Mid-South Viewpoint // Bott Radio Network

William Carey sparked the modern missionary movement when he set sail for the shores of India in 1793. Today’s India is very different from Carey’s time. India’s diverse cultures, languages, and people groups (122 major languages and 1,599 functional languages!). With a population of 1.2 billion, India is the world’s largest democracy. Ed Raju from Serve India Ministries describes his life growing up in India and the challenges he faces today serving and supporting local pastors and presenting Christ in such diverse and resistant cultures.

Dr. Hunter Townsend Brewer of Trinity Church in Collierville, TN discusses his ministry leading into planting churches, challenges through initial outbreak of Covid, the demanding work and pressure associated with planting a church, and meeting at a temporary location while building growth. In the spring of 2019, several families in Collierville/Germantown began meeting on Sunday evenings with the vision of starting a new church, now called Trinity Church that meets at the Collierville YMCA.

Jan Hamilton, Programs Director of Delta Fair & Music Festival, provides details on this year’s Crafts, Culinary & Collectibles Competition. From children to seniors, you could be the next blue-ribbon winner!

Frank Sindler, Executive Director of Equipping Farmers International, a ministry that engages communities in agricultural discipleship for food security and improved livelihoods.

Clint Greene founder of Native American Indigenousness Ministry discusses life leading to the start of his work among indigenousness peoples across North America, as well as some of the challenges faced trying to reach them with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Clint grew up on a reserve in Canada before his parents moved to New York State. A major thrust behind Clint’s mission is to support Native American churches and find indigenousness pastors to shepherd these congregations, most of which are located on reservations.

David Jordan, President, and CEO Agape Child & Family Services discusses the upcoming Global Leadership Summit AUG 3-4 and the ongoing work of Agape to address poverty through community-based wrap-around services to lift and strengthen families.

Lynne Rienstra, Regional Director for Samaritan's Purse and serves alongside her husband, Rob, senior pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Covington, Georgia. Samaritan's Purse stands ready to respond at a moment’s notice whenever and wherever disaster strikes. They specialize in meeting critical needs for victims of conflict, disaster, famine, and epidemics throughout the world, often working through ministry partners on the ground. They provide food, water, shelter, medicine, and other assistance in the Name of Jesus Christ. This show was recorded live from the 2023 PCA Convention at the Renasant Convention Center- Downtown Memphis.

Kenny Vaughn and Soup Campbell share their journey of discipleship. Roy “Soup” Campbell, Kaleo Director with Kids Across America and Kennon Vaughn, lead pastor of Harvest Church Memphis and founder of Downline Ministires. Kennon started Downline Ministries in 2006 to help churches more effectively train their leaders to make disciples. He was commissioned to plant Harvest Church in Memphis in October 2013.

Lori Wildenberg, author of “Messy Hope”, Help Your Child Overcome Anxiety, Depression, or Suicidal Ideation. This show was recorded from the 2023 National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Orlando, Florida.

Nard Pugyao shares how having the Bible changed his entire life. It was 1956 when Wycliffe Bible translator Dick Roe arrived in Nard’s Mountain village of Dibagat in the Philippines. Nard watched Dick learn his language called Isnag and begin to translate the Gospel of Mark. Nard was curious about God, so he began to study the booklet Dick was working on. He learned that when Jesus dies on the cross, He didn’t stay dead; He was risen! Nard was amazed, and he decided he wanted to give his heart to Jesus. It wasn’t long before Nard knew that he wanted to be a part of helping others get the Bible in their own language too. He went into aviation (that’s learning how to fly airplanes) and joined Wycliffe in 1977 — over 20 years after Dick Roe first came to Nard’s village to start translating the Bible! On June 24, 1982, Nard got to fly the first 500 copies of the Isnag New Testament into his home village and give them to his community. This interview originally aired in 2009.

Dr. Mikey Mewborn and Dr. David Allen from Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary discuss the upcoming Adrian Rogers Preaching Conference combined with their Founders’ Day 2023.

