DES MOINES, Iowa (BP) – Messengers to the annual meeting of the Baptist Convention of Iowa (BCI) launched a four-year missions partnership with the Missouri Baptist Convention beginning in January.
Rick Hedger, missions and evangelism team leader for the Missouri convention, explained opportunities the partnership would afford, including participation in joint international mission trips and assistance to Iowa churches. Iowa also has a missions partnership with the Tennessee Baptist Convention.
Meeting in Des Moines Nov. 4-5, the convention registered 121 messengers and 19 guests from 43 churches and celebrated the theme “Hold to One Another” from Galatians 6:1-10. The Baptist Convention
of Iowa has 110 churches and missions with nearly 13,000 members.
Thomas L. Law III was introduced as interim executive director of the convention. A former director of the Tarrant Baptist Association in Fort
Worth, Texas, Law is slated to serve two years in the Iowa position.
In his report, Law noted that of counties in Iowa, 48 have no BCI-affiliated church and another 22 have a limited BCI-affiliated church presence.
He challenged the convention to establish a church in all counties in the
state and to use strong, healthy churches to reach the states’ 900 cities, towns and villages with little or no BCI presence. Law said strong churches in county seat towns can be used as stack-poles from which
smaller communities can be reached.
Law and Hedger encouraged churches and associations in Iowa and Missouri to partner to develop relationships in unreached communities in order to reach residents with the gospel.
RICHARD NATIONS / Baptist Press