Tennessee Baptists celebrate 150 years
By Baptist and Reflector Staff
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Tennessee Baptists celebrated their 150th anniversary Nov. 11-12 in a meeting that kicked off with an International Mission Board (IMB) Sending Celebration. Messengers adopted a new budget plan, elected officers and overwhelmingly approved a new initiative that outlines the future of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board (TBMB). Registered messengers totaled 836 from 468 churches.
Jay Hardwick, senior pastor of Forest Hills Baptist Church, Nashville, was re-elected without opposition for a second term as president of the Tennessee Baptist Convention. Joining him as officers are Justin Hiens, pastor of Second Baptist Church, Union City, vice president; and Mike Hensley, director of missions for East Tennessee Baptist Association, second vice president. Both men were unopposed for office.
During the opening session of the convention on Nov. 11, the Budget and Ministry Committee proposed a $35 million budget with a CP allocation budget of 55% for TBC causes, 40% for SBC causes and 5% directly to the International Mission Board. The proposal came out of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board directors’ September meeting.
Steve Freeman, pastor of Grace Baptist Church, Springfield, moved that the 5% for the IMB be eliminated and proposed a distribution of 55% to the TBC and 45% to the SBC. For the past four years, Tennessee Baptists have forwarded 47.5% of undesignated receipts to national and international SBC ministry. The budget of $35 million is unchanged from last year.
The motion was referred to TBMB for assignment to the Budget and Ministry Committee for analysis and reported to the convention on Tuesday for discussion and vote. Daniel Jerkins, chairman of the committee and pastor of Hickory Withe First Baptist Church, Eads, said the committee was OK with either plan and would let the messengers decide.
After extended discussion and debate, a ballot vote was taken and the amendment passed with 52.4% of the vote.
Acts 2:17 Initiative
With a near-unanimous showing, messengers approved the Acts 2:17 Initiative Report as the “foundational blueprint for Convention ministry for the foreseeable future.”
The report — which included the complete report of the Steering Team and Workgroups, the executive Summary of Steering Team and Workgroups and the plan of implementation — was overwhelmingly approved, with only two dissenting votes.
“We are ready to pour everything we’ve got into (the initiative) in order to assist and serve our churches,” said Randy C. Davis, president and executive director of the TBMB.
TBC president Jay Hardwick, senior pastor of Forest Hills, served as chair for the Acts 2:17 Vision Team, and outlined the report for messengers prior to Tuesday’s vote.
The parameters of the Initiative, as detailed in the report, were developed through a series of listening sessions, surveys, workgroups and other forums that took place since the Initiative was introduced to messengers for the first time at the 2022 Summit.
The overarching structure of the Initiative, including its order of priorities and early-stage implementation plan, was approved by directors of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board on Tuesday, Sept. 10. That approval set the stage for Tuesday’s vote, where messengers made it clear that they were ready to move forward with the plan.
Hardwick said evangelism is at the heart of every aspect of the initiative.
“We want to see our churches taking the Great Commission seriously because they are taking the Great Commission personally,” he said. “We want to strengthen disciples from every generation.”
Find complete coverage of the TBC meeting at BaptistandReflector.org.
S.C. messengers encouraged to share gospel ‘till all have heard’
By Baptist Courier Staff
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Meeting at First Baptist Church of Columbia Nov. 11-12, messengers to the 204th annual meeting of the South Carolina Baptist Convention elected an Irmo pastor to serve as president-elect, adopted a $26.5 million Cooperative Program Ministry Plan, and approved six resolutions.
With “Till All Have Heard” as their theme, the 774 registered messengers heard challenges from convention President Wes Church, pastor of First Baptist Columbia; J.J. Washington, national director of Personal Evangelism at the North American Mission Board (NAMB); and Bryant Wright, president of Send Relief, Southern Baptists’ global compassion ministry.
Officers
Elected to serve by acclamation as convention officers were: President-elect Ryan Pack, pastor of Riverland Hills Baptist Church in Irmo; Vice President Mark Bishop, pastor of First Baptist Church, Landrum; and Registration Secretary Randy Jackson, executive and college pastor of Northwood Baptist Church in North Charleston.
Pack will preside at the 2026 annual meeting. Chuck Sprouse, pastor of First Baptist Church of Ninety Six, will preside as president at next year’s annual meeting.
In announcing the theme “Celebrate!” for the 2025 annual meeting, Sprouse said, “We will celebrate what God has called us to do together, and I pray that we will have much to celebrate.” Next year will be the 100th anniversary celebration of Southern Baptists’ Cooperative Program.
Budget
The 2025 budget goal — unchanged from the previous year — will allocate 25.16%, or $6,667,400, for international missions and 20.34%, or $5,390,100, to North American missions, theological education, and other Southern Baptist causes. The state convention will retain 54.5%, or $14,442,500, for state missions work, its three universities, and its other five ministry partners.
Along with approving the 2025 budget, messengers heard from the leaders of the SCBaptist Share, Serve, Send, Start, Strong and Shepherd teams and from the presidents of its various ministry partners. They also approved the recommendations of the convention’s Nominations Committee and Committee on Committees for service on entity boards and committees.
Resolutions
In addition to expressing appreciation to the host church, messengers adopted five resolutions:
- Celebrating South Carolina Disaster Relief
- Celebrating the centennial of the Cooperative Program
- Expressing appreciation for Christian-based drug rehabilitation
- Encouraging laws to protect parental rights
- Upholding God’s design for the family
Give+Go Introduced
In his report to convention messengers, Executive Director-Treasurer Tony Wolfe introduced the “Give+Go” initiative, a holistic challenge for SCBaptists to increase their Cooperative Program investment and evangelistic engagement in 2025. The two-fold strategy to boost evangelism and CP investment will offer resources, events, videos, and curriculum to equip SCBaptists in sharing the gospel.
“SCBaptists are giving it all we’ve got in 2025,” Wolfe said. “We’re giving, and we’re going like never before.
“SCBaptists are a generous people,” he added. “I believe that every resource we need to accomplish the mission that God has entrusted to us is already ours in Christ Jesus.”
Next year’s meeting will be Nov. 10-11 at Taylors First Baptist Church.
