Baptist & Reflector

Telling the Story of Tennessee Baptists Since 1835

LMCO RECEIVES 3RD HIGHEST TOTAL EVER

Baptist Press

RICHMOND  — Southern Baptist church members gave $156.6 million to support international missionaries in 2018-2019, the third-highest Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for international missions ever received. Tennessee Baptists gave $10,389,109 to the 2018-19 offering, according to the TBMB accounting office.

“Because you and your church gave through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, you are a part of reaching the unreached in every nation,” said IMB president Paul Chitwood. [Read more…]

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SEPTEMBER: PERFECT TIME TO PRAY, PARTICIPATE

By Vickie Anderson
Tennessee WMU Executive Director

According to www.nationaldaycalendar.com, the month of September has a variety of things to observe or celebrate: baby safety, better breakfast, blueberry popsicles, chicken, classical music, courtesy, fall hats, honey, mushrooms, rice, piano, self-care, self-improvement, square dancing, whole grains, and more.

For Tennessee Baptists, September brings the opportunity to observe and participate in the Week of Prayer for State Missions and the Golden Offering for Tennessee Missions. And while the offering is taken year-round, and the ministries happen throughout the year, in September, we spotlight how together we support missions and ministries in Tennessee. [Read more…]

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GOLDEN MOMENT

Tennessee Baptists establish new record for giving through Golden Offering for Tennessee Missions

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

FRANKLIN —  Tennessee Baptists gave a record $1,920,733 through the Golden Offering for Tennessee Missions in 2018-19.

The amount is $77,222 over the old record of $1,843,511 which was set during 2016-17.

Tennessee Baptists have come to understand and value that “any way you slice it, Tennessee is a missions field,” said Randy C. Davis, president and executive director of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board.

“We are excited and thrilled that Tennessee Baptists have given sacrificially to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ in our state where more than 50 percent of the residents are unchurched,” Davis continued.

Vickie Anderson, executive director of Tennessee Woman’s Missionary Union, which helps to promote the annual GOTM offering, agreed. “The churches who give through GOTM see that our state is a missions field,” she said. [Read more…]

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YOUR GOTM GIVING AND YOUR KINGDOM IMPACT

By Randy C. Davis
TBMB President & Executive Director

I spend a lot of time crisscrossing the state on Interstate 40, so much so that I jokingly call it “Randy Davis Boulevard.” The landscape constantly passes, but rarely changes. It’s the people, however, who make Tennessee special.

And the people change. One way we change is our increasing numbers. Our population is rapidly growing. People are relocating here from around the country and around the world bringing racial, ethnic, economic, religious — and non-religious — diversity. There are more dissimilar people now living in Tennessee than ever before.

However, as significant as our diversity is, it is more important to focus on what we have in common. People need Jesus — to be saved, baptized and set on the road to discipleship. Our population is growing faster than the gospel is advancing. The result is that every year our state is becoming more spiritually lost. The reality: any way you slice it, Tennessee is a mission field.

I’ve been saying that for the past several years. It’s a belief based on what I see as I travel Tennessee’s interstates and backroads. [Read more…]

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TENNESSEE’S ‘LOTTIE MOON’ STEPS DOWN

Missions specialist Kim Margrave served with Tennessee Baptist Mission Board for 22 years

By Ashley Perham
Baptist & Reflector intern

Kim Margrave, seated in the center on first row, has helped Tennessee Baptist churches become involved in missions all over the world. She is shown here last December with coordinators of the Guatemalan partnership in Guatemala.

FRANKLIN — In the past 22 years, Tennessee Baptists have been able to partner in missions with ministries in more than 20 states and countries due largely to the work of Kim Margrave, the “Lottie Moon of Tennessee,” as Randy C. Davis, president and executive director of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, describes her.

Margrave, volunteer missions specialist, has been working at the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board since 1997. She stepped down from her role Aug. 8 to join the staff of ClearView Baptist Church, Franklin, as missions director. [Read more…]

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RURAL MEDICAL CLINIC IS ‘A GOD THING’

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

Leaders of Servolution Health Services include, from left, Deborah Chumley, Alicia Metcalf, Judy Robertson and Donnie Bannister. Chumley and Metcalf are co-directors while Robertson and Bannister are board members.

