About this time last year, I was planning to attend my first Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) annual meeting. Needless to say, I was a bit nervous. For two days, I basically went from one meeting to another, met hundreds of Missouri Baptists, and shook more hands than I can count! It was an amazing experience, and I felt both honored and welcomed. Reflecting on the occasion, I have nothing but gratitude for the warm reception my family and I received from Missouri Baptists.
In my first year, one of my main priorities has been to travel the state, spend time with our pastors, directors of missions (DOMs), and ministry leaders to better understand who we are as a convention of churches. Honestly, it’s been an absolute blessing, and it’s been quite fun as well!
At many gatherings throughout the state, I asked those in attendance three important questions: (1) What are we doing well? (2) What are a few areas for growth? and (3) If you were me, what would you do first – what would you prioritize? The feedback was tremendous! I consistently heard about the faithful ministry of Missouri Baptists, and I also learned where we might need improvement. It was evident from the very beginning that our pastors, DOMs, and ministry leaders care deeply about the spiritual condition of our state.
Not only did I travel the state to hear from ministry leaders, I also analyzed our Annual Church Profile (ACP) data. I wanted to know how we were doing in key areas such as church planting, evangelism, baptisms, worship attendance, and giving. I wanted to know how many churches were growing, how many were plateaued, and how many were declining. Our ACP data will never be able to fully communicate what the Lord is doing in Missouri, but it helps us understand trends, strengths, and potential weaknesses.
After visiting with hundreds of ministry leaders, and after evaluating our ACP data, I believe it’s clear what the MBC needs to prioritize in the years ahead.
First, we need to begin with prayer. As a convention, we should organize a strong state-wide prayer ministry. We should pray for our churches and our pastors. We should pray for revival. We should pray for our missionaries. We should pray for the lost. We should fast and cry out to God for Him to move within our state and nation. Before we do anything else, I believe we should pray. R.C. Sproul once said, “If Christ could make a complaint, it would be, ‘My bride never talks to me.’” May this never be so in Missouri! As we consider the future, let us begin with prayer!
Second, we must prioritize evangelism. The good news is that baptisms in Missouri were up 14% from 2022 to 2023! But the challenging news is that baptisms in Missouri remain historically low. Consider this – the vast majority of our church members have never led someone to the Lord. Many have been saved for years, attended hundreds (maybe thousands) of worship services, but few prioritize evangelism. We will never reach our state for Jesus if we’re not intentionally and strategically telling people about Jesus! Therefore, I believe we need to help our churches reprioritize evangelism.
We also need to continue our emphasis on missions. In fact, one of the best ways to get someone excited about evangelism is to take them on a mission trip! One of the best ways to bring life and excitement to the local church is through missions! Do you want more people to attend? Be on mission! Do you want more people to participate? Be on mission! Do you want more people to give? Be on mission! We need every Missouri Baptist church to be wholeheartedly committed to missions! My desire is for every association, and every Missouri Baptist church, to be mobilized for local, regional, and international missions.
Closely connected to missions is our need to plant more healthy churches. In Missouri Baptist life, we have 1,718 churches. Our average worship attendance is 73. Lostness in Missouri is estimated to be 68% of the population, which is 4.2 million people. If we use our current worship average, we will need 57,534 more churches to reach the lost! It’s certainly fair to discuss precisely where we need additional churches, but there’s no doubt we need more! I’m incredibly thankful for our partnership with Send Missouri, and I’m looking forward to the future as we strive to help churches plant churches, that will plant churches, that will plant churches!
Lastly, it’s wonderful and exciting to plant new churches, but we also need to help renew existing churches! What does renewal mean? One definition I found is, “To return something to its original state.” Every church that’s currently plateaued or declining was at one time a growing and vibrant church plant. And as a church plant, the members were excited about inviting people, excited about missions and evangelism, excited about worship, and excited about making a difference in the community. That’s what we’re trying to renew – the church’s passion for being the church – the church’s passion for reaching the lost!
There’s certainly more we need to prioritize, but this is a great start – prayer, evangelism, missions, church planting and church renewal! Since we need to begin with prayer, let me encourage you to pray for the Lord to provide wisdom, guidance, discernment, and His favor as we strive to help churches transform lives and communities with the gospel!