‘Barbershop conversation’ focuses on steps needed for racial equality By David Dawson Baptist and Reflector [email protected] MURFREESBORO — Among the many powerful moments of the 2020 Virtual Summit was the “barbershop conversation” with Grant Gaines and Ternae Jordan. The two pastors got together to discuss the topic of racial justice, and how the Bible promotes and defines it. Gaines, pastor of Belle Aire Baptist Church, Murfreesboro, and Jordan, pastor of

By David Dawson [email protected] BENTON — Pastor Benny Thomas said he recently began to sense that the Lord was leading him to make a decision that he wasn’t so sure he wanted to make. After 54 years in the ministry, much of which was served as a bivocational pastor, Thomas decided — somewhat reluctantly — that it was time to retire. “I finally hung it up,” said Thomas in his

Baptist and Reflector MOUNT JULIET — Most people were expecting one of this year’s hurricanes to be the 250th disaster relief response for Tennessee Baptists since their first response in 1978. Instead, it will be a response to damages caused by the recent ice storm in Oklahoma. “We thought Hurricane Zeta would be response No. 250, however, to this date no states have asked for assistance,” Wes Jones, disaster relief

By Lonnie Wilkey Editor, Baptist and Reflector [email protected] BLAINE — Attendance at Mouth of Richland Baptist Church in Blaine, one of the oldest churches in the Tennessee Baptist Convention and in Grainger County, had dwindled to under 20 people in the summer of 2018 and the congregation was searching for a pastor. Meanwhile, Nick Wright and Brad Bales, two ministers and lifelong friends, were looking for a new place of

Two-year-old church plant now planting a church of its own By Lonnie Wilkey Editor, Baptist and Reflector [email protected] CLARKSVILLE — Barely two years old, Real Life Church in Clarksville, or Real Life Sango as it is known locally, is not the typical new church. The church was born out of the prayers of a great many people, both in and outside of Montgomery County and not all of them were