SPEEDWELL — A rural medical clinic, supported in part by local Christians, many of whom are members of Baptist churches, is trying to make a difference in one of the state’s poorest counties in Appalachia.

Claiborne County in northeast Tennessee, bordering the Kentucky state line, is impacted by poverty (according to IndexMundi, an international data portal), broken homes (50 percent of school-age children are raised by someone other than biological parents) and an opioid crisis (the county is the seventh highest county in the United States with the most opioid painkillers per capita). [Read more…]

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SOUTHERN BAPTIST MISSIONS AND KINGDOM WORK

By Richard E. Bray
Pastor, Rock Hill Baptist Church, Lexington

Southern Baptists are a missions people. In fact, the glue that holds the Southern Baptist Convention together has always been cooperative missions. I grew up attending Southern Baptist churches where I was exposed to missions on a regular basis. My seminary studies added to my understanding of Southern Baptists as a missions people. My Ph.D. studies in the field of missiology further confirmed this truth. 

I not only learned about how Southern Baptists cooperated to do missions, but also experienced cooperative missions firsthand. God called my wife, Lesa, and me to serve as missionaries. Southern Baptists through the International Mission Board gave us the opportunity to live out our calling in Chile. We were with the IMB from 1989 to 1997. Since that time, I have had the privilege of participating in and leading several mission trips. [Read more…]

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FRIENDSHIPS EMERGE IN SIMPLEST WAYS

By Laura Hurd
Member, Ridgeview Baptist Church, Church Hill

Miles Hurd, left, and one of his friends, Jaxson, take a break from their activities.

I have a friend who has been a constant voice in my life, never being deterred by my unique circumstance as I care for a child with autism.

My son and I recently had the honor finally to attend a local women’s Bible study group to which she had invited us. No matter how many times I have had to cancel on her or just flat-out turn her down, she has never given up on us.

Anytime we encounter a new opportunity, I have to carefully determine if it will be a good fit for my 5-year-old son that doesn’t cause him anxiety from being stretched outside his comfort zone too far, too fast. [Read more…]

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TENNESSEE BAPTISTS ON MISSION: DESTINATION GERMANY

By Chris Turner
cturner@tnbaptist.org

The city of Düsseldorf was a key hub of industry for the Germans during World War II. These days is a cosmopolitan city that blends old and new. There are many churches in the city but the number of people who attended those churches has significantly dwindled through the years. — Photo by Chris Turner

DUSSELDORF — Statistics will tell you Germany is a Christian nation. Heinrich Derksen will tell you it is not. 

“The (spiritual) soil in Germany is very hard,” he says. “It is a post-Christian country and in many ways a pre-Christian country. It has drifted far from being the birthplace of the Reformation and Protestantism. Martin Luther brought the Bible to the people. We now must bring the people to the Bible.”

It is the task of “bringing people to the Bible” that Tennessee Baptists will have the opportunity to engage through Tennessee Baptist Mission Board Partnership Missions. Tennessee Baptist messengers to the 2018 annual Summit approved a five-year missions partnership with International Missions Board missionaries serving in the Germanic People Group. Throughout this year, TBMB Volunteer Missions Specialist Kim Margrave has been leading vision trips helping Tennessee Baptist churches and associations find places to engage missions in Germany. [Read more…]

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IMB APPROVES MISSIONARIES

Baptist Press

IMB President Paul Chitwood (right) tucks away his passport in its new passport cover, which features the logo of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. The cover, symbolizing the seminary’s focus on international missions, was a gift from Dr. Adam Greenway (left), the new president of the Fort Worth seminary.
-Photo by Chris Carter/IMB

RICHMOND — International Mission Board trustees approved the appointment of 26 new missionaries to take the gospel to the nations during their May 22-23 meeting near Richmond.

Trustees also considered pivotal changes in ministry advancement and prayer strategies; heard recommendations related to IMB’s handling of past allegations of child abuse and sexual harassment; and elected 2019-2020 officers.

The new missionaries were to be commissioned for service at a Sending Celebration on June 11 during the afternoon session of the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in Birmingham, Ala. [Read more…]

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