Telling the Story of Tennessee Baptists Since 1835
By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
lwilkey@tnbaptist.org
Annie Armstrong has been in heaven with the Lord she loved for 81 years, but her legacy lives on and she is still making a difference for God on this earth.
Annie Armstrong was born in Baltimore in 1850 in a culture where women were not necessarily considered leaders. But she ultimately became a leader and challenged churches to raise money and support for missionaries. [Read more…]
By Mike Ebert
Baptist Press
Johnny Hunt (right) longtime pastor of First Baptist Church Woodstock, Ga., and past president of the Southern Baptist Convention, will join the North American Mission Board as senior vice president of evangelism and leadership. Hunt and NAMB President Kevin Ezell (left) announced the news Sunday (Aug. 26). Photo by Hayley Catt/NAMB
ALPHARETTA, Ga. — Johnny Hunt, longtime pastor of First Baptist Church Woodstock, Ga., and past president of the Southern Baptist Convention, will join the North American Mission Board as senior vice president of evangelism and leadership. Hunt and NAMB announced the news Sunday (Aug. 26). [Read more…]
Baptist Press
Jim Law, right, will serve as executive director of the North American Mission Board’s (NAMB) Evangelism and Leadership group. NAMB president Kevin Ezell said of Law, “I could not be more thrilled to have him in this role.” Law has served for nearly 28 years as executive pastor of First Baptist Church Woodstock, Ga. He will begin serving at NAMB Oct. 1.
-Photo by Hayley Catt/NAMB
ALPHARETTA, Ga. — The North American Mission Board is launching an evangelism and leadership group that will promote evangelism among Southern Baptist churches, provide evangelistic resources and equip pastors to help their congregations be more evangelistically active.
Jim Law, who currently serves as executive pastor at First Baptist Church Woodstock, Ga., will serve as executive director of the new group.
By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
Lonnie Wilkey
For years, Southern Baptists have taken pride in disaster relief. Even when Southern Baptists were known for their infighting among themselves, Southern Baptist Disaster Relief was still viewed with respect and admiration across the nation.
When there was a disaster, the volunteers who wore yellow disaster relief T-shirts and caps were a welcome sight to people who had experienced a hurricane, tornado, earthquake, or any other event that disrupted lives.
Southern Baptist Disaster Relief was born in 1967. Today it encompasses 70,000 trained volunteers in all 50 states and 1,550 mobile units for feeding, chain saw, mud-out, childcare, and more. [Read more…]
By Randy C. Davis
TBMB President & Executive Director
An EF5 tornado dropped from the skies five years ago and roared across Oklahoma’s open spaces at 200 mph. It locked on Moore, Okla., then slammed into the modest Oklahoma City suburb filled with middle-class, salt-of-the-earth people. It bulldozed an elementary school. It was over a mile wide and ripped a 17-mile path through the heart of that city. The devastation was comprehensive: 24 people killed, more than 200 injured, and more than $2 billion in damage.
And within hours, Oklahoma and Southern Baptist Disaster Relief teams swooped in to serve people. Among them were nearly 40 chaplains caring for the emotional and spiritual hurts of people. But the great thing about Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers is that every person goes as a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ, even if they are running a chain saw. [Read more…]
By David Dawson
Baptist and Reflector
Upon entering the refugee simulation, the women were given a number and instructed to put all personal belongings in a trash bag.
GATLINBURG — According to recent data released by the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR, there are 65.6 million displaced individuals, or refugees, in the world today. It is the highest number in recorded history and is growing by hundreds of thousands each year.
Sadly, when hearing numbers like that, there is a tendency to forget that there are faces behind the figures. It almost becomes lost that these are real people, with real emotions and real families. And many of them are hurting.
In hopes of shining a light on these dark developments, national WMU has worked with several other organizations to create the “Refugee Simulation Experience” — an interactive, walk-through exhibit that enables participants to better grasp the hardships that many refugees are facing. [Read more…]
By David Leavell
President, Tennessee Baptist Convention
& Alan Quigley
Mobilization Team Leader, Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma
Last year, the North American Mission Board (NAMB) publicly announced that 29 percent of Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) churches reported no baptisms, and 47 percent reported two or less. In the SBC 2017 Book of Reports, NAMB reported that baptisms had fallen to 295,000 in 2016, which is the first time the convention reported less than 300,000 baptisms since the late 1940s. [Read more…]
NAMB NEWS OFFICE
Heiden and Neena Ratner, with son, Epaph, planted WALK Church in Las Vegas, Nev. They are featured missionaries during the Annie Armstrong Eastering Offering 2018 Week of Prayer.
Editor’s Note: Heiden and Neena Ratner are church planting missionaries featured in the Week of Prayer for North American Missions and the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering.® This year’s theme is “On Mission Here and Now.” The national AAEO goal is $70 million.
LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Established in 1905 near the Union Pacific Railroad tracks, this city that was once a pass-through in the Mojave Desert has become one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations. Las Vegas hosts more than 42 million visitors each year. The draw includes novelty resorts and casinos with enough lasers and neon lights to make it visible from space, earning NASA’s distinction for Brightest Spot on Earth. But spiritually, the statistics tell a different story. [Read more…]
Baptist Press
Stephen Rummage, chairman of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, presided over the EC’s Feb. 19-20 meeting in Nashville. Photo by Morris Abernathy (for Baptist Press).
NASHVILLE — The Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee has given the District of Columbia Baptist Convention (DCBC) 90 days to “secure” the “the removal of any churches from its fellowship that have demonstrated a faith or practice affirming, approving or endorsing homosexual behavior,” according to a recommendation adopted by the EC Feb. 20.
If such churches remain in friendly cooperation with the DCBC after that period, the DCBC will lose its authorization “to receive and disburse Cooperative Program and other SBC contributions,” the EC stated during its Feb. 19-20 meetings in Nashville. [Read more…]
By Mike Ebert
Baptist Press
Kevin Ezell, president of the North American Mission Board (NAMB), addressed members of NAMB’s Board of Trustees at their Feb. 6 meeting in Alpharetta, Ga. — Photo (by Hayley Catt) from Baptist Press.
ALPHARETTA, Ga. — The North American Mission Board is adding Puerto Rico to its list of special areas that will receive increased attention and resources for church planting, Send Relief ministries and partnership opportunities with Southern Baptist churches that want to minister on the island. NAMB president Kevin Ezell shared the plans with NAMB trustees Tuesday (Feb. 6). [Read more…]
