BUCKNER – Members from the First Baptist Church (FBC) here distributed 1,500 Bibles in the communities of Buckner, Levasy and Sibley during an outreach initiative, April 12.
A team of 83 volunteers from FBC, Buckner, and partnering churches prayed for these communities, prepared Bibles and distributed them. The men’s ministry from FBC, Buckner, provided a breakfast for volunteers.
Doug Schildknecht – pastor of FBC, Buckner, and a Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) executive board member – expressed his gratitude to the MBC and to Missouri Baptists who give to the Cooperative Program (CP) for supporting this ministry. He explained that the CP resources provided through the MBC helped to fund the “Find It Here” New Testaments that the church distributed throughout these communities.
This local outreach initiative contributed to “Light Up Missouri,” an MBC initiative designed to transform communities with God’s word through servanthood evangelism.
“One of the ways of serving is providing God’s Word to people,” MBC missional evangelism/discipleship strategist Mark Snowden said. He explained that “Light Up Missouri” combines “God’s Plan for Sharing” (GPS), a servanthood evangelism initiative created by the North American Mission Board (NAMB), with a campaign to distribute one million Bibles throughout Missouri.
Many churches throughout the state launched their “Light Up Missouri” efforts during the Easter season. Churches can find ideas for shining the light of the gospel around the state online at www.mobaptist.org/light. On this webpage, servant evangelism ideas come in three categories:
• ays of Service, like donating canned goods to a food pantry or hosting a BBQ for firefighters, police officers or city maintenance crews.
• easons of Service, like helping immigrants in the area adjust to life in the United States.
• oments of Service, like inviting a friend to do a service project with you so that you can build the relationship and witness to him or her.
According to Snowden, Missouri Baptists can use these days, seasons and moments of service to distribute print or audio forms of the Bible and to share the gospel.