Wilkey

Last week the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board honored the unsung heroes of our staff — the ministry assistants. They are the ones who work quietly behind the scenes to help the TBMB in our goal of serving churches.

For most of my nearly 36 years with the Baptist and Reflector, Susie Edwards, Mary Nimmo and Betty Williams were the three women who served in those roles. A few others came and went, but together these three women served Tennessee Baptists for more than 100 years. I was extremely blessed to work with Betty and Susie and I am even more blessed to still be working with Mary. 

Betty retired many years ago and Susie developed cancer and passed away nine years ago. After Susie had to stop working as her cancer enveloped her body, we were blessed to have Linda Estey, a TBMB retiree, step in to pick up some of the slack left by Susie’s absence. Linda worked with us just a brief time before she began having health issues and had to go to the hospital. [Read more…]

Messengers attending this June’s Southern Baptist Convention in Indianapolis will cast votes on items of significant importance. The deciding second-year vote on the “Law Amendment” is at the top of that list.  

The Law Amendment, proposed initially by Virginia pastor Mike Law, passed on first reading at last year’s annual SBC in New Orleans by the required two-thirds vote. According to the SBC Constitution and Bylaws, to make a permanent change to that document requires passage by two-thirds vote over two consecutive years. This is the pivotal second year. 

The proposed amendment would be a sixth item listed under Article III, Section 1 of the convention’s Constitution and Bylaws and reads in context:  [Read more…]

Wilson

Having Phillip and Ellen Wright come and join Lakeview Baptist Church has been one of the most encouraging and humbling experiences of my life. 

When Phillip and I first met, I had no idea what was on his heart, and he didn’t know that I had been fervently praying for God to send men to our church who would come willing to serve. I would have never imagined that the Lord would send someone from so far away. 

Phillip mentioned that the drive from their home is an hour and a half, but I want to make special note that he often makes that drive for three services per week. God had answered my prayer in what I felt was a very unusual way.  [Read more…]

Wright

Casting Crowns, one of my favorite singing groups, has a song with this title, “Crazy People.” The song mentions several people in Scripture that did some crazy things for Jesus. 

First, there was Noah who built an ark when there was not a cloud in the sky. Then there was David who picked a fight, as a boy, with a giant. Daniel turned a lion’s den into a petting zoo. The three Hebrew boys had a prayer meeting in a fiery furnace. In all these circumstances people thought they were crazy. 

I want to add one more to the list. The story of Jesus walking on the water and Peter asking Jesus if he could walk on the water and come to him. In this story 11 of the disciples stayed in the boat. One of my biggest takeaways from this story was that Peter got to experience the miracle. [Read more…]

A group of BCM students from East Tennessee State University stands in front of a decorated van — one of several vehicles used for the “free shuttle rides ministry” — during Beach Reach 2024.

In recent years, campus ministers at Baptist Campus Ministries across Tennessee have placed greater emphasis on participating in Beach Reach over the spring break holiday. Beach Reach is a unique ministry in Panama City Beach, Fla., that utilizes simple acts of kindness to share the gospel with thousands of spring breakers. 

As Ashlyn Trice, BCM associate campus minister at the University of Memphis, shared, “Beach Reach provides students with the “opportunity to overcome their weaknesses, grow in their strengths, and to develop a deeper love for Jesus through their meaningful interactions with the people that they encounter.” 

Campus ministers are always seeking effective ways to mobilize students for Kingdom work in the U.S. and around the world. Beach Reach has become one of the key ministries that BCM partners with during the spring semester. Eleven campuses were well represented at Beach Reach this spring with over 350 students and staff attending. [Read more…]

I remember “the good ole days” when a goat was simply that — an animal, one of God’s creations.

I can recall the first time I heard a human referred to as a goat. It occurred during a sports talk show on the radio. I actually thought that the person who called someone a goat was going to get in serious trouble for disrespecting another human being.

I finally realized they were referring to the acronym “G.O.A.T.” for “Greatest Of All Time.” That is how naïve I was.

The recently concluded women’s NCAA basketball season and tournament has brought a renewed focus on “G.O.A.T.,” as it relates to Caitlin Clark, a basketball star for the University of Iowa who set the record this year for most points ever scored by a college basketball player. [Read more…]

“Change” is an interesting word. A quick check of a dictionary app offers more than 10 definitions and all of those except two deal with some aspect of transition or transformation. 

A few definitions that stand out are: “to make different;” “to make a shift from one to another;” and “to give a different position, course or direction to.”

Tennessee Baptists are changing. We are shifting from the Five Objectives to the Acts 2:17 Initiatives, setting a new course and heading in a new direction toward what we believe is God’s preferable future for our network of churches.  [Read more…]

Wilkey

The Tennessee Baptist Convention is celebrating a historic milestone this year — 150 years as a convention of churches committed to sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ while meeting ministry and missions needs throughout the state.

The Tennessee Baptist Mission Board will celebrate its 150th anniversary this year with a series of livestream events, beginning in May. The celebration will culminate in November at The Summit in Murfreesboro, where the convention was established in 1874.

Last week the B&R introduced “Snapshots in Time” which will run snippets of Tennessee Baptist history (both events, people and institutions) throughout the remainder of the year. [Read more…]