Tennessee Baptist and Reflector

Telling the Story of Tennessee Baptists Since 1835

VICE PRESIDENT ADDRESSES SBC MESSENGERS IN DALLAS

Pence appearance, Greear election were among top storylines at this year’s annual meeting

Editor’s Note: Visit baptistandreflector.org for complete coverage of the SBC annual meeting.

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
[email protected]

 

Messengers at the SBC annual meeting raise their ballots while voting on one of the 20 proposed motions on June 12. — Photo by Matt Miller/Baptist Press

DALLAS — Though an attempt was made to exclude the vice president of the United States from speaking to Southern Baptist Convention messengers, Mike Pence addressed the convention in the June 13 morning session.

Pence’s appearance was one of several highlights during the annual meeting held June 12-13 in Dallas. The meeting drew 9,637 messengers, including 615 from Tennessee. Tennessee trailed only Texas (2,036) and Louisiana (718) in number of messengers. It was the largest attended convention since 2010. [Read more…]

‘EVERY TRIBE, EVERY TONGUE, EVERY NATION’

156 internationals make salvation decisions at All Nations Camp

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
[email protected]

Children and teenagers from 15 ethnic groups, representing 32 nations, enjoyed worship services during the 25th annual All Nations Camp held recently at Carson Springs Baptist Conference Center in Newport.

NEWPORT — William Burton has been praying all year that 150 children and youth would come to know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior during the 25th All Nations Camp held May 28-June 1 at Carson Springs Baptist Conference Center.

He fell just a tad short in his expectations. God provided 156 first-time salvation decisions and 24 recorded rededication decisions among the record 438 campers and staff. “It was an incredible week,” affirmed Burton, ethnic evangelism/church planting specialist for the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board.

Burton said this year’s attendance was a 52 percent increase over last year’s then record of 288. Twenty-five additional ethnic churches participated as well, a 32 percent increase over last year, he added. The camp is open to international children, ages 7 to 17, he noted. [Read more…]

LEAVELL: DESIRE NEEDED TO SHARE GOSPEL

Editor’s Note: You can listen to David Leavell in Episode 15 of Radio B&R, the official news podcast of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board.

By David Dawson
Baptist and Reflector
[email protected]

David Leavell

FRANKLIN — Although there are countless teaching tools and training seminars on the subject, there is actually only one requirement to be an effective sharer of the gospel: The desire to do it.

That’s the message that David Leavell, president of the Tennessee Baptist Convention and pastor at First Baptist Church, Millington, is using as he encourages Christians to engage in “personal evangelism.”

Leavell believes all Christians — introverts and extroverts alike — can be effective in witnessing to their family, friends and neighbors. He likes to say that sharing the gospel “is a conversation, not a presentation,” and he is using that motto as the basis for his emphasis on evangelism.

“The reality is we have the army to attack the gates of hell with the good news of Jesus Christ,” Leavell said. “But we don’t have an active army. (We need to) mobilize the pews for the purpose of evangelism.” [Read more…]

TENNESSEE BAPTIST CHURCHES GEAR UP FOR VBS

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
[email protected] 

FRANKLIN — As May comes to a close and schools are out for the summer, Tennessee Baptist churches are gearing up for Vacation Bible School.

Vacation Bible School provides churches an opportunity to fulfill the Great Commission, said Vicki Hulsey, childhood specialist for the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board.

While VBS provides fun and Bible study for children, “always remember that the reason we do VBS is to reach lost people for Christ,” she added. [Read more…]

PRAYER AND FOLLOW-THROUGH VITAL FOR VBS

By Shawn Allred
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Kenton

Summer is on its way, and Vacation Bible Schools and Back Yard Bible Clubs will begin across our state soon after the last school bell rings.  VBS is an event that most churches view with great anticipation and excitement. Meticulous planning and preparation leading up to VBS week leave us expecting to see God work in our midst to reach boys and girls and their families for the cause of Christ.

But, how do we ensure that all the time and labor invested in Vacation Bible School does not end when the week of VBS is over? There are two areas of utmost importance that are vital to a productive and lasting VBS experience.  These two essentials are prayer and follow-through.  [Read more…]

THE COOPERATIVE PROGRAM: THE SBC’S ECOSYSTEM

Editor’s Note: This column was distributed among directors of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board during their April 24 meeting in Franklin. See related story.

