BARRON RETURNS TO LEAD BLENDED CONGREGATION
By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
lwilkey@tnbaptist.org
Lisa and Ridley Barron
FRANKLIN — In early 2004, life was going great for Ridley Barron, former youth minister at Forest Hills Baptist Church in Nashville. Four years earlier he moved to Douglas, Ga., to plant a new church in the southeast portion of the state, and the church was taking root.
On Good Friday of 2004, Barron's world was rocked forever. A tragic car accident took the life of his wife Sarah Ellen. His 17-month-old son survived the accident but died following a hospital-induced medication error, leaving Barron with two young children. [Read more…]
Filed Under: News, Tennessee Tagged With: church revitalization, new churches
MATCH ORCHESTRATED BY GOD
CHAPEL HILL — Chapel Hill Community Baptist Church was a congregation seeking its identity and without a pastor. The Church at College Grove was a new church plant with a pastor looking for a place to meet.
The two congregations came together in a way that only God could orchestrate. [Read more…]
HAMPTON RETURNS 'HOME' TO PLANT CHURCH
Pastor Cal Hampton, center, is joined by two of his leaders at Second Mile Church in Clarksville — Shan Smith, left, and Mike Rainey. The church had its first service on South Riverside Drive on March 25 with 137 people in attendance. In a few months, attendance is approaching 200 each week.
CLARKSVILLE — Cal Hampton has come full circle.
He moved with his family to Clarksville at the age of 5 and was reared there. He stayed in the military town and attended Austin Peay State University. While at Austin Peay, he worked in a restaurant not far from the Austin Peay campus.
After being called into the ministry, Hampton left Clarksville and a successful hotel business when he was 37 years old to attend Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. After graduation, he was called as pastor of Green River Baptist Church in Waynesboro, where he served for nearly 20 years. [Read more…]
Filed Under: Featured, News, Tennessee Tagged With: new churches
CHURCH GIVES PROPERTY, LAND FOR REPLANT
Pastor Eliab Saenz signs paperwork giving property from South Gate Baptist Church, Nashville, to Iglesia Bautista Renacer.
NASHVILLE — South Gate Baptist Church in Nashville has given its building and 11 acres, valued at $750,000, to Iglesia Bautista Renacer.
The signing of paperwork on Jan. 7 marked the celebration and culmination of months of study and prayer by members of South Gate, according to Rusty Sumrall, director of missions for Nashville Baptist Association
Sumrall said that South Gate began looking into revitalization in the spring of 2017. After studying five different options for the future, the congregation entered into a time of prayer, he recalled. [Read more…]
Filed Under: Featured, News, Tennessee Tagged With: ethnic, new churches
'ROLLING' RIGHT ALONG
The dates that helped shape Rolling Hills Community Church
Fall of 2002: God leads Jeff Simmons and a few others to plant what is now "Rolling Hills Community Church." It begins with a core team of 15 people gathering in the Alara Farms apartment clubhouse on Thursday nights (photo on right). During this time, the church develops its philosophies and begins its dedication to missions by sending a team of 18 people to Moldova. [Read more…]
Filed Under: News, Tennessee Tagged With: new churches
BUILT ON FAITHFULNESS, MIRACLES
Thriving now, Rolling Hills Community Church started as small church plant
Before moving to its new building, Rolling Hills Community Church met at the Marriott in Cool Springs — and pastor Jeff Simmons baptized new believers in the indoor swimming pool.
FRANKLIN — Jeff Simmons wasn't so sure he wanted to start a church. He wasn't convinced that people would come, and he wasn't certain the church would ever get off the ground.
Then God brought something to his heart that completely changed his perspective.
"God reminded me that he hasn't called us to be successful," said Simmons. "He has called us to be faithful." [Read more…]
TBMB DIRECTORS ADOPT RECOMMENDATIONS
Mike Kemper, center, interim pastor of Smyrna Baptist Church, Humboldt, was elected chair-elect of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board. With him are current chair Mike Sams, right, pastor of First Baptist Church, Martin, and Cal Hampton, senior associate pastor of preaching and evangelism at First Baptist Church, Clarksville, who will serve as chair in 2018 following The Summit in Hendersonville.
FRANKLIN — The board of directors of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board have approved expanding the definition of a cooperating Baptist church to include those churches that give through the Tennessee Baptist Convention portion of the Cooperative Program budget without restriction or designation.
The action was one of several recommendations adopted by the TBMB directors during their meeting Sept. 12 in Franklin. [Read more…]
Filed Under: Featured, News, Tennessee Tagged With: Adult Homes, Carson-Newman University, Children's Homes, Conference Centers, Cooperative Program, Foundation, Harrison-Chilhowee Baptist Academy, IMB, money, NAMB, new churches, partnerships
MEMPHIS NATIVE PLANTS LIFE IN DENVER
Editor's Note: You can listen to Chris Phillips discuss church planting in Denver during Episode 12 of Radio B&R, the official news podcast of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board. That podcast can be found here.