William Levi. William, a Messianic believer is the Founder and Overseer of Operation Nehemiah Missions. Their primary goal is to rebuild & restore the Biblical family and the Church in the republic of the South Sudan which is recovering from the ashes of war and Islamic persecution. Produced from the 2023 National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Orlando Florida.

Young adults pastor Ryan Abone from Mission Church shares his insight and Biblical knowledge on the difficult topics such as Bible inerrancy, guidance for Christians when in doubt, and practical instruction on how to speak to others in a world of religious pluralism.

Recorded live at First Assembly Memphis with David Barton, Author and President of WallBuilders. Discover the rich Christian history that makes our nation so extraordinary.

5th Friday Sponsor Spotlight with Michell Shaver, Senior Real Estate Specialists with Crye-Leike, Inc., REALTORS and Anthony Cales, Operations Manager of Lucius Complete Home.

TN Highway Patrol Officer, Jamie Jarrett is our guest. Jamie discovered Bott Radio Network 20 years ago and accredits AM640 for how God has deepened his understanding of scripture. Jamie says, he wants to bring, “a new twist” to law enforcement by witnessing to people and serving God in positive ways.

Lieutenant Commander (LCDR) Francisco Muniz from U.S. Navy Recruit Training Command Chaplain Recruiting. He shares an exciting story how while growing up in Puerto Rico, he listened to Adrian Rogers Love Worth Finding Ministries on the radio that's helped him as a pastor today. LCDR Muniz also provides details for a rewarding career as a military chaplain. This interview is one of multiple interviews conducted at the 2023 PCA (Presbyterian Churches in America Convention) held at the Renasant Convention Center, Downtown Memphis.

James Kirkwood, Director of Memphis Christian Pastors Network and Vanessa Sweet of Breakthrough Leadership discuss ways their organizations are working together to address high crime in our city. They also share ways an Expungement Clinic through local churches is providing means for Memphis residents to get a fresh start by reinstating their driver’s license.

Travis Moody, founder of Forward Memphis, a new non-profit designed to help folks move forward in their financial lives by breaking the entrapment of payday loans. Many payday loans trap you with their high interest rates, from 300%-500% annually.

Coming from the 2023 National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Orlando, Florida with Kimberly Genau, Executive Director, and Founder of Alabaster House. The mission of Alabaster House is to provide spiritual resources to government leaders in our nation’s capital through confidential prayer, biblical devotionals, and friendship.

EpochTV Producer Cindy Drukier shares behind the scenes of “The Unseen Crisis”, a feature-length documentary that provides an intimate, uncensored look into the lives of those who live with the debilitating after-effects of the COVID-19 vaccines. Also, award-winning director, Tobias Elvhage talks about “Gender Transformation: The Untold Realities”, an Epoch Original docudrama examining the complex issues surrounding transgenderism and youth.

Broadcasting from the 2023 National Religious Broadcaster’s Convention in Orlando, FL. Pastor Greg Davis from Treasures of Truth, heard Sundays at 8:30 am on AM640 in Memphis is our guest. Greg Davis is a gifted pastor and Bible teacher known for his ability to communicate fresh insights from God's Word. Greg and his wife, Nancy, have served in ministry together for over thirty years. They grew up together in a very small town in the south and have been sweethearts since the 2nd grade.

Dr. George Murray former President and Chancellor of Columbia International University. Also, Dr. Murray formerly served as executive director for The Evangelical Alliance Mission (TEAM) and serves as general director of Bible Christian Union (BCU), a mission agency which merged with TEAM. In addition to these ministry opportunities, Dr. Murray and his family served as church planters in Italy for 13 years.

