By Randy C. Davis TBMB President & Executive Director Normal is good. I’m a fan of normal. I recently found normal in Howell, about an hour and 15-minute drive straight south from our house in Nolensville. The weather was nearly perfect for an early morning drive with my bride, Jeanne, and we wound our way along country roads through the beautiful rolling hills of Middle Tennessee. Howell is a small
By Scott Brown Pastor, First Baptist Church, Waverly “A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones” (Proverbs 17:22). I recently had my picture done for our church directory and a church member noticed something about my picture that shocked her so badly we had to do a retake immediately. No, it wasn’t something stuck in my teeth, nor was it my quickly budding second chin.
By Johnnie Godwin Contributing Columnist, B&R Several years ago, I had a barber who gave great haircuts. She had been a professional model and still looked like one — despite reaching early middle age. She and I and our families belonged to the same church. With my being a preacher-type, she almost always greeted me at each haircut with a theological question. A minor problem was that my hair got
Editor’s Note: One of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board’s five core objectives is to see at least 500 churches revitalized by the year 2024. Because renewed worship fuels revitalized churches, Scott Shepherd’s passion is to help the local church deepen its understanding and practice of worship. With this goal in mind, he has written a series of articles entitled “Keys to Worship Renewal” which will be printed in upcoming issues
By Lonnie Wilkey Editor, Baptist and Reflector Tennessee Baptists are once again living up to their reputation as residents of the Volunteer state. Since January, Tennessee Baptists have been hard at work on the tiny island of Dominica in the Caribbean. And, let’s be clear. Dominica is not the Dominican Republic. They are easy to confuse because of the similarity in name. Last September, Hurricane Maria slammed Dominica hard. It
By Randy C. Davis TBMB President & Executive Director I’m amazed at what God is doing across Tennessee through His people and through the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board. In Dandridge, 15 more boys were recently saved, baptized, and set on the road to discipleship at a detention facility. These precious younger brothers in Christ add to the harvest of more than 100 new believers who have come to Jesus over
By Johnnie Godwin Contributing Columnist, Baptist and Reflector When I was about to graduate from seminary, I was drinking coffee with a new friend named Leroy Benefield. He was a missionary to the Philippines but on stateside for a year. Besides coffee, we shared a missions class.
By David Leavell President, Tennessee Baptist Convention & Alan Quigley Mobilization Team Leader, Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma Last year, the North American Mission Board (NAMB) publicly announced that 29 percent of Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) churches reported no baptisms, and 47 percent reported two or less. In the SBC 2017 Book of Reports, NAMB reported that baptisms had fallen to 295,000 in 2016, which is the first time the
By Steve Gaines President, Southern Baptist Convention As I walked into the hospital, I looked on a visitation card at the name of the man who had requested that I visit him. He was dying of cancer and wanted me to come and pray with him. I was honored to do so.
By Lonnie Wilkey Editor, Baptist and Reflector In January of 2010 I wrote a column for Sanctity of Human Life Sunday about my mother Ruth. I shared how she gave birth to me out of wedlock when she possibly could have had an abortion. Remember that in the late 1950s there was a stigma towards women who had babies outside marriage. Abortion was never an option for her. She gave
By Randy C. Davis TBMB President & Executive Director Normal is good. I’m a fan of normal. I recently found normal in Howell, about an
By Scott Brown Pastor, First Baptist Church, Waverly “A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones” (Proverbs 17:22). I recently
By Johnnie Godwin Contributing Columnist, B&R Several years ago, I had a barber who gave great haircuts. She had been a professional model and still
Editor’s Note: One of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board’s five core objectives is to see at least 500 churches revitalized by the year 2024. Because
By Lonnie Wilkey Editor, Baptist and Reflector Tennessee Baptists are once again living up to their reputation as residents of the Volunteer state. Since January,
By Randy C. Davis TBMB President & Executive Director I’m amazed at what God is doing across Tennessee through His people and through the Tennessee
By Johnnie Godwin Contributing Columnist, Baptist and Reflector When I was about to graduate from seminary, I was drinking coffee with a new friend named
By David Leavell President, Tennessee Baptist Convention & Alan Quigley Mobilization Team Leader, Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma Last year, the North American Mission Board
By Steve Gaines President, Southern Baptist Convention As I walked into the hospital, I looked on a visitation card at the name of the man
By Lonnie Wilkey Editor, Baptist and Reflector In January of 2010 I wrote a column for Sanctity of Human Life Sunday about my mother Ruth.