LEADERS
Lewis McMullen
Lewis McMullen recently celebrated his fifth anniversary as church planting specialist/new churches team leader for the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board. McMullen formerly served with Nashville Baptist Association in Nashville. He has been the lead planter on eight church plants and a team member on four others.
Bruce Chesser will celebrate his 10th anniversary as pastor of First Baptist Church, Hendersonville, on Aug. 18.
Rick Taphorn
Rick Taphorn has been named vice president for business affairs at Union University, Jackson, effective Sept. 23. He replaces Gary Carter who is retiring after 28 years as chief financial officer at Union. Taphorn comes to his new role from Bryan College in Dayton where he served as vice president for finance and enrollment management.
Lee Beaumont has been called as minister of students at Brownsville Baptist Church, Brownsville. He served in a similar role at a church in Mississippi.
Beth Moore
Beth Moore has been named collegiate missions specialist in the collegiate ministry group of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, effective Aug. 9. She previously served as student/literary missions specialist for Tennessee Woman’s Missionary Union. She served two terms as a missionary in south Asia.
Old Bethel Baptist Church, recently called Bobby Rushing as pastor.
Lynnwood/Lynnridge Mission Church, Elizabethton, has called Ricky Blackburn as pastor.
Calvary Baptist Church, Elizabethton, has called Lori Hamilton as children’s minister.
Dean Smith will serve as interim pastor of Siam Baptist Church, Elizabethton.
DEATHS
Louise Pulliam died July 27. She served for more than five decades on the staff of First Baptist Church, Bolivar, as educational director, church hostess and director of senior adult ministry. She is survived by her husband, James, and a son and grandson. She was a resident of Bolivar for 55 years before moving to Jackson in 2016.
CHURCHES
Hillcrest Baptist Church, Clarksville, will hold revival services Sept. 8-11 with guest evangelist Phil Glisson of Memphis.
Avondale Baptist Church, Rutledge, recently celebrated its 125th anniversary.
A mission team from Blue Springs Baptist Church, Rutledge, served in July in Beaver Creek, Ohio.
Pine Ridge Missionary Baptist Church, Harriman, held a Back 2 School Crusade on Aug. 11. The church invited teachers and support staff from local schools to worship so the church could pray for them and their students for the new school year. Approximately 15 teachers and staff attended. Jenny Spakes, principal of Dyllis Springs Elementary School spoke. This will be the third year that Pine Ridge has partnered with her school. Rick Hillard of the State Convention of Baptists in Indiana was guest preacher. The church presented gift cards to all the school staff.
In June, students from First Baptist Church, Lexington, conducted “Mission2Lexington” and “Mission From Lexington” as part of the church’s strategy to take the gospel across the street, across the states, and across the seas. The mission strategy allowed the students to conduct baseball, basketball, soccer, cooking, and art camps in Lexington before going to Osceola, Ark., where they led Backyard Bible clubs, did prayerwalking and evangelism and held an outdoor concert in cooperation with First Baptist Church, Osceola. During the same week, a mission team from FBC served in Guatemala.
