Telling the Story of Tennessee Baptists Since 1835
Baptist and Reflector
BRENTWOOD — In January, Cooperative Program giving from Tennessee Baptist Convention churches was nearly 16 percent below what was given in 2013 at the same time.
After September receipts were counted, however, giving has rebounded.
Tennessee churches gave $2,934,212 through the Cooperative Program in September. [Read more…]
By Connie Davis Bushey
News Editor, Baptist and Reflector
One of the oldest feeding ministries of Tennessee Baptists is offered by the Briceville Friendship Center of Clinton Baptist Association, based in Clinton. Leading the center, which has been operating for 39 years, are, from left, June
Strunk, retired director who remains a volunteer; Tom Byrge, director of missions of the association; Marcia Ellis, current director; and Becky Burris, volunteer.
BRENTWOOD — Randy Harness started helping around the Briceville Friendship Center in Briceville after June Strunk, then director, met him one day as he walked past. They visited and she learned he was unemployed.
Strunk invited Harness to come back to obtain food and, if he wanted, to help her in the food pantry. He began working in the pantry and as they worked they “had the opportunity to talk,” said Strunk. She learned he had been in prison.
Harness was a Jehovah’s Witness but that didn’t keep Strunk from sharing her faith with him and trying her best to answer his questions. Years went by and other Baptists also got to know Harness at the Friendship Center. [Read more…]
By Chris Turner
Director of Communications, TBC
Lindy May, a senior at the University of Memphis and a member of the BCM, befriended international students there which led her to international missions service.
MEMPHIS — Lindy May stood on a busy street in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and felt utterly alone.
Horns blared as thousands of people shuttled by on bicycles and motor scooters and others hurried by on sidewalks and past storefronts. The rhythmic chaos resembled the movements within an ant colony.
Yet May felt alone, overwhelmed because she knew the semi-ornate storefront just across the street was nothing more than a facade around a doorway to a living hell. The banner hanging outside promoted Pepsi-Cola, but the real commodity inside was women — many of them still girls — enslaved and tangled in the snare of sex trafficking. Their bondage wasn’t just physical, it was spiritual, and May could sense it. [Read more…]
Editor’s Note: October is recognized as Cooperative Program month on the calendar of the Southern Baptist Convention. Selected articles from this issue demonstrate how the Cooperative Program is at work in Tennessee.
By Chris Turner
Director of Communications, TBC
Students at the University of Memphis learn about the Baptist Collegiate Ministry as they stop by its exhibit recently and visit with Jeff Jones, center, BCM director. — Photo by Royce DeGrie
MEMPHIS — The countenance on Abrahim’s* face betrayed the secret he was hiding inside, and he didn’t even know it. How could he? Only days before he’d accepted Christ into his heart and now he was home in a staunchly fundamentalist Islamic country.
But being alive in Christ changes everything, and Abrahim’s parents immediately noticed.
“I was only home three days and my father came to me and said I’d changed,” Abrahim said. “ ‘What is different about you?’ he kept asking. I only told him at that time that God changed my heart.”
God had changed his heart, and He used the faithful witness of fellow college students involved in the University of Memphis’ Baptist Collegiate Ministries (BCM) to do it. [Read more…]
Baptist and Reflector
BRENTWOOD — The Executive Board of the Tennessee Baptist Convention recognized churches that led the state convention in baptisms and gifts in 2013.
Representatives of the churches were recognized during a banquet held prior to the Sept. 9 meeting of the TBC Executive Board held at Brentwood Baptist Church here.
“We are grateful to these churches for their outstanding leadership in leading people to Christ, resulting in baptism and to those churches that lead the way in giving through the Cooperative Program,” said Randy C. Davis, TBC executive director/treasurer. [Read more…]
Baptist and Reflector
David Leavell
MILLINGTON — David Leavell, pastor of First Baptist Church, Millington, will be nominated as vice president of the Tennessee Baptist Convention in November.
Leavell will be nominated by friend and fellow Millington pastor Mark Tuso of Crosspointe Baptist Church.
“David is a brother filled with integrity and is a strong leader,” Tuso observed.
He also noted that Leavell is committed to and concerned about the convention. “His desire is to come alongside TBC staff and be a help as a pastor elected in this position,” Tuso said. [Read more…]
By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
BRENTWOOD — To hear the other side tell it, abortion will be illegal in Tennessee if voters approve Amendment 1 of the state ballot on Nov. 4.
There is also a rampant myth that churches can’t legally encourage people to vote for or against public policy issues.
Nothing can be further from the truth.
Such statements are “scare tactics” offered by opponents of Amendment 1 to confuse the issues, say leaders in the state who support efforts to pass Amendment 1 in November.
Abortions are now legal in Tennessee and will continue to be legal the day after the election regardless of the outcome of the vote on Amendment 1, observed Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, based in Nashville. [Read more…]
By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
Randy C. Davis, right, executive director/treasurer of the Tennessee Baptist Convention, stands with newly elected officers of the TBC Executive Board — Roc Collins, center, pastor of Indian Springs Baptist Church, Kingsport, chair; and Michael Crandall, pastor, Macedonia Baptist Church, Ripley, vice chair. — Photo by Connie Bushey
BRENTWOOD — The Executive Board adopted a budget of $34,250,000 for the 2014-15 budget year.
The action was one of several that took place during the Executive Board’s Sept. 9 meeting at Brentwood Baptist Church here.
Board members were informed that the new budget is a reduction of $2,250,000 or 6.16 percent from the 2013-14 budget. The new total is more consistent with income for the previous 12-month period, according to information supplied to board members. [Read more…]
Editor’s Note: Scott Harris, missions minister at Brentwood Baptist Church, Brentwood, served on the search committee of the International Mission Board that called David Platt as president. Here is his perspective on the new IMB leader.
By Baptist and Reflector
“Our ultimate goal in the process was to find the right leader for the ultimate responsibility of the Church; bringing the gospel to all nations.
“Shortly after our committee was formed in February, we knew that we needed feedback from the field, the Richmond home office, SBC pastors, and denominational leaders. We received 2,000 opinion surveys and over 100 nominations.
“We bathed the process in prayer and prioritized the qualities and values needed in a leader of the IMB in an ever-changing world and declining denominational landscape. The stark reality is that the SBC and our mission efforts are struggling; the baptism rate for last year — 314,000 — is at a 60 year low. Our missionary force has been drawn down in the last seven years from 5,620 to 4,860 due to lack of funding. If things don’t change, this number could go down to 4,200. [Read more…]
By Baptist and Reflector
BRENTWOOD — Michael Ellis, pastor of Impact Baptist Church in Memphis, will be nominated as president of the Tennessee Baptist Convention during The Summit, to be held Nov. 10-12, at Brentwood Baptist Church here.
Former TBC president Fred Shackelford informed the Baptist and Reflector last week that he would nominate Ellis, who served as convention vice president in 2013.
“He has proven himself as an excellent leader in our state,” said Shackelford, pastor of Ellendale Baptist Church, Bartlett. [Read more…]