Tennessee Baptist directors seek to reallocate funds from national CP to IMB
NASHVILLE (BP) – Tennessee Baptist Mission Board directors will recommend a Cooperative Program Allocation budget goal of $35 million for the sixth consecutive year.
Tennessee pastor’s experience leads to pastoral residency program
SPRINGFIELD, Tenn. (BP) – Soon after Steve Freeman accepted his first pastorate more than 20 years ago at Slayden Baptist Church in Cumberland Furnace, Tenn., he realized after a few months that he was in over his head, he recalled.
Tennessee church building destroyed by fire, hope remains
TAZEWELL, Tenn. (BP) — In the early evening hours of June 1, word began spreading among members of Springdale Baptist Church that their building was on fire.
Pastor, sons use hobby to provide guitars for missionaries
JACKSON, TN. (BP) — Pastor Greg Gilbreath of Madison Baptist Church has always enjoyed both playing and repairing his own guitars.
COVID-19 gives 70-year-old church new life
MADISON, Tenn. (BP) -- Like most every church in Tennessee, Madison Heights Baptist Church in Madison had to learn to adjust to the unique challenges of COVID-19.
God uses dog’s barking to save pastor, family
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (BP) -- For the first time in his life, Darrin Crockett is glad God did not answer his prayer. On Monday night, March 2, Crockett and his family went to bed as always. Their dog Doc, however, barked incessantly throughout the night. Crockett remembers asking God "to make that dog quit barking."
Carson-Newman elects Charles Fowler as president
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. (BP) -- Tennessee Baptist pastor Charles A. Fowler has been elected as the 23rd president of Carson-Newman University in Jefferson City, Tenn. Fowler, the unanimous choice of both the C-N presidential search committee and of the board of trustees on June 7, was introduced as president on June 10 during a news conference on the C-N campus. He succeeds Randall O'Brien who retired in 2018 after a decade as C-N president.
‘WinTN’ messages undergird Tennessee annual meeting
JACKSON, Tenn. (BP) -- Tennessee Baptists gathered at West Jackson Baptist Church for the annual Summit with a focus on winning their state for Jesus Christ. The meeting, held Nov. 11-14, drew 929 registered messengers from 409 churches, along with 160 guests. Among the business conducted, messengers elected a new set of officers by acclamation for the coming year. “We had a strong turnout,” said Randy C. Davis president and executive director of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board. “But it wasn’t just the numbers. There was a strong sense of unity among the messengers. I believe Tennessee Baptists are recognizing that if we are to reach Tennessee for Christ we must do it together.”
FIRST-PERSON: Lessons from a cave rescue
Similar to the life-and-death crisis of the Thai soccer team trapped in a cave, Lonnie Wilkey sees a parallel to Christians in sharing their faith with the world's unreached millions.
Church with a woman pastor declined by Tenn. conv.
HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. (BP) -- Messengers to the Tennessee Baptist Convention annual meeting voted overwhelmingly not to seat messengers from First Baptist Church in Jefferson City, which has a woman as pastor, during the TBC's opening session Nov. 14. First Baptist attempted to register seven messengers, including new pastor Ellen Di Giosia, who has been in the position since Aug. 1. In mid-October, the TBC's Committee on Credentials met and agreed that a church with a woman pastor does not fit the definition of a "cooperating church" as defined by convention bylaws. The committee based its decision on Article VI of the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 declaring that "the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture."
