Randy C. Davis Archives - Page 12 of 12

It’s a Fact — Not a Cliche

May 5, 2015

Randy C. Davis

By Randy C. Davis
TBC Executive Director

I’ve noticed a growing verbal trend that makes me uncomfortable to the point that it deeply concerns me. Someone will toss out the Cooperative Program’s unofficial motto, “We can do more together than we can do apart,” but with a mildly sarcastic tone. My concern is with the veiled attitude behind the sarcasm that guts the statement of meaning and reduces it to a cliché.

Well, we really can do more together than we can do apart and we’ve got 90 years of history to support the reality of that statement. The success of cooperative giving is a fact, not a cliché.

For 90 years, Southern Baptists have depended on the Cooperative Program to be the financial engine that fuels our Great Commission vision. As a result, together we’ve generously given to extend the gospel around the world. Together, we’ve ministered to millions of the world’s suffering people through benevolence ministries. Together, we’ve prepared untold thousands of ministers for the gospel ministry through Christian education. Together, we’ve seen God accomplish through us more than we could have ever imagined or dreamed. [Read more…]

When We All Get Together

November 5, 2014

By Randy C. Davis
TBC Executive Director

Randy C. Davis

There are those people who touch your life and have an impact that shapes who you become. Charlie was one of those for me.

I’ll never forget Charlie. Charlie died in his mid-90s. He served as treasurer of Little Escambia Baptist Church for well over 40 years. Every year on the Sunday closest to the birthday of this faithful Baptist layman, more than 100 of his family and friends gathered for worship and then headed to Charlie and Essie’s house on Upper Creek Road to enjoy the world’s biggest “dinner-on-the-grounds” under the trees for the annual grand celebration gathering. [Read more…]

Rising to a ‘Golden’ Opportunity

October 22, 2014

By Randy C. Davis
TBC Executive Director

Randy C. Davis

I can imagine W.C. and Mildred Golden sitting at a candlelit table over 114 years ago working tirelessly to write letter after letter to Tennessee Baptists. The flicker of light probably danced across the materials spread out before them waiting to be slid into an envelope and sent out with the following day’s mail.

The Goldens wrote hundreds of letters and mailed hundreds of packages containing promotional materials calling Tennessee Baptists to pray for Great Commission work across our state. Can you imagine being so passionate about accomplishing a God-sized vision that you’d be willing to do whatever it took to see the task through? There were no typewriters, no computers, no Facebook accounts or Twitter feeds; just a desire to mobilize Tennessee Baptists to see God’s Kingdom come to Tennessee. [Read more…]

Tennesseans Face ‘Monumental’ Vote, Says Davis

October 21, 2014

Baptist and Reflector

Jayme Hull, center, women’s ministry director at Judson Baptist Church, Nashville, speaks at a press conference in support of Amendment 1 held Oct. 14 at Cathedral of the Incarnation in Nashville. Middle Tennessee ministers gathered in support of Amendment 1, including Frank Lewis, far right, pastor of First Baptist Church, Nashville. Lewis spoke briefly at the press conference in support of Yes on 1.

BRENTWOOD — Tennesseans are facing “the most monumental vote” in the state’s 218-year-old history, says Randy C. Davis, executive director of the Tennessee Baptist Convention.

Referring to Amendment 1 which is on the state ballot, Davis said, “It will be an indictment on Christians if Amendment 1 does not pass.”

Davis made his observations in a column posted at www.tnbaptist.org on Oct. 17. It also has been published in daily newspapers across the state. [Read more…]

I Love to Tell the Stories

October 8, 2014

By Randy C. Davis
TBC Executive Director

Randy C. Davis

There’s a homeless man who lives in Chattanooga tucked under a towering overpass. He abused crack cocaine and alcohol. Physically, his life was a wreck and heading for death. Spiritually, he was heading for hell. But about a year ago, someone navigated quarry stones, briar bushes and the threat of personal harm to share the gospel with him.

Today, “Tree Man” Smith is clean and sober, and is a missionary because he is taking the gospel to others ranked among society’s outcasts.

There’s a Mexican man living just south of Knoxville who never read a Bible and never heard the story of Jesus. Actually the only time he really ever heard Jesus’ name was when it was taken in vain. He lived just outside the Bronx, in New York, for more than 20 years, but he heard the gospel on a visit to Knoxville during a neighborhood dinner in a trailer park. Conviction hit hard and grace descended quickly. He was baptized on a rainy July Sunday afternoon in a lake near Oak Ridge. [Read more…]

Do We Really Need More Churches?

September 23, 2014

By Randy C. Davis
TBC Executive Director

Randy C. Davis

There are churches everywhere in Nashville.

Let’s take a ride. For instance, nine large churches sit adjacent to Franklin Road in a two-mile stretch if you drive north from Old Hickory in Brentwood. If you drive south another two or three miles through Brentwood you can add another five large churches, bringing the total to 13 just in that one short stretch. Travel that distance east to west and you can add probably a dozen more. Expand the circle to the greater Nashville area and word is there is easily more than 1,000 churches. It begs the question: Do we really need any more churches?

The short and emphatic answer is … yes! [Read more…]

Resurrecting 500 Tennessee Baptist Churches

August 30, 2014

By Randy C. Davis
TBC Executive Director

To say Litz Manor Baptist Church was on life support is an understatement. The reality was its slow death was only delaying being moved from the category of once-thriving congregations to just another statistic of churches that closed its doors. You’ve seen those churches. They are now community theatres, coffee shops, town hall meeting places …or bars.

But God wasn’t done with Litz Manor, and the people weren’t done with God. Founded in 1946, the Kingsport church saw steady growth through its first 25 years, but those numbers began to plateau in the 1970s. Several economic blows and the more recent collapse of the Eastman Corporation being a major employer in the area, and the church dwindled to below 60. But it wasn’t dead. [Read more…]

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