Two hundred years ago, while envisioning the campus design for the University of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson wrote to a colleague describing how the buildings should be arranged:  “… Would strongly recommend … instead of one immense building, to have a small one for every professorship, arranged at proper distances around a square, this village form is preferable to a single great building for many reasons, particularly on account of fire,

FRANKLIN — Directors of Tennessee Baptist Mission Board adopted a record goal of $2.7 million for the 2023-24 Golden Offering for Tennessee Missions and approved seven other recommendations including a revision to the GOTM Process and Guidelines that would eliminate the following guideline: “GOTM funds are NOT provided for the salary of TBMB staff or Tennessee WMU staff.” Tennessee Baptist leaders Clay Hallmark and Randy C. Davis each brought reports

FARMERSVILLE, Texas — SBC president Bart Barber has announced his appointments to the 2023 Committee on Committees. Riley Prather, pastor of Green Valley Crossing, Putnam, Conn., will lead the committee as chair, and Cassie Stanteen from First Baptist, Clinton, Miss., will serve as vice chair. “As a lifelong Southern Baptist, I am thrilled to play a part in helping the SBC keep the Gospel at the center and to remain

Baptist and Reflector SEYMOUR — Corey Cain, pastor of First Baptist Church, Seymour, was elected to serve on the newly formed search committee tasked with seeking a new president/CEO for the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention. Cain was in Dallas on May 1 during the special called meeting in which EC members rejected the nomination of former EC chairman Jared Wellman. Cain is one of five Tennessee Baptists

KNOXVILLE — May 22, 2022 will forever be etched in the memory of Keith Vaughan, pastor of Valley Grove Baptist Church in Knoxville. That was the day of what he now refers to as “The Breakdown” occurred. He recalled walking into his office on that Monday morning. “Nothing really happened that doesn’t normally happen on a Monday in a Baptist church,” he said. “But for some reason, all of a