Baptist & Reflector

Telling the Story of Tennessee Baptists Since 1835

2020: A YEAR TO REMEMBER

Ministry created by tornadoes, pandemic dominate year’s top stories

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

FRANKLIN — The year 2020 began on a positive note with giving through the Cooperative Program at a high level for the first four months of the fiscal year and after a record-breaking year for gifts through the Golden Offering for Tennessee Missions in 2019.

Then came March — and life turned upside down, not only for the nation, but for Tennessee Baptist churches as well. [Read more…]

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2021 SBC ANNUAL MEETING HOTEL REGISTRATION OPENS OCT. 1

By Diana Chandler
Baptist Press

The Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville.

NASHVILLE — Online hotel registration opens Oct. 1 for the 2021 Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting, which will be held June 15-16 at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville.

Online registration will be available at sbcannualmeeting.net beginning at 8 a.m. Central Daylight Time.

Ronnie Floyd, SBC Executive Committee president and CEO, said messengers and guests will benefit from the many hotel rooms available at the meeting venue this year.

“Unlike any place we have been before for an SBC Annual Meeting, the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center will have over 2,500 rooms available under the same roof. In this same massive structure covering nine acres, we will also have all of our convention meetings,” Floyd said. “This will open the door for an incredible reunion of our SBC family from all across the world. [Read more…]

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A YEAR WITHOUT THE SBC MEETING

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

FRANKLIN — In a normal year, hundreds of Tennessee Baptists would be gathered in Orlando, Fla., this week for the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. But thanks to COVID-19, 2020 is not a normal year.

Tennessee Baptists who planned to go to Orlando this year expressed disappointment that the annual meeting was canceled due to the pandemic, but they certainly understood why. [Read more…]

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2020 SBC ANNUAL MEETING CANCELED

By Baptist Press

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been updated since its original publication.

NASHVILLE (BP) — In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting has been canceled for the first time in 75 years.

Citing authority provided by the SBC Constitution “in the case of grave emergency,” the decision was made Tuesday (March 24) in a unanimous vote of a body composed of SBC officers, the SBC Executive Committee and leaders of the SBC’s boards and institutions. [Read more…]

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TENNESSEAN NAMED TO SBC COMMITTEE

Baptist Press

Ed Stetzer, seen here preaching at SWBTS.

ORLANDO — Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear has announced the members of the 2020 Committee on Resolutions for the June 9-10 SBC annual meeting in Orlando.

“I believe our 2020 Resolutions Committee reflects the various interests and concerns of Southern Baptists,” Greear, pastor of The Summit Church in the Raleigh-Durham, N.C., area, said. “They were chosen because they love Southern Baptists, are committed to sound doctrine, and demonstrate a desire for the gospel to be above all. [Read more…]

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LOOKING BACK ON BIRMINGHAM

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

SBC president J.D. Greear adresses the crowd at the 2019 SBC annual meeting in Birmingham.
— Photo by Kathleen Murray

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Tennessee Baptists were well represented among the 8,183 messengers who registered for the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, held June 11-12, in Birmingham.

The Tennessee Baptist Convention ranked third among Baptist state conventions with 738 messengers. The Alabama Baptist Convention had 1,366 messengers while the Georgia Baptist Convention was represented with 834 messengers.

Prior to the start of the annual meeting, Southern Baptists knocked on the doors of 10,409 homes, had 1,817 gospel conversations, prayed with 2,251 people and saw 364 people place their faith in Jesus, according to organizers of the annual Crossover evangelism outreach. [Read more…]

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REASONS FOR OPTIMISM ABOUT THE SBC’S FUTURE

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…]

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COVERAGE OF THE SBC ANNUAL MEETING

The 2019 Southern Baptist Convention will take place on June 11-12 in Birmingham, Ala., — and the Baptist and Reflector staff will be providing coverage in multiple ways.

Breaking news from the convention can found throughout the two days at baptistandreflector.org. Also, the next print edition of the Baptist and Reflector (dated June 26) will include stories and photos from the event.

This year’s annual meeting, being held at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex, has been themed: “Gospel Above All.”

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SBC 2019 HOTEL SHUTTLES, PARKING OPTIONS SET

By Diana Chandler
Baptist Press

Photo of the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Free hotel shuttles and park and ride services are among conveniences available to attendees of the Southern Baptist Convention 2019 Annual Meeting and related events June 9-12 in Birmingham, Ala.

Fifteen free shuttle routes will service hotels contracted for SBC attendees, and park and ride services with free parking will include three locations, convention manager Bill Townes told Baptist Press. [Read more…]

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MEETING TO FOCUS ON ‘GOSPEL ABOVE ALL’

Baptist Press

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Keeping the focus on the “Gospel Above All” theme is Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear’s main goal going into SBC’s annual meeting in Birmingham, Ala., June 11-12.

But following a year of transition among five SBC entities searching for new leadership and the convention responding to reports of sexual abuse, Greear noted there will be other issues demanding attention.

Greear, who is expected to be reelected SBC president without opposition, acknowledged that confronting sexual abuse is among them. [Read more…]

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