SBC 2025: SWEET TIME FOR TENNESSEE BAPTISTS

By: Baptist and Reflector

The family of Brady Wood and his wife Chelsea, from Pleasant Grove Baptist in Hixson, pick out a dessert during Monday night’s fellowship in Dallas.

DALLAS — With smiles on their faces and sweets on their plates, Tennessee Baptists gathered for a dessert fellowship on Monday night in Dallas. 

The event, hosted by the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, serves as a “family reunion” (in the words of TBMB president and executive director Randy C. Davis) for Tennessee Baptists who are attending the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting. 

This year’s gathering was once again well attended, as the SBC messengers from Tennessee filled one of the ballrooms of the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center — the host site for this year’s annual meeting.

Tennessee Baptists pack the room during Monday’s gathering in a banquet room at the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center — the host site for this year’s annual meeting.

The dessert fellowship took place just as the SBC Pastors’ Conference was completing its second and final day. 

Davis offered a word of welcome to the attendees at Monday’s event. He also provided an update on the TBC’s international partnership with Bonn Bible Seminary in Germany, and he was joined on stage by Heinrich Derksen, president of Bonn Bible Seminary.

Last November, Tennessee Baptist Convention messengers approved a new international partnership with Bonn Bible Seminary to begin Jan. 1, 2026 after using 2025 as a planning year.

Bruce Chesser, pastor of First Baptist Church, Hendersonville, (at podium) and Randy C. Davis, president and executive director of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, middle, are joined on stage by Heinrich Derksen, president of Bonn Bible Seminary in Germany, during Monday’s Tennessee Baptist Dessert Fellowship in Dallas.

The seminary was founded in 1993 with a goal “to be a dynamic training center for both volunteers and full-time employees in churches and missions.”

The business sessions of the annual meeting start on Tuesday morning. Check back here for breaking news and updates throughout the next few days.

Coverage of the annual meeting can also be found in the June 25 print edition of the Baptist and Reflector. B&R