By Randy C. Davis
TBMB President & Executive Director

The Cooperative Program is the fabric that weaves us together as Tennessee and Southern Baptists. From the cradle to the grave, the Cooperative Program has a profound impact on our calling as Great Commission Christians and our ability to reach a spiritually lost and dying world. It binds us together for the purpose of reaching every geographic priority Jesus identifies in Acts 1:8.

It fuels the SBC Ecosystem.

Here’s what I mean.

Take a Tennessee boy named Billy Baptist. He comes to Christ at 10 years old during a Vacation Bible School where workers were trained and equipped through a joint venture of his church’s local association and specialists from the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board (TBMB). Later, at a summer camp held at one of the TBMB’s two conference centers, Billy responds to a call to ministry. Eventually he’s off to college and gets involved in one of the TBMB’s 20-plus dynamic Baptist Collegiate Ministries. While there, Billy gets his first taste of international missions during a summer BCM project in India. [Read more…]

TBMB APPROVES $2.1 MILLION GOTM BUDGET

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

Five Objectives 5 ObjectivesFRANKLIN — The board of directors of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board unanimously approved a $2.1 million goal for the 2018-19 Golden Offering for Tennessee Missions.

The goal is an increase of $250,000 or 13.5 percent over the 2017-18 goal of $1.925 million. The projected income is $1.85 million.

The Golden Offering for Tennessee Baptist Missions is a cooperative effort of Tennessee Woman’s Missionary Union and the TBMB. The goal also was approved by the Tennessee WMU Executive Board.

The Golden Offering “is an important part of what we do,” affirmed Martha Pitts, president of Tennessee WMU. [Read more…]

WHY AREN’T CHURCHES HAVING REVIVALS?

Tennessee Baptist vocational evangelists offer their opinions on revivals and evangelism

By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector

Tennessee Baptist evangelists, who were part of a meeting in Jackson recently to discuss the future of vocational evangelism, included, from left, Jerry Drace, Jackson; Ron Herrod, Sevierville; Keith Cook, Springfield; Phil Glisson, Memphis; and Richard Hamlet, Memphis.

JACKSON — In a day when the word “revival” is making a comeback, usually in the secular sense, fewer and fewer Southern Baptist churches are having multi-day revivals. And, even one-day “harvest revivals” aren’t as in demand as they once were. As a result, the number of vocational evangelists across the Southern Baptist Convention has dropped significantly over the past four decades.

The question is why?

Approximately 15 Southern Baptist vocational evangelists met in early March to discuss their profession and calling from God. Among them were five evangelists from Tennessee with a combined 173 years of experience in vocational evangelism — Phil Glisson, Memphis; Jerry Drace, Jackson; Keith Cook, Springfield; Ron Herrod, Sevierville; and Richard Hamlet, Memphis. [Read more…]

REASONS TO CELEBRATE THE COOPERATIVE PROGRAM

By Randy C. Davis
TBMB President & Executive Director

I’m amazed at what God is doing across Tennessee through His people and through the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board.

In Dandridge, 15 more boys were recently saved, baptized, and set on the road to discipleship at a detention facility. These precious younger brothers in Christ add to the harvest of more than 100 new believers who have come to Jesus over the past three years at the facility through the ministry of Swannsylvania Baptist Church.

Just last year we saw 95 college students come to faith in Christ through our Baptist Collegiate Ministries on university campuses across our state. More than 4,700 students are involved in BCM and 152 of them are preparing for church-related vocations. [Read more…]

A CALL TO REVITALIZE EVANGELISM IN THE SBC

By David Leavell
President, Tennessee Baptist Convention
& Alan Quigley
Mobilization Team Leader, Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma

Last year, the North American Mission Board (NAMB) publicly announced that 29 percent of Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) churches reported no baptisms, and 47 percent reported two or less.  In the SBC 2017 Book of Reports, NAMB reported that baptisms had fallen to 295,000 in 2016, which is the first time the convention reported less than 300,000 baptisms since the late 1940s.  [Read more…]

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