FRANKLIN — The next 10 weeks will have a significant impact in the work of Tennessee Baptists for the next 10 years.

 Next month, TBMB Board of Directors will gather for their semiannual meeting and one of the items on their agenda will be to review a report on the Acts 2:17 Initiative. The Board will also consider a recommendation from the Budget Committee that will reflect the needed investment in the plan from Convention churches.’

If the report is affirmed by the board, it will then be presented to TBC messengers in November at the 2024 Summit. 

Randy C. Davis, president and executive director of the TBMB, has said he believes the Acts 2:17 Initiative “could become the most consequential process in the Tennessee Baptist Convention’s history. ” [Read more…]

FRANKLIN — The question is not what to do if a crisis strikes, it is being prepared when your church faces a crisis, said Chris Turner, director of communications for the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board.

“There are two types of organizations — those that have had a crisis and those whose crisis hasn’t hit yet,” Turner said.

Turner was featured recently on the “Tennessee Golden Hour,” a podcast produced by the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board and hosted by TBMB staff members Matt Tullos and Beth Moore. 

Turner noted there are two types of crises — those that are sudden and those that are smoldering. A sudden crisis is one that is totally unexpected such as a tornado destroying the church building, he said.  [Read more…]

Longtime friends and Tennessee Baptist pastors Larry Robertson, left, and Steve Freeman share a passion for mentoring younger pastors.

CLARKSVILLE — Mentoring young ministers is a passion for longtime friends and former Tennessee Baptist Convention presidents Larry Robertson and Steve Freeman.

Robertson and Freeman recently shared in an interview with the Baptist and Reflector how  their ministries were impacted through mentoring. Freeman, pastor of Grace Baptist Church, Springfield, acknowledges that Robertson has been one of his primary mentors throughout his ministry.

Robertson, pastor of Hilldale Baptist Church, Clarksville, felt God calling him into ministry in 1982 while he was attending the Tennessee Baptist Youth Evangelism Conference in Nashville. Though he already had accepted Christ, Robertson admitted, “I was not walking with the Lord.”

On the opening night of the YEC Robertson recalled that “God got my attention.” The following morning former Tennessee pastor and Southern Baptist Convention president Jim Henry challenged those who might be considering God’s call into some form of ministry to stand up.

“I found myself standing up,” Robertson said. “I sensed very strongly that God was calling me into ministry.” [Read more…]

Tennessee Baptist leaders, from left, Micah Stephens, Jonathan Chapman,
Cole Rogers and Chad Mize discuss the importance of a ministry
pipeline during a recent video shoot.

FRANKLIN — Chad Mize and Jonathan Chapman are doing their part to ensure that the circle remains unbroken.

Mize, associate pastor of missions and mobilization at Forest Hills Baptist Church, and Chapman, collegiate ministry specialist at East Tennessee State University, are both passionate and committed to helping aspiring church leaders find reliable and godly “ministry mentors.” 

Eventually, if all goes according to plan, those same students will then help others follow that path. 

It’s a cycle of events that is crucial to the future of student ministry, said Chapman. With the pipeline of rising ministry leaders slowing almost to a trickle in recent years, this is a vital time for new leaders to emerge. 

Chapman said Tennessee Baptists can aid the process, and infuse the cycle, by supporting the BCMs in Tennessee, both with prayer and financial resources.  [Read more…]

A group of 43 volunteers, including 30 from the Weakley County Baptist Association and 13 from Strong Tower Baptist Church, completed a series of service projects this summer during a “stay home”mission trip.

DRESDEN — A mission trip without much mileage.

Perhaps that’s the best and most succinct way to sum up what a large group of volunteers from Weakley County experienced this summer. 

In place of their annual long-haul mission trip, the Weakley County contingent stayed close to home, completing more than a dozen service projects inside the county lines. 

Phil Mitchell, director of missions for the Weakley County Baptist Association, said the volunteers had done a “stay-home” missions event several years ago — and he felt the timing was right to do it again. 

“Back in 2018, several people kept asking me, ‘Why did we go here and there to do work when people around here have needs?’ ” said Mitchell. “And I said, ‘Yes, you’re right.’ So, that’s what we did that year, and then decided to it again this year.” [Read more…]

FRANKLIN — Wes Jones, disaster relief specialist for the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, issued a callout on Wednesday, Aug. 14, for flood recovery trained volunteers for response in Georgia, New York, Pennsylvania and possibly South Carolina.

The recovery efforts come in the aftermath of Hurricane Debby, a slow-moving and erratic Category 1 hurricane that caused widespread flooding across the southeastern United States in early August. [Read more…]