Your Vacation isn't just calling—it's begging for you to take it to Branson! On today’s show Byron Tyler and Lynn Berry from ExploreBranson.com welcome, First Class Maid, Jamie and Mary Kellogg from Titanic Museum Attraction. Jamie shares what it was like to be a first-class passenger on the Titanic, passenger Violet Jessop who survived three maritime disasters in her life, and a partnership with Samaritan's Feet International. The show wraps with Mingo Arvizu from Branson Zipline at Wolfe Mountain, offering a variety of exciting adventures including snow tubing, free falling 100 feet, or ziplining through the Ozark Mountains. Discover more about vacationing in Branson at explorebranson.com

Your Vacation isn't just calling—it's begging for you to take it to Branson! On today’s show Byron Tyler and Lynn Berry from ExploreBranson.com welcome, Comedian Yakov Smirnoff, after escaping communist Soviet Union in the 1977, Yakov came to the United States with nothing but a dream. As his English improved, he made a daring move to Hollywood where the owner of The Comedy Store, Mitzi Shore, spotted him and advised him to stay. His lovable view of life through the eyes of a poor immigrant captured the hearts of America. He soared to the top of the comedy world, performing on “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson” and countless other television programs. Pink Jeep Tours Operations Manager, Sheila Baeten. They take you off-road and behind the scenes of some of the most extraordinary landscapes in Branson, Award-winning Producer, Creator of "ALL HANDS ON DECK! Show", Jody Madaras. Jody has worked on stage on the Broadway production, Drowsey Chaperone and he’s creating and directing a new work this fall, “ALL ABOUT RAY CHARLES”. Discover more about vacationing in Branson at explorebranson.com

Your Vacation isn't just calling—it's begging for you to take it to Branson! On today’s show Byron Tyler and Lynn Berry from ExploreBranson.com welcome, New South Quartet, from Grand Country featuring Mark McCauley, David Ragan, Jon Drockelman, and Luke Menard, From the Tony Award winning production, “Million Dollar Quartet”, Matt Joyce who portrays Sam Phillips and Lindsay Perencho who portrays “Dyanne”, Brother and sister, Benjamin and Kaitlyn Hughes from the Hughes Brothers Theatre, share their fresh spin on the music you love with their hit show Re-Vibe. Discover more about vacationing in Branson at explorebranson.com

Your Vacation isn't just calling—it's begging for you to take it to Branson! On today’s show Byron Tyler and Lynn Berry from ExploreBranson.com welcome, Emily Baker from Sight-Sound Theatre about their newest production, Queen Esther, which Emily portrays, Candace Miller from “Once Upon a Fairy Tale”, brings to life all your favorite storybook songs at Americana Theatre, and Branson Mabe from the Baldknobbers. Their show is one of Branson’s oldest, over 64 years ago. Discover more about vacationing in Branson at explorebranson.com

The Battle of the Bulge marked the last German offense on the Western Front. Less than four months after the end of the Battle of the Bulge, Germany surrendered to Allied forces. British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill stated, "This is undoubtedly the greatest American battle of the war and will, I believe, be regarded as an ever-famous American victory." James H. Young, now 97 years old recalls his experience at the Battle of the Bulge with Diane Hight from Forever Young, the organization grants veterans, both men and women wishes and returns them to the places where they once fought. Forever Young Senior Veterans has now honored thousands of veterans since it began honoring those who served.

May is Foster Care Awareness Month, Andrecia Gibbs, Regional Manager at Youth Villages shares their mission to help every child reach their full potential. If you’ve considered becoming a foster parent this show will provide information to help you start the process. Andrecia discusses the need for foster care parents in the Memphis area, the keys to helping 36,000 children with behavioral and emotional challenges and their families each year, and the challenge to find foster homes for teens and sibling groups.

Guest host, Amy Speropoulos, welcomes Executive Director Cordell Walker of Alpha Omega Veterans Services, Inc. The mission of Alpha Omega Veterans Services is to empower displaced and homeless veterans in the Mid-South with the tools, skills, and services they need for successful reintegration into society. They seek to reduce or eliminate the number of displaced and homeless veterans by empowering them to regain self-sufficiency through the provision of holistic, supportive, and rehabilitative services that promote their health, security, happiness, and usefulness in society.

