Torbett told the Baptist and Reflector that he has been pastor of Westside Baptist for seven years and initially the church drew about 25 people on Sunday morning. [Read more…]

CROSSOVER ST. LOUIS: HUNDREDS COME TO FAITH IN CHRIST

June 13, 2016

Baptist Press

A Crossover volunteer shares the Gospel with a man at a block party hosted by First Baptist Church in Mascoutah, Ill. The event was part of Crossover St. Louis 2016, held prior to the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention June 14-15 at America’s Center in St. Louis. -Photo by Adam Covington

ST. LOUIS (BP) — Southern Baptist volunteers reported more than 350 professions of faith in Jesus Christ during Crossover events throughout metro St. Louis this year.

One man who made a decision for Christ had been considering suicide just a few days earlier, said Eloy Rodriquez. Rodriquez, a longtime Crossover volunteer, serves as Hispanic pastor of Idlewild Baptist Church in Lutz, Fla.

Rodriquez said his team knocked on the door of the man’s house and asked if they could pray with him. The man told the team about a friend who was struggling with cancer. As they were preparing to pray, the man then opened up about his own struggles.

“Last Sunday, he closed his eyes while driving,” said Rodriquez, who has been bringing teams of volunteers to share Christ during Crossover since 1999. “He was willing to have whatever happen to him, happen — suicide basically. Then he opened his eyes, he was in the other lane, but there was no one else there. He pulled over and just cried — not because he was about to kill himself but because he realized he could have killed someone else.” [Read more…]

REACHING GENERATION Z IMPERATIVE: DAVIS

May 17, 2016

By Connie Davis Bushey
News Editor, Baptist and Reflector

BRENTWOOD — The projected photo in the meeting room was of 10 children though only one was spotlighted. The caption read — “If the trend continues, nine of 10 children born after 9/11 will reach adulthood without knowing Christ.”

“It takes something monumental to reverse a trend. You don’t reverse a trend just by changing your mind,” observed Randy C. Davis.

Even more alarming is that these children born after 9/11 (2001), who are known as Generation Z, make up what is predicted to be the largest generation ever, added Davis. The executive director of the Tennessee Baptist Convention spoke at the “Reaching Gen Z” luncheon held at Grace Community Church here and at six other locations across the state recently. The meetings drew a total of about 525 people. [Read more…]

PRESENTATION OFFERED FOR 19TH YEAR

April 14, 2016

By Connie Davis Bushey
News Editor, Baptist and Reflector

The trial of Jesus, left, is conducted by Pilate, center, as Barabbas looks on. The actors are, from left, Mark Finchum, John Fox, and Brian Morgan.

NEW MARKET — For the 19th year, cars gathered at New Market Baptist Church here to drive through “The Trail to the Empty Tomb.”

This year, about 650 people viewed the presentation on two nights. One night was rained out, but that has only happened one other time over the years, explained J.W. Taylor, pastor. The presentation has been offered in various kinds of weather other than rain, even in snow, but none of the actors have ever been hurt and even gotten sick, reported Becky Finley, director.

Most years about 1,200 people view the Easter presentation. This year about 325 of those who attended the event had never viewed it before.

The Trail to the Empty Tomb includes 11 scenes, beginning with the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem through His ascension into heaven. As cars leave the presentation, they view one final scene not nearly as elaborate as the others. At the exit sits a lawn chair in which lays a person’s clothes. A pair of shoes sit in front of the chair. A sign by the chair reads, “Don’t be left behind,” referring to the rapture. [Read more…]

Tennessee Baptists second in number of Southern Baptist Convention messengers with 824

Small East Tennessee congregation, Pastor Dwight Torbett featured on Reaching app

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