INDIANAPOLIS — Six men, including Tennessee Baptist evangelists Jerry Drace and Ron Herrod (deceased), were added to the Southern Baptist Evangelists’ Hall of Faith June 10 at the Westin hotel, across the street from the Indiana Convention Center. The recognition took place during the annual meeting of the Conference of Southern Baptist Evangelists (COSBE). COSBE was organized in 1958 and the Hall of Faith was established in 2008.  Typically, two

CLEVELAND — Phil Taylor, a director of missions in Tennessee since 1999, died June 23 after an extended illness. He was 64. Taylor became the DOM in Bradley County Baptist Association in 1999 after serving for 14 years as a pastor in Georgia, Ohio and Virginia. During his 25-year tenure, Taylor led the association to change its name to CrossNet Baptist Network to accommodate the growing influence of the association

JACKSON — Union University presented longtime Baptist medical missionary Rebekah Naylor with its M.E. Dodd Denominational Service Award during a June 11 alumni dinner at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Indianapolis, Ind. The Dodd Award is the highest denominational service award Union gives. It is named for the man who was a 1904 Union graduate, served as president of the SBC and who was the father of today’s

INDIANAPOLIS — Lonnie Wilkey, editor of the Baptist and Reflector, has received many honors and awards during his journalism career. But the most recent award he received was especially meaningful. Wilkey, who is retiring as B&R editor at the end of this year, was presented with the Paula and Ken Hemphill Denominational Service Award from North Greenville University during a NGU dessert fellowship on June 10  in Indianapolis. The dessert

TULLAHOMA — Duck River Baptist Association, based in Tullahoma, held its first annual Missions Day on May 18.  Duck River teams visited and ministered at a nursing home, staffed an evangelism tent at the High on the Hog festival, conducted door to door visitation distributing 800 evangelism packets and more. “Like a lot of associations, we do well doing missions away from home,” observed Matt Ledbetter, director of missions.

TAZEWELL — In the early evening hours of June 1, word began spreading among members of Springdale Baptist Church that their building was on fire. By the time most members arrived, fire had engulfed the structure, burning the building which included the original structure from 1882, to the ground.  A fellowship hall which has been added to the building received some fire damage but mostly had water and smoke damage.