By Connie Davis Bushey News Editor, Baptist and Reflector KNOXVILLE — The fifth quarter “Any One” event held at South-Doyle High School here after its Sept. 23 football game drew students to the band field of the campus as they filed out of the stadium. Teens gathered under bright lights donated by a construction company to hear music and a disc jockey (D.J.), eat hot dogs, and hang out. Musicians

By Diana Chandler Baptist Press NASHVILLE (BP) — Nashville and surrounding Davidson County have joined a lengthy list of governments giving law enforcement officials the option of issuing civil citations to persons possessing small amounts of marijuana. Marijuana possession and use in the city and county are still considered crimes. But under the new measure passed Sept. 20 by the Nashville Metropolitan Council, law enforcement officials may choose whether to

By Lonnie Wilkey Editor, Baptist and Reflector KNOXVILLE — Revitalizing plateaued and declining churches in America takes hard work and requires a willingness to change, agreed speakers at a church revitalization conference held Sept. 1 at Wallace Memorial Baptist Church. “Churches don’t like change,” observed Tom Cheyney, executive director of missions for the Greater Orlando (Fla.) Baptist Association and founder of the RENOVATE National Church Revitalization Conference. Churches get locked

By Lonnie Wilkey Editor, Baptist and Reflector KNOXVILLE — No one can ever accuse Don Pierson of not practicing what he preaches — pray and seek God’s will, then follow it. For 12 years Pierson served as prayer strategist for the Tennessee Baptist Convention and led prayer revivals and conferences all across the state. He was in high demand. But in 2013, while leading a prayer conference at Stewarts Chapel