national Archives - Baptist & Reflector

PASTOR KEEPS CHURCH INFORMED VIA WEBSITE

October 12, 2017

By David Dawson
Baptist and Reflector

Pastor Matt Ward of West Cleveland Baptist Church, Cleveland, stands with Bonnie Johnson, one of the Houston homeowners that his team helped following Hurricane Harvey.

CLEVELAND — Matt Ward, pastor of West Cleveland Baptist Church, was briefly out of sight. But he made sure he wasn’t out of mind.

Ward recently returned from a week-long stay in storm-ravaged Houston, where he served as the team leader for one of the Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief units in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.

During his stint in Texas, Ward diligently updated his congregation on the details of the relief efforts by posting videos, blogs, and photos on the church’s website.

“One of the most important parts about me going out to the missions field is being able to tell the stories to those who maybe haven’t gone out or are timid about it,” said Ward. “If you don’t really have a passion for missions, it’s probably because you haven’t really understood what missions is all about.” [Read more…]

DR TEAM HEADS TO PUERTO RICO

October 11, 2017

Baptist and Reflector

FRANKLIN — A team of 20 disaster relief volunteers from East Tennessee left on Oct. 9 for Puerto Rico to assist in recovery efforts following Hurricane Maria. The team will be there for two weeks, according to Wes Jones of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board.

In San Juan, 70 percent of the city is without cell service, and outside the city, cell service is even more scarce. Only around five percent of Puerto Rico has electricity. In these early stages, Southern Baptists who serve in Puerto Rico will be trained disaster relief volunteers. [Read more…]

VEGAS SHOOTING IMPACTS WEST TENNESSEE CHURCH

October 2, 2017

By Chris Turner
Baptist and Reflector

FRANKLIN –A small West Tennessee Baptist church felt the blow of Sunday night’s mass shooting at a Las Vegas concert when it learned one of the victims was a native son.

Sonny Melton, 29, who grew up in Big Sandy and attended Ramble Creek Baptist Church (Western District Association), was killed when he was struck by gun fire while shielding his wife, Heather Melton. [Read more…]

WHERE IS THE CIVILITY?

September 30, 2017

By Larry Robertson
Pastor, Hilldale Baptist Church, Clarksville

CLARKSVILLE —“It all started when he hit me back!” That’s what the little boy told his mother when he got in trouble for fighting with his brother. Isn’t it interesting how easily we can excuse our own behavior by blaming others?

Larry Robertson

Unless your name is Rip Van Winkle and you just woke up from a long nap under a tree, you know that our nation is in desperate turmoil. Civility has been dismissed as passé, and angry rhetoric has been normalized. Our blessed nation should be ashamed, but it’s not.

“It all started when he hit me back!” Of course! It’s always the other guy’s fault, right? [Read more…]

SAM PORTER NAMED NATIONAL DIRECTOR FOR DISASTER RELIEF

July 13, 2017

Baptist Press

Sam Porter

ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP) — The North American Mission Board has named Sam Porter as the new national director for Southern Baptist Disaster Relief.

Porter will replace Mickey Caison, who will officially retire Aug. 31.

NAMB noted Porter has been a proponent of SBDR for years and one of the first disaster relief leaders to respond after the 9-11 attacks in New York City. He made numerous trips to the area for two years and served as a chaplain in the morgue at Ground Zero. [Read more…]

DR TEAMS HELP FLOOD VICTIMS, OTHERS

May 18, 2017

Baptist and Reflector

BRENTWOOD — Tennessee Baptists are being asked to join other Southern Baptist disaster relief volunteers in helping flood victims in Missouri and Arkansas and they have responded, said Wes Jones, disaster relief specialist for the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board.

