JEFFERSON CITY – The Directors of Missions in Baptist associations gathered at the Baptist building March 29-30. They heard reports from the MBC Multiplying Churches group and the North American Mission Board SEND Missouri team on the subject of church planting in Missouri.
In addition to the program, the directors of missions (DOM) and MBC staff dedicated the Larry Lewis Strategy Room on the 7th floor of the Baptist Building. The 7th floor was recently remodeled after a small fire damaged the area in December 2019.
JEFFERSON CITY – Rick Hedger, MBC Multiplying Churches Catalyst leads a panel discussion with multiplying churches strategists for the semi-annual Director of Missions conference at the Baptist Building, March 29-30. (Pathway Photo by Richard Nations)
Larry Lewis is a resident of Columbia. He was as a pastor in Missouri, Ohio and New Jersey in his early years. He has a distinguished record of denominational service as a consultant in Penn-South Jersey Baptist Convention, President of Hannibal-LaGrange College (now University), President of the Home Mission Board (now North American Mission Board), National facilitator of Mission America and as president of the Mid-Missouri Baptist Association.
The DOMs heard presentations from the Multiplying Churches Group of the MBC, led by Dr. Rick Hedger. He and his team of consultants told many inspiring stories of church planting with ethnic and people groups around Missouri. Hedger said there are 300 languages spoken in the state of Missouri.
There are many good stories of church planting coming from the small town of Noel, in southwest Missouri. Joshua Manning is the church planter there and there are six Hispanic and Asian ethnic church plants being developed there.
The DOMs heard from church planters and field workers who work with Africans, Burmese, Hispanics as well as Anglo planters in Kansas City and St. Louis. It was reported that there are many new Afghan refugees coming into the St. Louis and Kansas City metro areas.
Then the group also heard from Jason Zellmer, the church planting director of Send Missouri, a ministry of the North American Mission Board. Zellmer said church planting is an effective evangelistic strategy and statistics show that about 70 percent of participants in a new church plant will not be Christians when they are first reached by the new church.
He added that church planting brings renewal and health to churches and associations. Zellmer urged churches and associations to ramp up church planting efforts and to utilize NAMB’s Send Missouri processes as well as ask for assistance from the Multiplying Churches Group.
Zellmer said they are establishing church planting centers in four regions of the state plus two major cities which they call “SEND Cities” (St. Louis and Kansas City). Regional hubs for training, coaching and care of church planters are being set up in Hannibal, Cape Girardeau, Springfield and Columbia. They are working on a center for northwest Missouri.
He spoke of a process called “Pipeline” where churches may use an online platform to disciple people and prepare leaders for new church plants.
In addition to that, Send Missouri is sponsoring regional “Residency Builder” events where churches may discover a process to enlist and train up church planters and leaders. “Residency can move churches into pathways to multiplication,” he clarified.
Zellmer related his experience as a medical tech in a hospital emergency room. The routine was to “See one—do one.” He said they try to show church planters how to do things and then watch as they then do the same thing by themselves.
Zellmer clarified that the MBC Multiplying Churches Group specializes in ethnic church plants and the NAMB/Send Missouri tends to work in the Send Cities as well as rural Missouri church plants. He added they work closely together and their partnership arrangement allows both entities to be involved in church planting interchangeably. “The same things available for the Send Cities is now available for the rest of the state,” Zellmer said.
Examples of rural church planting efforts in small towns like Dawn (population 100 in north-central Missouri as well as Clarence (population 738) were provided. Send Missouri is willing to work with churches in towns of any size if their is an opportunity to plant a new church or to re-start an existing church which is coming down to the end of it’s life cycle.
He concluded “Send Missouri and NAMB (the North American Mission Board) is excited to work across the state and we want to partner well with the associations and the convention to plant and re-plant churches.”
DOMs also heard from several Missouri Baptist entities (Missouri Baptist Foundation, Baptist Homes and Healthcare and Missouri Baptist Children’s Home). Dr. John Yeats, MBC Executive Director concluded the meeting with an update on the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.