Tennessee Baptist evangelist Jerry Drace and his wife, Becky, stand beside a slide that recognizes Drace’s induction into the COSBE Hall of Faith. Drace said Becky is his “ greatest prayer partner and encourager.”

INDIANAPOLIS — Six men, including Tennessee Baptist evangelists Jerry Drace and Ron Herrod (deceased), were added to the Southern Baptist Evangelists’ Hall of Faith June 10 at the Westin hotel, across the street from the Indiana Convention Center.

The recognition took place during the annual meeting of the Conference of Southern Baptist Evangelists (COSBE). COSBE was organized in 1958 and the Hall of Faith was established in 2008. 

Typically, two evangelists are honored every other year, but because of the pandemic, none had been honored for six years, the group’s secretary, Amy Stockwell, explained to Baptist Press. [Read more…]

Taylor

CLEVELAND — Phil Taylor, a director of missions in Tennessee since 1999, died June 23 after an extended illness. He was 64.

Taylor became the DOM in Bradley County Baptist Association in 1999 after serving for 14 years as a pastor in Georgia, Ohio and Virginia.

During his 25-year tenure, Taylor led the association to change its name to CrossNet Baptist Network to accommodate the growing influence of the association beyond just Bradley County. Churches from neighboring counties joined CrossNet primarily due to Taylor’s missional heartbeat for reaching people not only in southeast Tennessee but around the world as well, according to his obituary. [Read more…]

Longtime Baptist medical missionary Rebekah Naylor was presented Union University’s M.E. Dodd Denominational Service Award.

JACKSON — Union University presented longtime Baptist medical missionary Rebekah Naylor with its M.E. Dodd Denominational Service Award during a June 11 alumni dinner at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Indianapolis, Ind.

The Dodd Award is the highest denominational service award Union gives. It is named for the man who was a 1904 Union graduate, served as president of the SBC and who was the father of today’s Cooperative Program, the method by which Southern Baptists pool their resources to fund their mission efforts.

The award, voted on by Union trustees, is given to a leader within the SBC who displays excellence and leadership in Southern Baptist life, as well as friendship and commitment to Union University. Past recipients include such leaders as Jimmy Draper, Adrian Rogers, R. Albert Mohler Jr., Steve Gaines, Paul Chitwood, Ben Mandrell, David S. Dockery and others. [Read more…]

Lonnie Wilkey, far right, editor of the Baptist and Reflector, receives the Paula and Ken Hemphill Denominational Service Award from North Greenville University. Holding the award is NGU president Gene C. Fant, and joining them are Paula and Ken Hemphill. —Photos by Marty O’Gwynn

INDIANAPOLIS — Lonnie Wilkey, editor of the Baptist and Reflector, has received many honors and awards during his journalism career. But the most recent award he received was especially meaningful.

Wilkey, who is retiring as B&R editor at the end of this year, was presented with the Paula and Ken Hemphill Denominational Service Award from North Greenville University during a NGU dessert fellowship on June 10  in Indianapolis. The dessert fellowship was held during the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting.

Wilkey graduated from North Greenville in 1978, when the school was still a junior college.   [Read more…]

Members of Grace Baptist Church, Tullahoma, from left, Landon Shelby (youth pastor), Wade Hampton, Claire Hampton, Mike Shelby and Jackson Kennington, passed out the “Jesus” DVD, evangelistic tracts and information about their church.

TULLAHOMA — Duck River Baptist Association, based in Tullahoma, held its first annual Missions Day on May 18. 

Duck River teams visited and ministered at a nursing home, staffed an evangelism tent at the High on the Hog festival, conducted door to door visitation distributing 800 evangelism packets and more.

“Like a lot of associations, we do well doing missions away from home,” observed Matt Ledbetter, director of missions. [Read more…]

David Majors, a member of Springdale Baptist Church for 55 years, points out where the original building, constructed in 1882, was located. Fire destroyed the building, which had been added onto over the years, in the early evening hours of June 1.

TAZEWELL — In the early evening hours of June 1, word began spreading among members of Springdale Baptist Church that their building was on fire.

By the time most members arrived, fire had engulfed the structure, burning the building which included the original structure from 1882, to the ground. 

A fellowship hall which has been added to the building received some fire damage but mostly had water and smoke damage. Church leaders are not yet sure if it can be salvaged. The exact cause of the fire was still unknown two days after the fire. [Read more…]