Featured

‘UNDECIDED’ MOST PREFERRED BY PASTORS

By Bob Smietana Lifeway News Office NASHVILLE — Ted Cruz is the favorite presidential candidate of Protestant pastors who lean Republican. Hillary Clinton leads among Democratic pastors. And Donald Trump is near the back of the pack. But “Undecided” is by far the most popular choice of America’s pastors according to a new telephone survey of 1,000 Protestant senior pastors from Nashville-based LifeWay Research. The survey found nearly half of

Read More...

PORN USE INCREASING AMONG TEENS

Tennessee Baptist youth ministers offer pointers on how to combat problem By Chris Turner Director of Communications, TBC BRENTWOOD — The number of searches for Internet pornography exponentially increases every second. If the rapidly changing online “porn ticker” represented increasing stock value, there would be thousands — possibly millions — of overnight millionaires. Instead, the ticker reveals an insatiable appetite for sexually explicit content, and a high percentage of those

Read More...

TRUSTEES: NEW LIFEWAY LOCATION AUTHORIZED

Baptist Press NASHVILLE (BP) — Trustees of LifeWay Christian Resources authorized the purchase of land and construction of a new corporate headquarters in Nashville and elected new board officers. In their semiannual meeting, trustees approved a resolution to authorize LifeWay’s administration to purchase property in downtown Nashville for its future headquarters. “This property is not just a location — it’s a new community in which we can invest ourselves for

Read More...

DOES GOD DECIDE, CARE WHO WINS THE SUPER BOWL?

Baptist Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. – An old gospel hymn says God’s eye is on the sparrow, but what about panthers and broncos? Not the ones from Carolina and Denver matched up for the National Football League’s Super Bowl 50, according to a new survey from LifeWay Research. The poll found most Americans are skeptical about divine intervention on the football field. They say God doesn’t determine who wins or loses.

Read More...
First Baptist Church Nashville panorama

FBC, NASHVILLE, SELLS 1.3 ACRES FOR $20 MILLION

Baptist and Reflector NASHVILLE – First Baptist Church, Nashville, has announced the sale of a portion of the church campus (1.3 acres of its downtown property) to a developer for $20 million. The church will continue to occupy the remaining 6.3 acre site which the church owns on Broadway and Seventh Avenue S. According to The Tennessean newspaper in Nashville, the sale price equates to about $353 a square foot

Read More...

FORMER TBCH PRESIDENT GERALD STOW DIES

Baptist and Reflector BRENTWOOD – Gerald Stow, retired president of the Tennessee Baptist Children’s Home, died Jan. 29 after a lengthy illness. He was 82. Stow led the Brentwood-based TBCH from 1984-99. After his retirement he continued to serve as an “ambassador” for the Tennessee Baptist Convention institution. He was a member of Brentwood Baptist Church. A native of Dresden County, Stow served two Tennessee Baptist churches as pastor before

Read More...

FORMER PASTORS REPORT LACK OF SUPPORT LED TO ABANDONING PASTORATE

By Lisa Cannon Green LifeWay News Office NASHVILLE, Tenn. – No sabbatical. No help with counseling. No clear picture of what’s expected. Hundreds of former senior pastors say these were the crucial elements missing from the final churches they led before quitting the pastorate. A recent study by LifeWay Research points to ways churches can encourage pastors to stay in the ministry, said Ed Stetzer, Executive Director of the Nashville-based research

Read More...

TENNESSEANS SUPPORT MINISTRY IN INDIA

By Lonnie Wilkey Editor, Baptist and Reflector CLARKSVILLE — Baptists in Cumberland Baptist Association, headquartered in Clarksville, know they can travel to minister in India only on occasions. For ministry to be effective there, it is imperative that Christians with a heart for their lost countrymen are trained to be missionaries to plant churches in the remote villages of India. Thus, Mission Voice Network Ministries in India was formed in

Read More...

ASSOCIATION’S TEENAGERS SERVE ON SCHOOL BREAK

By Connie Davis Bushey News Editor, Baptist and Reflector DYER COUNTY — Instead of resting, catching up on their homework, or working some extra hours at their part-time jobs on their day off from school last week for Martin Luther King Day, about 220 teens here conducted service projects and considered God. They were participating in the 12th annual Jerusalem Project of Dyer Baptist Association. “I see a sea of

Read More...

ADOPTION PICTURE OF SALVATION, PARENTS SAY

By Diana Chandler Baptist Press GREENBRIER — Nathan and Jennifer Washburn rank parenting among their greatest joys, but a desire to have children was not their main motivation in adopting. Instead, the couple who married in 2004 point to spiritual value as their main motivation for their 2010 adoption from Kazakhstan of Kara Victoria Washburn, now 5, and, in 2014 from China, Owen RenLi Washburn, 3. “It was primarily a

Read More...