ARNOLD – Adam Cruse, senior associate pastor at First Baptist Church here, says “one of the greatest ways to disciple people is to get them on an airplane.”
“We have found that there’s a huge difference in people when they return from being on (a mission trip). Their faith grows by leaps and bounds and it impacts how they live and serve long term.”
He says that growth then helps drive Christians “to see people come to know Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior, and see strong, Bible believing churches established.”
Cruse oversees the church’s missions program, which “begins in our homes and spreads out from there.” The church supports over a dozen local, national, and international ongoing partnerships and programs.
“First Arnold has been obedient to God’s call to missions from its very onset, 71 years ago. We have had a long-standing commitment to reaching not just the local area, but the nations as well,” Cruse says.
The church is involved in two church plants, two satellite churches, and a sister church in East St. Louis. It supports St. Louis ministries that help refugees, provide pregnancy counseling and services, and supply food, clothing, and shelter through a rescue mission. Members also offer disaster relief aid across in the country.
First Arnold has six international partners in Brazil, the Czech Republic, Germany, India, Liberia, and Senegal.
The international partners include organizations operated by native Christians, as well as families the church has sent out.
There is no typical missions project, Cruse says. Each is different and FBCA hopes to “tailor them to be exactly what God is leading us to do for that project.”
“We have had a partnership in Brazil for a number of years. Our priorities are to share Jesus with Brazilian people, and to encourage and challenge the local church to share Jesus with the people around them.”
When the church sent a team of eight recently to Brazil it used Bible stories, personal testimonies, and individuals’ talents and skills to spread the message of Christ.
“We saw Brazilian people hear the good news for the first time. We saw the local church grow in their obedience in the Lord. And we saw our partners on the ground loved on and encouraged by both our members and the believers around them,” Cruse says.
The church has a diverse list of missions opportunities. Projects focus on church planting and discipleship, recording and distributing oral Bible stories in areas with little to no literacy, offering help and supplies to people without medical resources, leading children’s Bible studies in mobile home parks, running community outreach events and block parties, aiding St. Louis refugees with household needs and home projects, and providing relief following natural disasters.
“God has provided a church body with many gifts and talents and has called us to use those talents for His glory. So that’s what we strive to do,” Cruse says.
Cruse says missions begins with leading by God’s spirit.
“God places a burden for a people or an organization on someone’s heart and we begin to pray for guidance on what our role should be. From there, we follow God’s plan and move forward at His pace, developing long-term relationships as we go. Three of our international partnerships are with our own FBCA families that have surrendered to long term missions through the IMB.”
He believes every church and every Christian should be missions focused. “Our prayer is that every Christian is involved in missions every day. While our missions department may have anywhere from 500-1,000 volunteers actively involved in planned missions activities in any given year, missions doesn’t end with only the opportunities the church can provide.”
Individual and church missions begin with an understanding of God’s plan. “From Genesis to Revelation, you can’t help but hear God’s heart for the nations. Learn what God is doing around the world. God will place a burden in your soul for a particular people that you can’t shake.”
Churches should expose their congregations to different missionaries in face-to-face situations, praying for missionaries, and giving to missions to foster a missions mindset, Cruse says.
“Prayer lights the fire for missions in a church. Use the IMB Pray App to give you guidance. Start giving to missions and your heart for missions will grow.”
Through the Holy Spirit’s leadership “God will begin to open the doors he wants you to go through.”
When the Bible is clear that God wants us to love him, serve him and love others as ourselves, Cruse asks, “How can we say we love our neighbors and not tell them the greatest news of all time?”