Baptist & Reflector

Telling the Story of Tennessee Baptists Since 1835

SUNDAY SCHOOL NEEDED TOOL FOR MINISTRY

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

Mark Miller

Mark Miller

BRENTWOOD — While enrollment and attendance numbers for Sunday School have declined across the Southern Baptist Convention in recent years according to Annual Church Profile (ACP) reports, Sunday School remains a much needed ministry tool in churches, says Mark Miller.

Miller, Sunday School specialist for the Tennessee Baptist Convention, cited research on “transformational groups” provided by LifeWay Christian Resources.

“Worship attenders who also participate in a group or class read their Bible more, pray more, confess their sins more, share the gospel more, give more, and serve more than those who just attend worship,” he observed. [Read more…]

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YEC TEAM SERVES IN GUATEMALA

By Connie Davis Bushey
News Editor, Baptist and Reflector

Jania Howe, left, of First Baptist Church, Manchester, leads some public school students in an activity in Guatemala.

Jania Howe, left, of First Baptist Church, Manchester, leads some public school students in an activity in Guatemala.

BRENTWOOD — “We went to Guatemala to change people there and show them Jesus, but we came back with changed hearts and opened eyes,” said Jania Howe, 17, who ministered recently in Guatemala.

Howe and 77 other teens and adults served in Guatemala as a part of the Youth Evangelism Conference missions team. They went to support the Tennessee/Guatemala Baptist Partnership. The team served June 3-11. Offerings given at the 2015 and 2016 YEC helped fund the trip.

The team was made up of students from 11 churches, reported Bruce Edwards, youth specialist, Tennessee Baptist Convention, and team leader. “It was an incredible experience for all of us. We left a part of our hearts in Guatemala!

“Seeing these students boldly share their testimonies and the gospel through interpreters was amazing and we saw many Guatemalans, especially youth, accept Jesus Christ and make professions of faith,” he added. Assisting Edwards was Wes Jones of Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief and his wife Pam, who are former Southern Baptist International Mission Board missionaries to Guatemala. [Read more…]

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EVANGELISTS EXPLORE PARTNERSHIPS

By David Roach
Baptist Press

Phil Glisson, president of the Conference of Southern Baptist Evangelists, preaches during the COSBE meeting. Glisson has been an evangelist based in Memphis for 45 years.

Phil Glisson, president of the Conference of Southern Baptist Evangelists, preaches during the COSBE meeting. Glisson has been an evangelist based in Memphis for 45 years.

ST. LOUIS — Building relationships with pastors was the emphasis of the Conference of Southern Baptist Evangelists as it gathered in St. Louis June 12 for a worship service and business meeting preceding the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting there.
“I really felt led of the Lord this year to make this the year we mix and mingle with pastors at the convention,” COSBE President Phil Glisson, who has been a vocational evangelist 45 years, said during the business session. “… Pastors do not know us, especially these younger guys. They don’t even understand what we’re all about.”

Some 40-50 pastors attended the worship service, which was hosted by St. Louis’s Tower Grove Baptist Church, an increase from the typical number of pastors who attend the annual pre-convention event, COSBE reported. Among the service’s highlights were a message from Glisson and the posthumous induction of two evangelists into the Hall of Faith, an honor bestowed upon evangelists “who have ‘fought the fight’ and ‘kept the faith,’ ” according to COSBE’s website. The service included music, testimonies, and ventriloquism as well. [Read more…]

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LACK OF EVANGELISM A DISCIPLESHIP ISSUE

By Harper McKay
Baptist Press

Robby Gallaty

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…]

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THOMASES LIVE OUT MISSIONS CALLING

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.

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…]

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‘IT WASN’T ABOUT THE SHOWERS’

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

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…]

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STUDY: UNCHURCHED WILL TALK ABOUT FAITH

Baptist Press

160630lifeway1NASHVILLE (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…]

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BELLEVUE’S STEVE GAINES ELECTED TO LEAD SBC

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

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…]

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A LIGHT IN MOUNTAINS OF DARKNESS

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.

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…]

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CHURCH SEES 34 BAPTIZED IN FIVE MONTHS

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.

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…]

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