By David Dawson
ddawson@tnbaptist.org
FRANKLIN — The Baptist and Reflector’s website had a record-breaking year in 2024, setting new high-water marks in “reader engagement” and other categories.
Listed below is a recap of some of the website’s most popular stories over the past 12 months:
Title: Confessions of a Concerned Baptist
Writer: Randy C. Davis
Date Posted: May 1, 2024
Randy C. Davis
Summary: Roughly one month before the SBC annual meeting, Randy C. Davis, president and executive director of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, wrote a column in which he explained why he was not in favor of the “Law Amendment.” Davis wrote, “I believe the Law Amendment draws a line that points us in a direction away from our denomination’s historical polity.” Davis went on to write that he did not feel the amendment was imperative and that it could be unintentionally damaging. The following month, at the annual meeting, the amendment failed to gain the necessary two-thirds majority.
Title: The Law Amendment: A Perspective From The Pew
Writer: Dani Bryson
Date Posted: May 27, 2024
Summary: Contributing a guest column for the Baptist and Reflector just before the SBC annual meeting, Dani Bryson expressed why she was not in favor of the Law Amendment. Bryson, an assistant district attorney and member of First Baptist Church, Dickson, encouraged readers to “pause to really consider the intended and unintended consequences of our actions.” Bryson wrote that the “amendment doesn’t bring clarity. It brings chaos.”
Title: Sevierville pastor Dan Spencer to be nominated for SBC president
Writer: Lonnie Wilkey
Date Posted: April 17, 2024
Summary: This story focused on the announcement that Dan Spencer, senior pastor of First Baptist Church, Sevierville, had become the sixth nominee for the presidency of the Southern Baptist Convention at the 2024 SBC annual meeting in Indianapolis. Chris Kendall, senior pastor of Oak City Baptist Church, Seymour, informed the Baptist and Reflector on April 11 of his intention to nominate Spencer, who has been the pastor at First Baptist since 2011. At the 2024 SBC annual meeting, Spencer was defeated — in a second run-off — by now-president Clint Pressley.
Title: Avoiding the deadly sin of complacency
Writer: Lonnie Wilkey
Date Posted: Nov. 9, 2020
Summary: In the winter of 2020, former B&R editor Lonnie Wilkey wrote a column that focused on avoiding complacency. The column has continually resonated with readers, and has ranked among the B&R’s Top-10 most-read items for the past four years, including 2024. Wilkey wrote in the column that complacency “can negatively impact a person’s individual witness and ministry and even an entire church.” Wilkey went on to offer suggestions for churches who were experiencing a season of decline. “There are usually ways the ministry of a church can be saved — either through revitalization from within, merger with another church, or assimilation by another church. … Too many churches bury their collective heads in the sand and refuse to admit they are dying,” Wilkey wrote.
Title: FBC Sunbright ministers in aftermath of tornado
Writer: Lonnie Wilkey
Date Posted: April 4, 2024
Summary: This story focused on the acts of service that members of FBC Sunbright provided the community after a tornado tore through parts of Morgan County in early April. In the aftermath of the storm, FBC church members rallied together to provide lunch and dinner to first responders and other volunteers. “I made a few phone calls and people stepped up to help,” said FBC pastor Mike Hammonds.
Other stories that ranked among the most-read of 2024 included a feature story on Calvary Baptist Church in Brownsville (which donated its property and facilities to a new church plant in the Blue Oval City area) and a story about Tennessee pastor Steve Gaines transitioning to a new area of ministry.
Other top stories included:
IF YOU COULD ASK GOD ONE QUESTION (originally written and posted in 2016)
LONGTIME TENNESSEE DOM PHIL TAYLOR DIES
Q AND A WITH THE SIX SBC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES
SBC 2024: LAW AMENDMENT FAILS TO GAIN REQUIRED PERCENTAGE OF VOTES