The Midwest has been slammed by severe flooding, CNN reported. Floods have killed five people in Missouri and seven in Arkansas, the news service added. [Read more…]

TX CHURCH MOURNS LOSS OF 13 MEMBERS IN BUS TRAGEDY

March 31, 2017

Editor’s Note: One of the victims in the accident was Addie Maurine Schmeltekopf. She was the sister of Carrol Kelly, who retired as executive director of Tennessee Woman’s Missionary Union in 2001.

By Diana Chandler
Baptist Press

Thirteen senior adult members of First Baptist Church of New Braunfels, Texas, were killed Wednesday (March 29) in a bus accident on their way home from a three-day retreat.

NEW BRAUNFELS, Texas (BP) — “Death could not hold Him,” proclaims the website of First Baptist Church of New Braunfels, Texas. The bright Easter message of Jesus’ resurrection sits just above the tragic announcement of 13 members who died Wednesday (March 29) in a bus accident.

“When we’re absent from the body, we’re present with the Lord,” First Baptist New Braunfels pastor Brad McLean told San Antonio CBS affiliate KENS5 News hours after the crash. “We know that their families are going to be hurting and our church family is going to be hurting.”

McLean cancelled Wednesday evening services and opened the sanctuary for prayer after the members of the senior choir were killed when a pickup truck crossed the center lane in a curve, state troopers said, and struck the bus head-on on Highway 83 in Concan around 2 p.m. The bus driver and one church bus passenger survived and are hospitalized. [Read more…]

GHOST TOWN CHURCH SEES HOLY GHOST REVIVAL

March 29, 2017

By David Roach
Baptist Press

Faith Christian Fellowship in Organ, N.M., has seen 500 percent growth over the past four years despite its location in an area classified as a ghost town.
-Photo by Joe Seale

ORGAN, N.M. (BP) — With numerous dilapidated buildings and only 323 residents according to the 2010 U.S. census, Organ, N.M., appears on at least one website listing American ghost towns. But Pastor Mitch Newton prefers to think of it as a Holy Ghost town because of the surprising work God has done through the town’s Baptist church.

Over the past three years, Faith Christian Fellowship has grown from five worship attendees to more than 25. The congregation has baptized six people over that span, with three more baptisms scheduled for the coming weeks.

On one occasion, a man jumped in the baptistery while his 80-year-old parents were being baptized, professed that he also wanted to be saved and was baptized with them.

“God is so faithful,” Newton, 71, told Baptist Press. “… He is doing the whole work. I don’t do anything. I just open my mouth” after a week of study and preparation, “and we let the Lord take it from there.” [Read more…]

DEPUTY KILLS SUSPECT AFTER BREAK-IN AT KY CHURCH

December 7, 2016

Baptist Press

SIMPSONVILLE, Ky. — A Kentucky sheriff’s deputy fatally shot a robbery suspect early Dec. 2 at Simpsonville Baptist Church here.

The Kentucky State Police said the white male suspect was inside the church and was shot by a Shelby County deputy after ignoring repeated requests to drop a weapon. Police have not identified the type of weapon.

The name of the suspect is being withheld pending notification of the family. [Read more…]

DENVER’S BEAUTY, SPIRITUAL NEED SEEN BY NAMB TRUSTEES

October 13, 2016

Mike Ebert
Executive Dir. of Public Relations, NAMB

“What could God do with the North American Mission Board? What could God do with the Southern Baptist Convention if we would realize that the primary thing we are to do before we do anything else is pray?” SBC President Steve Gaines, pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova, Tenn., challenged North American Mission Board trustees as they met in Denver Oct. 4-5. Photo by Hayley Catt/NAMB

DENVER (BP) — Set against a backdrop of freshly snow-capped mountains on the front range of Colorado’s Rockies, North American Mission Board trustees saw firsthand how Southern Baptist church planters are countering spiritual darkness in the midst of a recreational paradise.

On the Monday before their Oct. 4-5 meeting, trustees loaded onto buses to visit church planters at their places of ministry. One, Kevin Hasenack, is planting Calvary Church Denver in one of the most diverse communities in the area. [Read more…]

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