BALLWIN—Living a committed life is important to the core group of the new Broadcast church that launched at 10 a.m. on Oct. 10 (10-10-10). In fact, that’s why it has that name.
“Our lives are a broadcast,” said Chris Conley, pastor of the plant church. “We see our lives as missionaries to those who live around us, to our family and to our workplace. Our core group wants to live as a broadcast of the good news of Jesus.”
The core group of 50-80 people has been meeting on Sunday evenings in homes since January. On Oct. 10, they began holding services at Ballwin Elementary School, off Manchester Road at Ries Road.
“We want our church to be open for people to explore Jesus and get to know Him,” Conley said. He said the new church is tied to the vision of evangelism.
“Our church plant is here to reach the community and serve the community,” he said. “The vision is to move the Church aims to broadcast truth of Christ Gospel toward you by making disciples who make disciples and by making
churches who plant churches.”
A couple of the young men helping the Broadcast start are looking to move out into other areas in two or three years.
“There are so many yet to be reached,” Conley said. “We are in an area with a high percentage of people who don’t have a church background, and they are willing to check it out.”
Conley said the Broadcast church has many traditional church backers, including a majority within the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).
“We are partnering with more than 50 churches in the area,” he said. “Almost all are connected to the SBC and they are a support. They encourage us and pray for us as a support team.”
Although the worship style of Broadcast is different, there is not a specific “target” audience.
“We’re in an area with lots of younger families as well as many retired people,” he said. “We have a core group from multiple ethnic backgrounds and of different ages. We are intentionally trying to reach the unchurched.”
Conley said the lifeblood of the plant church is the life groups.
“These neighborhood groups are the training ground as we do life together,” he said.
The training done in the life group centers on three divisions. First, mission training enables the members to broadcast their lives and to witness to others. Second, Gospel fluency creates an emphasis on helping members know God and to fully understand what Jesus did for us.
“In our area,” Conley said, “most of our neighbors are Catholics, some devout and others minimal, but most believe that we must do something for Jesus. We’re preaching on Jesus + 0 = Everything. We’ll use Colossians for the text.”
The third portion of the training is in life static.
“We all go through tough things,” Conley said. “We have struggles with jobs, relationships and other situations, and we go through these together. It is key to know the group has your back.”
Conley has five other bi-vocational staff members working with organization, youth, worship, and the college group. As they look at the unchurched in the area, they agree with Conley’s assessment that “the harvest is plentiful.”