LEADERS
First Baptist Church, Whitesburg, recently called Ira Ginn as pastor.
Randy Pate recently resigned as pastor of First Baptist Church, Milan, to accept a pastorate outside Tennessee.
Oak Grove Baptist Church, Milan, recently called Bill Rice as interim pastor.
Andy Mayfield has been called as pastor of Spring Hill Baptist Church, Trenton.
EDUCATION
The Carson-Newman University Moot Court Team recently finished second to Vanderbilt University in the 2019 Appellate Moot Court Challenge held in Nashville. The Carson-Newman team was comprised of David McConnell, Thomas Fodor and Luke Patton. Fodor won the “Best Petitioner” award. The C-N team has participated the past six years in the competition and won runner-up for the third consecutive year.
DEATHS
Retired Tennessee Baptist pastor and director of missions David V. Tydings, 87, died Dec. 9. Tydings served several churches in Kentucky and Tennessee as pastor, including First Baptist, Baileyton; New Lebanon Baptist, Greeneville; Bowmantown Baptist, Jonesborough; and Chinquapin Baptist, Bluff City. He served until his retirement as director of missions for Grainger County Association of Baptists, based in Rutledge. Tydings is survived by his wife of 66 years, Sarah Gash Tydings, and a daughter, granddaughter and great granddaughter.
Charles W. Sullivan, who became the Indiana Baptist convention’s executive director after 42 years in the pastorate, died Nov. 27 at his home in Knoxville. He was 88. Sullivan led the State Convention of Baptists in Indiana for 12 years, retiring in 2003. Sullivan was a former pastor at First Baptist Church, Lenoir City, and also served as pastor of churches in Texas, Missouri and Oklahoma. While serving as a pastor in Tennessee, Sullivan was president of the Tennessee Baptist Pastors Conference and vice president of the Tennessee Baptist Convention, He was considered a leader of the “conservative resurgence” and served on the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention from 1984-91, including the last two years as chairman. He is survived by his wife of 68 years Delilah and three children.
Wilfredo Hernandez, pastor of the Hispanic congregations of First Baptist Church in Martin and Second Baptist Church in Union City, died Dec. 3 at the age of 65. He is survived by his wife, Jovita Quijada Hernandez and four children.
W.C. Fields, former vice president for public relations for the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee from 1959-1987, died Dec. 3 in Nashville at age 96. He also was editor of the Executive Committee’s former Baptist Program magazine from 1959-1972 and editor of The Baptist Record in Mississippi from 1956-59. Fields, a member of Woodmont Baptist Church, Nashville, was preceded in death by his wife Libby in 2002. He is survived by his second wife, Lawanna, three children, eight grandchildren and two step grandchildren; and two great grandchildren.