Opinion Column

Pastor’s Insurance May Be Taxable Income

By Richard Skidmore Financial Support Specialist, TBC It is quite possible that beginning this past January your pastor or other church staff member began being taxed on their health insurance premium. It will be the church’s responsibility to report the amount of the premium as taxable income as part of the salary paid to this person. How can the Affordable Care Act that had as its centerpiece making health insurance

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Do We Really Need More Churches?

By Randy C. Davis TBC Executive Director There are churches everywhere in Nashville. Let’s take a ride. For instance, nine large churches sit adjacent to Franklin Road in a two-mile stretch if you drive north from Old Hickory in Brentwood. If you drive south another two or three miles through Brentwood you can add another five large churches, bringing the total to 13 just in that one short stretch. Travel

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TBC Giving Below Budget for Year

By Baptist and Reflector BRENTWOOD — Tennessee Baptist Convention churches gave $2,421,683 through the Cooperative Program in August. For the year-to-date, Tennessee Baptists have given $27,893,395. The amount is $801,328 or 2.8 percent below what was given at the same point last year. With two months remaining in the 2013-14 budget year, Cooperative Program receipts are $2,523,271 or 8.3 percent below budget needs.

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Cooperative Program Is ‘Best Strategy’

By Larry Robertson President, TBC, & Clarksville Pastor I didn’t grow up in a strong Cooperative Program giving church. When I got to Blue Mountain (Miss.) College as a ministerial student, however, my eyes were opened to the unparalleled strategy Southern Baptists have to fund missions and ministry. Dr. James Travis, longtime biblical studies professor at Blue Mountain, taught us that being Southern Baptist is more than geography or theology.

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Happiness Is Not a Requirement

By Lonnie Wilkey Editor, Baptist and Reflector I watched a recent video clip of Victoria Osteen, wife of noted pastor and author Joel Osteen of Houston. Honestly, I was not impressed. I recently wrote a column expressing my opinion of the “health and wealth” ministers that are so prevalent today. At least one reader chastised me and said I was way off base. That reader and others need to see

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Resurrecting 500 Tennessee Baptist Churches

By Randy C. Davis TBC Executive Director To say Litz Manor Baptist Church was on life support is an understatement. The reality was its slow death was only delaying being moved from the category of once-thriving congregations to just another statistic of churches that closed its doors. You’ve seen those churches. They are now community theatres, coffee shops, town hall meeting places …or bars. But God wasn’t done with Litz

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Change — Not So Bad After All

By Lonnie Wilkey Editor, Baptist and Reflector Change. For many people this “five-letter” word may as well be a “four-letter” (curse) word. Most people detest change. I admit that while I am not necessarily anti-change, I am usually not out in front leading the change band-wagon. Change is hard for most individuals and even churches because we get comfortable with what we are doing. The only problem with getting comfortable

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It’s Okay to Brag (on What God Does)

By Lonnie Wilkey Editor, Baptist and Reflector Dizzy Dean, a baseball great who pitched for the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1930s, was known for his wit as well as his pitching. He once said, “It ain’t bragging if you can do it.” Bragging is bragging, but of course it does help when you can back up your talk with actions and Dizzy Dean could do that.

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So, Why 50,000 Baptisms?

By Randy C. Davis TBC Executive Director I never tire of seeing people baptized. Every one of them tells a unique story of God’s grace at work in the lives of individuals. One I remember is Charlie Tanner. I led Charlie to the Lord in his living room almost 35 years ago. He came out of a Mormon sect in which most of his family was strongly entrenched. I felt

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How Well Are You Running the Race?

By Chris Turner Director of Communications, TBC Ten years worth of stellar performance reviews. You gave yourself to your job and your company. Needed somebody to work overtime? You were there. Last second projects that needed doing? You were all over it. Deadlines? You ate lunch at your desk to ensure you met them. Employee of the month? Yep, multiple times. In fact, your boss singled you out as the

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TBC Giving Below Budget for Year

By Baptist and Reflector BRENTWOOD — Tennessee Baptist Convention churches gave $2,421,683 through the Cooperative Program in August. For the year-to-date, Tennessee Baptists have given

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