Karen Vogelsang, director of ARISE2Read shares their efforts of engaging students at risk in the battle of literacy by serving elementary students at risk for reading failure. They do this by recruiting and training volunteers to provide students with focused support to acquire the literacy skills needed. Additionally, Karen discusses her trip to the 2023 World Literacy Summit, as well as her time as an elementary teacher. She recalls Ezekiel Kelly, one of her students, being recruited by gangs while in the 2nd grade. Sadly, in September of 2022 as an adult, Ezekiel Kelly was accused in a shooting spree that put Memphis in an hours-long lockdown. He faces 28 charges, including three counts of first-degree murder. This horrific event is one of the many reasons that Arise2Read is motivated to fight the literacy battle.

For this National Day of Prayer, AM 640 gathered with community residents under the Freeman Park Pavilion in Bartlett, TN. The event was a wonderful time to see governmental leaders, pastors, and speakers lead the congregation in prayer for our state, county, city, military, first responders, businesses, schools, churches, and families. City Of Bartlett Mayor, David Parsons hosted the event with invited guest Tennessee Congressman David Kustoff, Cary Vaughn, CEO & President of Love Worth Finding Ministries, TN State Senator Paul Rose, Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, Bartlett Police Chief Jeff Cox, Bartlett Fire Chief Tommy Gately, Shirley Jackson with Bartlett City Schools, as well as area pastors.

Mrs. Joyce Rogers, now ninety years old and wife of the late Dr. Adrian Rogers shares how she first met Adrian in 4th grade, cherished her calling to be a pastor’s wife to him, and stood by him in ministry and family life together for 54 years of marriage. Known for his unique ability to simplify profound truth so that it can be applied to everyday life, Adrian Rogers was one of the most effective preachers, respected Bible teachers, and Christian leaders of our time. For over fifty years, through his evangelistic zeal and uncompromising commitment to the Word of God, he consistently presented the Good News of Jesus Christ with strong conviction, compassion, and integrity. Under his pastoral leadership, Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee, grew from 9,000 members in 1972 to more than 29,000 at his retirement in 2005.

Today's special episode of Mid South Viewpoint we pull from our archives and highlight a few topics such as local leadership empowerment with Cameron Cobb & Marquino Douglas, the encouraging story of Michael Studdard distributing Bibles in Africa, and the importance of restoring joy in times of trials and difficulty with Melanie Redd. Listen in to get information on local meeting locations for this Thursday's National Day of Prayer where you can meet other believers to pray over our city and nation.

Steve Coplon from MissionfieldUSA.COM provides an update on their recent gospel excursion to the Pacific-Northwest.

Pastor John Bomar takes us down the trail of his life and ministry recalling God’s steadfast faithfulness throughout the years.

Abundant Hope International is an organization with a passion to help Holocaust Survivors, especially in Israel. The Holocaust was unprecedented genocide, total and systematic, perpetrated by Nazi Germany and its collaborators, with the aim of annihilating the Jewish people. The primary motivation was the Nazis' anti-Semitic racist ideology. Susan Heagy, President of AHI shares their work of visiting Holocaust Survivors to alleviate loneliness, evaluating and meeting their needs, renovating their homes, and counting them as friends.

Carl Carmody, CEO of Challenge Literature Fellowship and Editor of Challenge Newspaper travels to Memphis from Australia to tell their story. When Challenge newspaper started in 1978, they printed 5000 papers per month predominantly for Western Australia. The evangelistic newspaper gives readers the opportunity to learn about Jesus Christ. Today, they produce the Challenge newspaper for 20 plus countries with approximately 4,000,000 papers. The newspaper is distributed into prison systems and is printed in Spanish.

Charles Billingsley has headlined more than 3,200 concerts, released 24 recordings as a solo artist, and seven #1 Inspirational radio hits. He’s performed thousands of shows from Carnegie Hall to the Kennedy Center. He’ll be coming to Mid-America Chapel on April 27th for a concert benefiting Mid-America Seminary & College. Dr. Michael Spradlin, President of MABTS joins us in the studio as we talk with Charles Billingsley.

Dr. Bartholomew Orr, pastor of Brown Missionary Baptist Church, Southaven, MS. gives details on the upcoming 2023 Contending for the Faith Conference at Brown Church April 18-20, 2023.