PHOENIX — After spending his entire life in Tennessee, most of it in Memphis where he was born and raised, Chris Phillips is adjusting to life as a church planter in Denver.
Phillips also is learning firsthand what it's like to come from a church (Bellevue Baptist in Cordova) with plenty of resources to a new church (Journey Point Fellowship) where he and his family are the only resources. [Read more…]
Filed Under: News, Tennessee Tagged With: missions, new churches, partnerships
CHURCH RELOCATION A DISPLAY OF GOD AT WORK
Jamie Mosley
HENDERSONVILLE — Jamie Mosley, the lead pastor at Redeemer Church in Hendersonville, is suddenly having a hard time counting his blessings. There are just too many for him to number.
With generosity and grace serving as the prevalent themes, Mosley has seen a remarkable story develop with his church — and the details have left Mosley feeling overwhelmed with excitement and optimism.
Mosley's church, which had been holding worship gatherings at the YMCA since being planted in 2010, has been praying about relocating for the past two years. And the church received a thunderous answer to that prayer when Grace Christian Church, which was closing its doors, decided to give its building assets to Redeemer Church — lock, stock, and barrel. [Read more…]
EZELL: SBC NEEDS A 'GOSPEL CONVERSATION RESURGENCE'
Baptist Press
North American Mission Board President Kevin Ezell delivers the NAMB report June 14 on the last day of the two-day Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting at the Phoenix Convention Center. He reported 732 new churches were planted and 232 existing churches began cooperating with the SBC in 2016.
-Photo by Matt Jones
PHOENIX (BP) — Pledging "NAMB will do its part," North American Mission Board President Kevin Ezell said the SBC needs a "Gospel Conversation Resurgence" if declining baptism numbers are to turn around.
"If one member from each of our 47,000 churches shares the Gospel each day, it would result in over 17 million Gospel conversations in a year," Ezell told messengers at the 2017 Southern Baptist Convention in Phoenix. "Can you imagine what would happen if Southern Baptists had that many Gospel conversations?"
Ezell shared how the Send Conference, co-presented by NAMB and the International Mission Board, challenges and equips believers to be on mission to share Jesus in everyday life. More than 8,000 have attended the conferences this year with another scheduled for late July in Orlando, Fla.
In addition, NAMB's Three Circles Life Conversation Guide has more than 2 million copies in circulation and the phone app has been downloaded more than 93,000 times.
Shifting to how NAMB missionaries are evangelizing North America, Ezell shared that Dan Coleman, church planting missionary in Augusta, Maine, has averaged 100 baptisms annually since his church was planted. La Chapelle, a church plant in Montreal, has baptized more than 450. And near Phoenix, Heart Cry Gathering has baptized 27 since its launch last year with 14 of those coming from Mormon backgrounds.
"Church planting is evangelism," Ezell said. Citing an analysis of the SBC's Annual Church Profile (ACP) from 2015, Ezell said church plants baptize a new believer for every 10 worship attendees. That's 74 percent better than in established churches, where the ratio is one baptism for every 17.4 worship attendees.
In 2016, Ezell said Southern Baptists started 732 new churches in North America with 232 new affiliations for a total of 964 new congregations.
"We need to be planting more," he said. "But our biggest challenge is finding workers for the harvest field."
Still, the impact of new churches in areas outside the South has been significant, even in a relatively short amount of time.
Ezell shared that churches planted since 2010 accounted for more that 25 percent or more of all baptisms in the Maryland-Delaware, Northwest and New York state Baptist conventions, according to an analysis of 2015 ACP data. New England and Alaska conventions saw 42 percent of all baptisms from church plants. And in Canada, 62 percent of all reported baptisms came from churches started since 2010.
"Your missionaries are reaching people for Christ," Ezell said. "More Gospel congregations will lead to more Gospel conversations."
Church plants are also growing the SBC footprint beyond the South. In several state conventions, churches started since 2010 account for more than 20 percent of all SBC churches. In the Penn-South Jersey, Minnesota-Wisconsin and New York state conventions, 30 percent of all churches were started since 2010. One-third of all SBC churches in the New England convention are post-2010 plants and in Canada, it's 47 percent.
"Southern Baptist work is growing stronger and stronger in these areas because your churches sacrificially send the resources," Ezell told SBC messengers.
In closing, Ezell thanked Southern Baptists for giving the second highest amount ever to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions last year.
"We exist to serve pastors and churches," he said. "You are the missionary-sending centers. You are the church planting centers."
Filed Under: News, SBC Tagged With: baptisms, evangelism, IMB, NAMB, new churches, SBC annual meeting