I’ve returned from Brentwood where I attended the meeting of the Historical Committee of the Tennessee Baptist Convention.  It was a great meeting and while I was there I wandered around the Convention building and snapped some photos.  The Convention will be relocating, in the next few years, to its new location in new facilities.  So these photos will themselves one day be ‘historical’.   As always, click to enlarge.

My room

The Convention Outside and In

And the Ladies who Really are in Charge!

Our Committee Chairman (who rotated off this year)

The Editor of the Baptist & Reflector, Lonnie Wilkey

The office of the WMU

Ethics Daily is reporting

Jehovah’s Witnesses are the fastest-growing church body in the U.S. and Canada, now with more than 1 million members, according to new figures that track church membership in the U.S. and Canada. Although Jehovah’s Witnesses ranked 24th on the list of 25 largest churches, they reported the largest growth rate–2.25 percent–of all churches. The badly divided Episcopal Church, meanwhile, reported the largest drop, at 4.15 percent.

And

The Roman Catholic Church, with 67.5 million members, remains the largest U.S. church body, with a 2006 increase of 0.87 percent. The second largest church, the Southern Baptist Convention (16.3 million) has more than twice the number of members as the United Methodist Church, the third largest, which documented 7.9 million U.S. members.

And

Only the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Catholic Church, Southern Baptists, Mormons, the Assemblies of God (2.8 million) and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (1.4 million) reported increases; all others either posted declines or flat membership from 2005.

Christianity in America is in serious trouble. It will soon resemble European Christianity, which is to say- marginalized and irrelevant.

Our boys played a remarkable game- forcing it into overtime even after having been behind for a good part of the second half.  Unfortunately, they weren’t able to pull out the win.  Still, we are awfully proud of them and would remind them that 2nd in the entire State in their division is remarkable indeed and further than any team from the school before them has gone.  So heads high!  Here are some photos from the game.  Click to enlarge.

Relaxing before the game

Warmup

Tipoff

The Award Ceremony Team Photo

Congratulations again, boys, for an excellent season.

Read the President of Union University’s latest public statement- issued yesterday- here.  If you haven’t contributed to the recovery fund you can still do so.

The boys team from P-J won their game last night, which means they play today at 4:15 at Pigeon Forge Middle School for the State Title in their division.  Congratulations, boys!

I mention this because in our media saturated generation it’s too easy to push off onto the back burner issues of importance. The Tennessee Baptist Convention state paper, the Baptist and Reflector, has a series of essays concerning the situation at Union and the overwhelming response the community has received. If you are so inclined, give them a read.

The following Churches in our Association are now without Pastors:

Cardiff
Central
Chapman Grove
Clymersville
Coal Hill
Dyllis
Kingston First
Laurel Bluff
Middle Creek
Orchard View
South Harriman
Union
Wartburg First
Westel

There are still four young people from Union U. in the hospital- Kevin F., Jason K., David and Cheryl. (I’ve not given their full names for the sake of privacy). One of the students affected by the storm, as I mentioned the other day, is one of our own Morgan Countians- Andrew G. Andrew will be returning to campus today or tomorrow to help with cleanup. In his own words,

I saved my guitar, mandolin, a quilt, and a tent. That’s it.

Do pray for Andrew and the others affected.

The Tennessee Baptist Convention is looking for people who want to pray.  Visit this webpage and sign up if you’re so inclined.

Go here- scroll down a little till, on the left, you find ‘Multimedia’ and ‘Funny Church Signs’.  The oddest is the 5th one, which has nothing to do with anything Church related.  The 7th one is not really very appropriate- for if it really were broken the message wouldn’t be up.  I like the 9th one.  And the 10th is pretty funny too.  The 11th is bad!  The 12th is horrible.  And the 13th photo (not exactly a Church sign) is priceless.