‘I could write a book about what God’s done,’ says Tennessee pastor after Helene
LIMESTONE, Tenn. – Craig Ponder’s first impression of the ATV four-wheeler gang congregating in the church’s parking lot was not good.
Tennessee Baptist DR responding to Helene’s impact
NEWPORT, Tenn. -- Eastern Tennessee experienced significant and widespread damage Friday afternoon due to torrential rains and high winds from Hurricane Helene.
FIRST-PERSON: We gotta talk to each other
Sam pointed across the road to the spot about 50 yards away where he first heard the distinctive “pop” of tear gas canisters fired at the long line of marchers descending from the Edmund Pettus Bridge. The group of 600 stretched from downtown Selma and over the Alabama River. It was the beginning of the 51-mile journey to the state capital in Montgomery to demand long-denied voting rights. Sam was 11 years old and trailing some distance behind his older brother when he saw him running from the consuming mist.
FIRST-PERSON:Will social media kill your Gospel witness?
FRANLKIN, Tenn. (BP) -- The growth of a person’s character and Gospel witness is like that of an oak. You really don’t see a lot of movement from one year to the next, but over time you see a sapling mature into a majestic tree.
Tennessee lawmakers pass pro-life bill in session’s final hours
NASHVILLE (BP) -- On the last day of the Tennessee General Assembly legislative session, a sweeping pro-life bill went from near extinction to becoming law. House Bill 2263 was passed late Thursday night June 18 and the companion Senate Bill 2196 was passed just after midnight Friday morning. The votes in both chambers were by landslide margins and Gov. Bill Lee has promised to sign it once it arrives on his desk. The bill closely resembles pro-life legislation Lee proposed in January, legislation many thought had been derailed in this session by the COVID-19 pandemic. A late surge to close out the legislative session brought the bill from a figurative scrap heap to passage before legislators were scheduled to adjourn for the year.
Porn use & teens
NASHVILLE (BP) -- The number of searches for Internet pornography exponentially increases every second. If the rapidly changing online "porn ticker" represented increasing stock value, there would be thousands -- possibly millions -- of overnight millionaires. Instead, the ticker reveals an insatiable appetite for sexually explicit content, and a high percentage of those searching are teenagers. There have been nearly 2.5 billion searches for pornography since the beginning of 2015, according to Covenant Eyes, a company that specializes in Internet accountability and ...
Could Bible become official state book of Tenn.?
NASHVILLE (BP) -- The State of Tennessee has 20 categories of state symbols, including official insects, birds, fossils, horses, rocks, songs, and even tartan. Two Tennessee lawmakers would like to add books as a category, and make the Bible Tennessee's official book.
Control Issues Head List for Pastoral Terminations
Hundreds of Southern Baptist pastors and staff ministers will be terminated this year, according to recently compiled reports, with fulltime pastors more than twice as likely to be fired as bivocational pastors. Control Issues—“who’s going to run the church”—topped the list of reasons for termination. The issue of control, cited in 209 instances […]
UNENGAGED, UNREACHED PEOPLE GROUP (UUPG)
We must change our perspective on how “missions” is done in order effectively to reach the world with the Gospel, according to David Sills, associate dean of Christian missions at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and a former IMB missionary to Ecuador. Full-time overseas missionaries by themselves will never disciple […]
