By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
[email protected]
LEXINGTON — When Clay Hallmark became pastor of First Baptist Church, Lexington, six years ago, he probably did not dream that he would be elected president of the Tennessee Baptist Convention, but he did know that he would seek to become involved in convention life.
Hallmark was no stranger to Tennessee. His wife, Leslie, was reared in Lexington and they both attended Union University in Jackson. In addition, Hallmark’s dad, Gerald Hallmark, is a former Tennessee Baptist pastor in Memphis. He has retired and returned to Tennessee and lives in Lexington near his son.
Hallmark, however, was content to remain in Arkansas where he was pastor of a strong church and was very involved in convention life there, having served as president of the state convention’s Executive Board and two terms as president of the Arkansas Baptist Convention. His rationale was that his church “was a great place to be” and “I knew everybody in Arkansas.”
But God had other plans. Though he had talked with First Baptist, Lexington, on at least two other occasions, he prayed about it once more and agreed to meet with the church’s search committee again.
“I had a complete peace about it,” he said. “I knew this is where God wanted me to be. God gave me a vision for it. He gave me a peace about it in the church where I was leaving. He said ‘I’ll take care of this. You go where I want you to go.’ ”
Hallmark hit the ground running at First Baptist. The church established goals and a five-year plan and surpassed those goals for attendance, giving, missions and missions giving in just three-and-a-half years, he recalled. “The only thing that slowed us up obviously was COVID, which just slowed up everybody in the convention, he said.
“And I knew that when God called me here, he called me to be here till I retired,” Hallmark said. “And so I really feel like I’ll be here in this church till I retire.”
Because of his experience in Arkansas, Hallmark planned to be active in Tennessee as well, both at the associational level (Beech River Baptist Association) and the Tennessee Baptist Convention.
“I think every pastor ought to be involved in the life of their state convention. We are better when we are serving together and working together and cooperating together to reach people with the gospel. A church on its own cannot reach its community for Jesus by itself, but all the churches working together in a community can reach its community and you multiply that by our state and it’s the same thing.
“I believe that by cooperating together, we have a better chance of actually reaching people for Jesus and setting them on the road to discipleship,” he maintained.
After returning to Tennessee, he learned about the Five Objectives, a 10-year plan adopted by messengers to the TBC annual meeting designed to seeing at least 50,000 Tennesseans annually saved, baptized, and set on the road to discipleship by 2024; having at least 500 Tennessee Baptist churches revitalized by 2024; planning and strategically engaging at least 1,000 new churches by 2024; realizing an increase in annual local church giving through the Cooperative Program that reaches at least 10 percent by 2024; and realizing an increase in annual giving for the Golden Offering for Tennessee Missions that reaches at least $3 million by 2024.
“When I understood what it is that we were trying to do as a state convention, I knew I was going to lead my church to participate in that and to participate individually. Before I became pastor of the church, our church had given $800 to the state missions offering, and this past year we gave over $31,000 to the Golden Offering for Tennessee Missions because we believe in what’s happening in the Tennessee Baptist Convention. And we are investing in that with not just our money, but with our people and our leadership. We want to see God do something great right here in Tennessee.”
Challenges and opportunities
As he prepares to lead the convention as president in the coming year, Hallmark is well aware of the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.
“I’m very optimistic about the convention,” said Hallmark, who also serves as a director (and past chair) of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board.
He cautioned Tennessee Baptists about “knee jerk reactions” to things they see or hear on social media. It’s hard to serve Christ and be effective when there is division in the ranks, he observed “We’ve got to stay together.”
His goal as president is to “keep us very focused on cooperation and on the gospel.”
And, it starts in the local church. Hallmark opined that many folks who sit in the pews may have said a prayer and filled out a card “but they have never surrendered their lives to Jesus. …
“The gospel has to be shared across the sanctuary and then we have to take the gospel across the street, then into our towns and neighborhoods and across the state and across the seas,” Hallmark said.
“So, we have got to be very focused strategically with the gospel. Some of our challenges now are that we are very distracted with things that don’t relate to the gospel.”
Hallmark also said he would challenge churches in 2022 to start something new. “Many of our churches across the state have not done anything new in years. I’m going to challenge our churches to start one new Sunday School class, one new ministry or do one more training event for new leaders,” he said.
He observed that Southern Baptists have a proven history of doing “the same old thing over and over again. … Somewhere along the line, we need to do something new if we’re going to reach some new people with the gospel.”
The SBC
Hallmark is well aware that there are some within the Tennessee Baptist Convention who are dissatisfied with the current direction of the Southern Baptist Convention. “We definitely have some issues in the Southern Baptist Convention that are needed to be addressed and are being addressed,” he acknowledged.
He noted that Southern Baptists are like a family. “Just because you don’t always agree with the family, you don’t leave the family. You stay in the family and keep a seat at the table so that you can have input … and start finding common ground. Again, we are living in a world that is very quick to have a ‘knee jerk reaction’ to everything.”
And, while he strongly agrees that Tennessee Baptists need to remain seated at the SBC table in order to reach the world, “we don’t need to let things that happen nationally cause us to lose our passion for reaching Tennessee with the gospel. Every church has to decide for themselves how that’s going to look, but to simply withdraw or pull back is not the right approach.”
Church revitalization and Sunday School
The new TBC president also has a passion to see churches revitalized and Sunday School used as a primary means to help revitalize churches.
He noted the TBMB recently released a new resource entitled Winning Our Harvest Field: What Really Matters. This is a “simple blueprint” for revitalization that can be used by churches regardless of size, Hallmark said. In addition, he noted TBMB staff are willing to walk alongside churches willing to take the steps to be revitalized. He stressed that church revitalization is a process. “I’m going to challenge churches and pastors and staff members to start that process this year.”
Hallmark also cited Sunday School and small groups as “the vital component” of revitalization and evangelism and discipleship in the local church. “We have lost our focus on Sunday School,” he maintained. He cited the efforts of Bruce Chesser, the past TBC president, in drawing attention “to the vital importance of small group Sunday School classes and reaching people and doing ministry through Sunday School. I’m going to continue that focus and emphasis,” he said.
Hallmark knows 2022 will be a busy year as he juggles his new role, his church and his family. “I am excited for the possibilities that are in front of us and the opportunity to be in all the different parts of the state to see what God is doing and to make sure people are aware of all that God is doing through the Tennessee Baptist Convention and the ministries of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board. B&R