Randy C. Davis Archives - Baptist & Reflector

LISTENING SESSIONS — TWENTY TOWNS, TWO EARS

October 8, 2019

By Randy C. Davis
TBMB President & Executive Director

Step off the elevator on the second floor of your Church Support Center in Franklin, turn right and you’ll be looking straight at this large reminder: “Tennessee Baptist Mission Board is a Christ-centered, field-focused, Great Commission organization created by Tennessee Baptists to serve Tennessee Baptist Churches. We value relationships, innovation, stewardship and excellence.”

Our mission statement for many years has been, “Making Christ Known by Serving Churches.”

What does the TBMB do? Simply put, we serve churches. [Read more…]

YOUR GOTM GIVING AND YOUR KINGDOM IMPACT

September 10, 2019

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…]

TENNESSEE BAPTISTS RALLY FOR THE CAUSE

August 20, 2019

By Randy C. Davis
TBMB President & Executive Director

Randy C. Davis

We really can do more together. That isn’t just a catchy phrase tossed around to describe the Cooperative Program. Last week I experienced it in the form of tangible support.

Throughout 2019, our Tennessee state legislature has wrestled with proposed “heartbeat bills” in the hope of protecting unborn children in Tennessee and creating a law that would overturn Roe v. Wade. [Read more…]

DAVIS SET TO ADDRESS SENATE TODAY

August 12, 2019

Baptist and Reflector

Tennessee Baptist Mission Board president and executive director Randy C. Davis speaks at a press conference.

NASHVILLE — Randy C. Davis, president and executive director of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, is scheduled to address the Tennessee Senate this afternoon (Monday, Aug. 12). The senate committee hearings start at 1 p.m., and live streaming can be found HERE. [Read more…]

LISTENING SESSIONS BEGIN ACROSS STATE

July 26, 2019

Baptist & Reflector

FRANKLIN — A series of listening sessions with Tennessee Baptist pastors and leaders with Randy C. Davis, president and executive director of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, has begun across the state.

“Over the next six weeks, I will be in 24 different locations across our state in what we are calling Collaborative Listening Sessions,” Davis said. [Read more…]

ANTI-ABORTION TO COMPREHENSIVELY PRO-LIFE

July 22, 2019

By Randy C. Davis
TBMB President & Executive Director

This one has always been clear cut for me. Any person with a moral compass, common sense and even a little knowledge of abortion’s horrors is against the taking of a life in the womb.

Unfortunately, we live in a culture that not only demands the right to murder these sweet gifts of God, it celebrates the murderous practice. The image is seared in my mind of celebration that followed New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s signing into law late-term abortions up to the point of birth. How perverse is that? I never want to see that celebration in Tennessee, and as Tennessee Baptists we not only have an obligation to our Lord to protect unborn children, we have an opportunity to stand and be counted for life. [Read more…]

A NEW AND EXCITING FUTURE FOR CARSON-NEWMAN

July 9, 2019

By Randy C. Davis
TBMB President & Executive Director

Charles and Sandra Fowler, center, were introduced June 10 as the new president and first lady of Carson-Newman University by David Ogle, left, chair of the presidential search committee, and Harry Brooks, right, chair of the board of trustees.
-Photo by Charles Key.

Charles Fowler admits he was surprised when he was informed last fall that his name had been put forward as a nomination to be the next president of Carson-Newman University. When I heard the news, I wasn’t the least bit surprised.

I’ve known Charles for years. He is a gracious leader possessing a long and strong identity with, and understanding of, Tennessee Baptists. He has outstanding academic credentials, a pastor’s heart and a theologian’s mind. The CNU presidential search committee did an outstanding job of cultivating excellent candidates for the position and diligently prayed over and vetted each candidate. Just as I wasn’t surprised by Dr. Fowler’s nomination, I wasn’t surprised at the news of his selection. He started his new role July 1. [Read more…]

COUNT THE DAYS AND MAKE THEM COUNT

June 25, 2019

By Randy C. Davis
TBMB President & Executive Director

I love sunrises and sunsets. I don’t think there’s anything more beautiful than a sunrise in all its glory or a sunset in all its splendor. The fact that our Lord has given us another day of abundant life on our way to eternal life is a special gift.

My friend, Paul Clark, Jr., loved the hymn, “For the Beauty of the Earth.” I love it too. “For the beauty of the earth; For the beauty of the skies, For the love which from our birth, over and around us lies, Lord of all, to thee we raise, this our hymn of grateful praise.” [Read more…]

REASONS FOR OPTIMISM ABOUT THE SBC’S FUTURE

June 12, 2019

By Randy C. Davis
TBMB President & Executive Director

President George W. Bush once stood in front of a group of people trying to make sense of the world that seemed to be coming undone around them. “One thing is for certain,” he said. “We did not ask for these challenges, but we will meet them. I say that with certainty because this nation has strong foundations and won’t be shaken. In this hour of our country’s history we stand in the need of prayer.”

That comment was made at the first post-9/11 National Prayer Breakfast and prior to the beginning of the longest war, the war on terrorism, in our nation’s history. I was at that prayer breakfast. I saw the resolute courage in our president’s eyes; I heard it in the tone of his voice. [Read more…]

CHANGE HAPPENS BUT THE MISSION REMAINS

May 28, 2019

By Randy C. Davis
TBMB President & Executive Director

LifeWay Building

The March 20 headline splashed across Christianity Today, The Tennessean and National Public Radio was one few in Southern Baptist life thought they’d ever read. There were variations, but in effect they all communicated the same thing: “LifeWay Christian Resources, the largest Christian retail chain in America, plans to close all 170 stores this year and shift its offerings entirely online.”

It was a sad day that revealed the lifelong emotional attachment many Southern Baptists have had with the bookstore. Frankly, generations of us have never known a world without a Baptist Book Store or a Lifeway Christian Store. Many expressed their anger with statements about how the bookstore was more than just books. It was the people who worked there — who ministered there — who made the stores what they were. [Read more…]

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