Tennessee Baptist and Reflector

Telling the Story of Tennessee Baptists Since 1835

SINGLE ADULT NUMBERS ARE SOARING. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR CONGREGATIONS?

By Jeff Brumley
Baptist News Global

Research shows that the number of single Americans is increasing, while marriages remain flat. Experts say churches should respond with more ministries geared to young singles. (Photo/Tammy McGary/Creative Commons)

Research shows that the number of single Americans is increasing, while marriages remain flat. Experts say churches should respond with more ministries geared to young singles. (Photo/Tammy McGary/Creative Commons)

Churches may want to take a hard look at what they’re offering young, single adults — and then boost it.

“Many churches are built around a family model,” Roxanne Stone, editor and chief of the Barna Group, said in remarks published with a survey about romance and relationships.

“They are most comfortable ministering to families and have developed an infrastructure to support couples and children,” she said. [Read more…]

DISNEY’S ‘GAY MOMENT’ SOURS MANY CHRISTIANS

By Diana Chandler
Baptist Press

170315disneyNASHVILLE (BP) — A gay plot twist in Disney’s upcoming live-action “Beauty and the Beast” continues to stir discontent among Christians, with an online poll at Faith Driven Consumer (FDC) among the latest to voice displeasure.

The poll reports 95 percent of 6,700 consumers said they are less likely to see the film because of an intimate attraction the bumbling LeFou character expresses toward the villainous Gaston. And 94 percent of those polled said they will likely spend less money on all Disney offerings as a whole, the online forum of 41 million Americans reported March 14. [Read more…]

MARCH MILDNESS?: AMERICANS SHARE VIEWS ON SPORTS

By Aaron Earls
LifeWay Christian Resources

NASHVILLE (BP) — Thanks to wild buzzer beaters and unbelievable upsets, the NCAA men’s basketball tournament has become known as March Madness. For most Americans, however, their attitude toward sports is more mild than mad.

170315sports1A study released from LifeWay Research today (March 14) found 52 percent of Americans describe their philosophy of sports by saying, “It’s not whether you win or lose — it’s how you play the game.”

“Most Americans want players to play the game ‘the right way’ and not potentially endanger others simply for the sake of winning,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research. “For example, with growing worries about concussions in football, safety concerns have caused many to reconsider their attitude toward sports.” [Read more…]

Filed Under: SBC

PAGE & MOORE: ‘WE FULLY SUPPORT ONE ANOTHER’

By David Roach
Baptist Press

Frank S. Page, Russell Moore

Frank S. Page, Russell Moore

NASHVILLE (BP) — Despite a Washington Post article suggesting Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee President Frank S. Page could ask Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission President Russell Moore to resign amid ongoing controversy, the two SBC entity leaders reported a collegial meeting today (March 13) and said they “fully support one another.”

Earlier in the day, amid a social media flurry following the Post’s report, Page told Baptist Press he planned on “bridge-building” with Moore with no anticipation of requesting a resignation. [Read more…]

DOCKERY RECOVERING FROM HEART ATTACK

Baptist Press

David Dockery

David Dockery

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Trinity International University President David S. Dockery is recuperating from a cardiac procedure performed in Chicago March 8 that followed what doctors call a mild heart attack.

Cardiac specialists at Northwestern Memorial Hospital placed four stents in coronary arteries after Dockery suffered chest pains and dizziness on Monday, March 6. Following the procedure, doctors reported excellent progress and told his family there were no complications.

Dockery is former president of Union University in Jackson.

TIU faculty and staff met March 8 in the A.T. Olson Chapel on the Trinity campus to pray for Dockery, his family and the caregivers. [Read more…]

AMERICAN PASTORS ARE OLDER, AND GETTING OLDER, THAN EVER

By Jeff Brumley
Baptist News Global

170310aging-pastors3If you’re noticing a lot of gray in the pulpit at your church these days, you’re not alone. Pastors are getting older.

“The aging of pastors represents a substantial crisis for Protestant churches,” David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group, said in remarks included with a report titled “The Aging of America’s Pastors,” released Wednesday. [Read more…]

IMB APPOINTS MISSIONARIES

Baptist Press

Aaron and Melissa Stormer, sent to take the gospel to American peoples by Hilldale Baptist Church in Clarksville, Tennessee, share their testimony during a Sending Celebration March 1 near Richmond, Va. "We are going because we know that God’s heart is for all people to know his name," Aaron said. Photo by Roy M. Burroughs/IMB

Aaron and Melissa Stormer, sent to take the gospel to American peoples by Hilldale Baptist Church in Clarksville, Tennessee, share their testimony during a Sending Celebration March 1 near Richmond, Va. “We are going because we know that God’s heart is for all people to know his name,” Aaron said. Photo by Roy M. Burroughs/IMB

RICHMOND — Twenty-nine Southern Baptists were appointed as missionaries to the nations during the International Mission Board’s trustee meeting Feb. 28-March 1 near Richmond.

Trustees also heard numerous reports and recognized 63 missionaries who retired or died within the past year.
Among those appointed were Aaron and Melissa Stormer of Hilldale Baptist Church in Clarksville, who are being sent to the American peoples. Aaron said they are going “because we know that God’s heart is for all people to know His name.”

Melissa noted she realized God’s heart for the nations while sharing the gospel in a small mountain village in Haiti. … God has called us to go and carry out His mission in order that the lost may be found and His truth proclaimed,” she said.

‘THE SHACK’ FILM STIRS DEBATE AS DID PRECEDING BOOK

By Diana Chandler
Baptist Press

170228the-shackNASHVILLE (BP) — A fictional and emotionally destroyed Mack Phillips answers a mysterious invitation to a remote, isolated cabin. There he finds a trinity of fatherly love in a woman named “Papa” whose cohorts teach Phillips forgiveness and the faith to run on water — literally.

It’s the synopsis of the movie “The Shack,” based on William Paul Young’s New York Times bestseller and award-winning book by the same title, that some described as a biblically sound parable. And as with the 2007 controversial book that sold more than 20 million copies, others are criticizing the movie as a farce that serves to deeply distort rather than affirm biblical truths. [Read more…]

PLANETS’ DISCOVERY SAID TO INCITE MISPLACED HOPE

By David Roach
Baptist Press

Rendering from NASA

Rendering from NASA

NASHVILLE (BP) — At least some of scientists’ enthusiasm over discovery of seven potentially habitable planets seems to reflect the misplaced hopes of a secular worldview.

That is the assessment of a Union University physicist and a Gateway Seminary Old Testament professor following NASA’s Feb. 22 announcement that astronomers have detected the first known system of seven Earth-sized planets rotating around a single star. [Read more…]

OBAMA-ERA TRANSGENDER BATHROOM ORDER RESCINDED

By Diana Chandler
Baptist Press

public restroom signs male female gender bathroom toiletWASHINGTON (BP) — The Trump administration has reversed an Obama-era directive that advised schools to open bathrooms and locker rooms to students based on their perceived sexual identity or risk losing federal funding.

The new ruling leaves bathroom use policies to the discretion of state governments and local school districts, but the issue is already set to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. The court is scheduled on March 28 to hear a case from the Gloucester County School Board in Virginia challenging a lower court ruling allowing transgender teen Gavin Grimm to use the boys’ bathroom at school. Grimm, a biological female, identifies as male. [Read more…]

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