Tennessee Baptist and Reflector

Telling the Story of Tennessee Baptists Since 1835

FOR THE LONG HAUL

Morristown business donates truck for Disaster Relief work

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

Standing in front of Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief’s newest ministry tool are, from left, David Hawkins, director of missions, Nolachucky Baptist Association; Don Owen, DR director for Nolachucky Association; Randy C. Davis, president and executive director of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board; Roscoe England, DR volunteer and driver; Doyle Wallace, president of Wallace Hardware in Morristown; and Wes Jones, DR specialist for the TBMB. Wallace Hardware donated the truck to be used for disaster relief ministry.
— Photo by Charles Key, Carson-Newman University

MORRISTOWN — Wallace Hardware in Morristown recently donated a truck to be used for Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief ministry.

The truck was donated to Nolachucky Baptist Association’s disaster relief ministry, which, in turn, donated it to Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief. The truck will be housed at “God’s Warehouse” in Morristown.

Don Owen, disaster relief director for Nolachucky Association, noted that Wallace had allowed DR to use the truck and its trailers for the past three years for numerous trips to areas that have been impacted by hurricanes and other disasters. [Read more…]

TENN. BAPTISTS KNOW THE RECIPE FOR MISSIONS

By Randy C. Davis
TBMB President & Executive Director

Great Commission work is like having a balanced diet and Acts 1:8 is the recipe.

You know the recipe: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” However, it is one thing to know the recipe, it is quite another to actually cook up Great Commission work. I believe Tennessee Baptists are great cooks.

April is the month we celebrate North American missions and offer support to Southern Baptist missionaries through the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering. As is so often the case, Tennessee Baptists rise to the occasion. Proof? Tennessee Baptists have given an average of over $4.4 million annually over the last five years through the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering. I believe our generosity flows because we see the need to saturate our country with the gospel. [Read more…]

MISSION WORK STILL MATTERS TO WILSON

By Grace Thornton
Writer, WMU Foundation

Creely Wilson displays her Girls Auxiliary cape which she earned as a member of Girls in Action (GAs). “Being a GA was always very important to me,” said Wilson.

BRENTWOOD — Creely Wilson has been packing recently to move to her next home — a small place in a senior living community. She’s had to downsize a little bit.

But in all of the cleaning out, Wilson was certain one thing wasn’t getting left behind — a small Lottie Moon doll that’s been on her mantle for years. She has other things she loves in life, but missions tops the list.

“I’ve learned a lot from the life of Lottie,” she says of the beloved missionary to China. “She really got women started in missions.”

It’s a legacy that’s kept going with Wilson, says Betty Wiseman, a fellow church member at Brentwood Baptist Church in Tennessee — to the point that Wiseman says without hesitation that Wilson “is our Lottie Moon.”

“She’s revered in our church,” Wiseman said. “She’s a gem, a really special lady. She represents to us what it means to be a woman of God who cares, who gives and who offers servant leadership.” [Read more…]

APPLICATIONS TAKEN FOR MEDICAL GRANTS

Baptist and Reflector

submit, button, online, form, computer, keyboardApplications are now being received for grants from the Baptist Hospital of East Tennessee Medical Missions Fund.

The Baptist Healthcare System of East Tennessee was begun by Tennessee Baptists soon after the end of World War II. More than $2 million was contributed by 800 churches in 32 counties of East Tennessee. The hospital began service on November 30, 1949.

In 2007, BHSET negotiated a merger with St. Mary’s Hospital in Knoxville in which both entities would be under control of Catholic Health Partners, Inc. [Read more…]

ANNIE ARMSTRONG — STILL MAKING A DIFFERENCE

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

Annie Armstrong has been in heaven with the Lord she loved for 81 years, but her legacy lives on and she is still making a difference for God on this earth.

Annie Armstrong was born in Baltimore in 1850 in a culture where women were not necessarily considered leaders. But she ultimately became a leader and challenged churches to raise money and support for missionaries. [Read more…]

A CHURCH FAMILY MAKES A DIFFERENCE

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

A church family can make the difference in someone’s life. If you don’t believe it, just read the story of Paul Chitwood, new president of the International Mission Board, Southern Baptists’ largest missions-sending institution.

Chitwood grew up in a single-parent home for much of his childhood. He readily admits that members of First Baptist Church in Jellico “helped raise” him.

He flat out says that he would not be the president of the International Mission Board had it not been for deacons from First Baptist Church in Jellico, near the Kentucky-Tennessee line, who knocked on his door and invited his father to church. [Read more…]

TENNESSEE TIES

Editor’s Note: New IMB President Paul Chitwood spoke to Baptist editors during their meeting last week in Charleston, S.C. Following his presentation, the Tennessee native sat down for an interview with the Baptist and Reflector.

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

Paul Chitwood, seen here during a recent press conference, was elected president of the IMB last November. Chitwood is a Tennessee native and was reared in First Baptist Church, Jellico.

CHARLESTON, S.C. — It’s been quite awhile since Paul Chitwood left Tennessee, but his roots still run deep.

Chitwood, who became president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board in November, was born in LaFollette in 1970.

At the age of 2, his parents divorced and Thomas Chitwood and his three sons moved to Jellico to live with his grandparents for awhile. Later, his dad found a nearby place for him and his sons to live.

Jellico, located on the state line of Kentucky and Tennessee, was home to Chitwood until he moved to Louisville, Ky., to attend seminary. [Read more…]

IMB’S CHITWOOD TAPS LAFFERTY

Baptist Press

Todd and Susan Lafferty visit the Taj Mahal in the Indian city of Agra in 2012. The Laffertys served as International Mission Board personnel in a nearby country, sharing the gospel among South Asia’s 1.5 billion people who have no personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

RICHMOND — International Mission Board President Paul Chitwood announced Jan. 30 that Todd Lafferty will be presented to the entity’s board of trustees as his recommendation for the IMB’s next executive vice president. IMB trustees, who meet Feb. 6-7 in Richmond, are responsible for electing the person who serves in that role.

Lafferty currently serves as pastor of mobilization for Shades Mountain Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. He and his wife Susan previously served with the IMB for nearly 29 years. [Read more…]

BCMs PROVIDE STUDENTS OPPORTUNITY FOR GROWTH, SUPPORT

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

Morgan Owen

MARTIN — A college campus can be a frightening place for a first-time student.

Baptist Collegiate Ministry organizations can play a major role in helping incoming high school students adjust to college life, said Morgan Owen, BCM director at the University of Tennessee in Martin.

While some high school grads enter college with friends from hometown or church, many do not, Owen noted. BCMs provide incoming freshmen opportunities “to connect” with like-minded students, he said.

At UT-Martin, the BCM offers Survival, a four-day event for incoming students, freshmen and transfers.

The objective for Survival is to cultivate a faith-based community setting for incoming students as they make the adjustments to college, Owen said. [Read more…]

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