The Nashville Baptist Association celebrated 120 years serving Middle Tennessee in 2020. As part of that celebration, a committee compiled a book of the recent history of the association.
This book, A Forest of Oaks By the River and Beyond, serves as a follow-up to 1971’s Acorns to Oaks, to tell the story of Southern Baptists in the Nashville area from 1970 to 2020. Topics include challenges the NBA faced in that time and how it progressed, the growth of both ethnic and African-American churches, the NBA’s WMU, and how the Association and its individual churches have grown.
Members of the history committee that put this book together are Dr. Charles Parker, Dr. Sam Creed, Cynthia Scott, and Ray Clubb. NBA staff Alyssa Riekeman, Dwayne Lewis, and Rusty Sumrall also contributed chapters.
On March 15, NBA Executive Director Rusty Sumrall presented A Forest of Oaks By the River and Beyond to the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives, represented by director Taffey Hall and former director Bill Sumners.
A Forest of Oaks By the River and Beyond is available for purchase from nashvillebaptists.com on the A Forest of Oaks page.