Dr. Terry Tieman, pastor of Grace Celebration Lutheran Church in Cordova, TN provides details on the 2023 Transforming Churches Network Discipleship Conference. This conference is designed for to come and learn how to start a disciple making movement in your church and community. Dr. Terry Tieman also discusses the roots of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, how the work to help churches become more effective in reaching their communities with the Gospel began, results of research on effective mission movements and pilot projects that helped to shape their program, as well as some of the more surprising things that were pulled out of that research.

Betty Jo Cline RN, BS, Pastor’s wife, and nurse discusses a unique conference on April 21 – 22, for health care workers and pastors to discover how to develop relationships and a cohesiveness when treating people with mental illnesses. Betty also describes how mental illness has impacted her family personally through the struggle of her sister’s battle of bipolar disorder.

Today, it’s the 5th Friday! Which means, SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT is on the air!!!! Learn more from two of our fine advertisers, Sam Mullins with Automatic, Heating, Plumbing, & Air and Rod Marter with Senior Helpers.

Ray Jarrett, Executive Director of Unite KC, a grassroots movement with a faith-based strategy committed to racial healing and reconciliation. Ray came to Memphis to attend an event featuring Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis, called, “One Race, One Blood”.

Katrin Valencia of A Way-Out Ministries is joined by Hannah Fletcher of Eight Days of Hope. A Way-Out Ministries’ serves women looking to escape entrapment from human trafficking. Recently, they broke ground on a safe house building project. Eight Days of Hope, known for their disaster relief work is helping to build this new home with the help of volunteers from across the country.

The Mid-America Passion Play is March 30 – April 2, 2023, under the direction of Dr. James Whitmire. Dr. Whitmire shares details on this year’s production as well as reflects on 0ver forty years of bringing this dramatic presentation to stage.

Gayle Rogers Foster, daughter of the late Dr. Adrian Rogers talks about her love for sports, especially Atlanta Braves base, growing up in the home of Dr. Adrian and Joyce Rogers, , times she wished she wasn’t a pastor’s daughter, how her mom dealt with struggles and difficult times, her marriage to Mike Foster, mom of three boys, her father’s passing, remembering the life of Andy Horner, and her entrepreneurship interests. Gayle is the guest speaker at our first annual Bott Radio Network Pastors’ Wives Appreciation Luncheon, April 13, 2023.

Roger Lowther, founder, and director of Community Arts Tokyo, assisting church planting through the arts. Roger and his family have served in Japan with Mission to the World since 2005. He shares amazing stories of rebuilding lives and hope for Japanese families devastated by the tsunami and earthquake of 2011, the strongest earthquake in Japan’s recorded history. This month, March 2023 marks the 10th anniversary of the devastating Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. Roger shares about relief efforts and how music played an instrumental part in connecting to hopeless hearts. Roger was formerly organist at Second Presbyterian Church in Memphis, TN and was recently in Memphis speaking at First Evangelical Church.

Steve Coplon of MissionfieldUSA.com shares how the gospel revolutionized his life. We’ll discuss too, current gospel city excursions taking place in the Northeast and deep South, along with George Verwer’s life-long drive to engage the world with the Gospel. It all began when college student George Verwer and his two friends journeyed to Mexico to share Christ’s love in 1957, the response was overwhelming. These young men subsequently opened a Christian bookshop and launched Christian radio broadcasts there. As the friends expanded their reach to Europe, they proclaimed the great truth that God uses His people to reach the nations. Christians rose in response, and OM (Operation Mobilization) was born.

Today we’re going to open the audio vault archives and hear an interview that first aired in 2016 with Dr. Kevin Jackson of Grace Baptist Church in Grenada, MS. Dr. Jackson is still pastoring, preaching from God’s word, and equipping his people to do the work of the ministry in and around the greater Grenada community. The content for today’s show was aired on our weekly Pastors Forum program, that I also host each Sunday at 12:45 and 7:00 pm.