LEADERS
Meghan Clayton is the new preschool and children’s minister at First Baptist Church, Manchester. In addition, Cyndi Cox recently celebrated 20 years as director of Christian education and Tim Hensiek celebrated his fifth anniversary as student pastor.
Michael McEwen has been called as pastor of Hickory Grove Baptist Church, Trenton.
Connect Church in Milan has called Keith Donaldson as pastor.
Robert Cates is serving as interim pastor of West Side Baptist Church in Trenton.
New Hope Baptist Church, Dyer, recently called Bryan Morris as pastor.
Selma Wilson
Selma Wilson, senior vice president of organizational development and chief people officer at LifeWay Christian Resources and a member of LifePoint Church, Smyrna, will retire effective Oct. 1. Wilson joined the Sunday School Board (now LifeWay) in 1990 as a marriage and family consultant, providing training and events for churches. Since then, Wilson has served in various leadership positions at LifeWay including vice president of B&H Publishing Group, director of the discipleship and family magazines, director of organizational performance, and as associate to the vice president of Church Resources. Additionally, Wilson, along with her husband Rodney (a former Tennessee Baptist Mission Board staff member), served as executive editors of HomeLife magazine. In 2010, Wilson became LifeWay’s first female vice president when she was named vice president of B&H Publishing Group. She is also a regular speaker, writer and conference leader in the area of leadership, women and family ministry.
DEATHS
Longtime Baptist pastor Willie M. Newman died July 13 at his home in Loudon. He was pastor of First Baptist Church, New Tazewell, and Armona Baptist Church, Alcoa, and First Baptist Church, Bryson City, N.C. where he spent his last 25 years before retiring in 1995. He is survived by his wife of 59 years, Eloise Shull Newman, five sons and their spouses, and 11 grandchildren.
Doris Holland Lester, 91, widow of former Baptist and Reflector editor James Lester, died Aug. 9. She was a member of Judson Baptist Church, Nashville. She is survived by two sons, Earl and Edwin Lester.
ASSOCIATIONS
In July, 63 people from churches in Riverside Baptist Association ministered in Rhode Island and Connecticut. The team worked pastors Randall Curtis of Frenchtown Baptist Church and Josh George of Quinebaug River Church. The team did landscaping and building repairs, held block parties and conducted prayer walks among other activities for the churches. It was a very successful and fruitful mission trip, reported Chris Ward, director of missions.
CHURCHES
On July 28, Harvest of Israel, a ministry begun by First Baptist Church, Morristown, and facilitated by the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, packed and sent its 37th 40-foot container to Israel. Each container of humanitarian aid is shipped to the Messianic believers of the land and is distributed as a witness to both the Jewish and Arab people. Harvest of Israel now has more than 200 partners and ships out of four different states including its main warehouse location in Morristown.
A team of 24 people from nine churches in Western District Baptist Association recently served in Guatemala as part of the Tennessee Baptist/Guatemala Partnership. The Western District team included the association’s new Hispanic church plant Faro with Edwin and Panche Alvarado who are originally from Guatemala. While there the team witnessed 26 people who prayed to accept Christ.
