Editor’s Note: You can listen to Dave Howeth discuss the Tennessee/Send Denver partnership during Episode 11 of Radio B&R, the official news podcast of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board. That podcast can be found here. By Lonnie Wilkey Editor, Baptist and Reflector DENVER – Dave Howeth is no stranger to Tennessee Baptists who remember him as a director of missions/church planter strategist in Montana during the years of the Tennessee/Montana

By Lonnie Wilkey Editor, Baptist and Reflector BRUCETON  — In a year’s time First Baptist Church, Bruceton, has seen baptisms increase from 17 in 2016 to 31 with several weeks left in the current church year. This year’s total number of baptisms is the largest since 1976 and the third largest in church history, said Joshua Franks, who celebrated his first anniversary at the church in early August. Franks refuses

By David Dawson Baptist and Reflector FRANKLIN — It’s not every day that a gathering in the church sanctuary begins with a rendition of Rocky Top ringing out from an orchestra. But that’s how the evening started on July 27 at Red Bank Baptist Church in Chattanooga, where an energetic crowd — including a large number of football players and coaches from the local area — came together for “A

Baptist and Reflector LEBANON — One church’s baptismal service recently impacted a sister Baptist church in a neighboring county. Immanuel Baptist Church in Lebanon held a lake baptism service on July 2 at the Laguardo Recreation Center off Highway 109. The church had eight candidates for baptism that day, said Lawrence Cole, minister of adults at Immanuel. 

By Courtney Swaw Summer Intern, Linden Valley LINDEN — As Bryan Bratcher was attending his first IMPACT camp three years ago, he wondered, “What if there was a church in our community that was committed to biblical truth that had this kind of culture?” In 2014 Bratcher attended IMPACT camp (his first ever youth camp) at Linden Valley as the youth pastor of Stones River Baptist Church, Smyrna. He was

By Lonnie Wilkey Editor, Baptist and Reflector LAFAYETTE — When Johnny Beaver moved to Tennessee several years ago, he thought he would never serve as pastor of a church again. God had other plans. Beaver readily acknowledges that he and his wife moved to Tennessee from Pascagoula, Miss., to rebuild their life and marriage. He was pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Pascagoula when Hurricane Katrina struck. He lost his

By David Dawson Baptist and Reflector LAFAYETTE — The smell of chicken nuggets wafted through the fellowship hall at Calvary Baptist Church on this sticky Tuesday morning in late July. It was 8:30 a.m., and a group of about a dozen volunteers was happily humming along like an assembly line. In the kitchen, several ladies were watching the oven and putting the finishing touches on the baked goods. Things were