JAMESTOWN – The Jamestown Baptist Church is staying pretty busy this holiday season. They hope to reach out to their town this fall by sharing generously. And they are collecting for missions work in a couple of ways.
Ken McCune, the pastor for the church for the past eight months—and interim pastor off and on for a couple of years prior—said it is a generous church, and they have recently seen a half dozen new families starting to attend. Three of these couples have joined the membership of the church. They average about 30 people most Sundays. Jamestown’s population is 330.
JAMESTOWN – Children from surrounding neighborhoods stopped for candy and gifts as the Jamestown Baptist Church provided treat bags during the community trick-or-treat night, Oct. 31. The bags included gospel beads, a tract and a “gospel bear.” (Photo by Christina Griffin)
McCune and his wife, Shyre, have served in many places, and this latest stop seems to suit them fine as they commute out to the church northwest of Jefferson City. Their home is in Holts Summit. It’s a distance of about 30 miles.
McCune was an International Mission Board missionary, serving in Honduras. Later he was a church planting strategist for Illinois and then Missouri Baptists. He retired, and then he served part time as director of missions for Meremec Baptist Association. Now he’s glad to be a bivocational pastor.
He said the church started the fall seasons with a “Fall-O-Ween” celebration where they gave out candy and a few small gifts to area children on October 31. The bags included candy, a tract, a gospel bead bracelet and a “gospel bear.” They had a good response and were able to be present in the community as the kids went trick or treating.
They have their annual Thanksgiving dinner coming up soon with a turkey and a table loaded full of side dishes. The community is welcome to join the dinner as they thank the Lord for His goodness this year.
Jamestown Baptist will be hosting the community Thanksgiving service this year, and Pastor McCune has been selected as the preacher.
They have also adopted a family for Christmas and are supplying gifts. The family of three will be showered with things they need, including some festive items, a children’s Bible and some warm clothing. Another church in town is joining them in this effort.
Just before Christmas the church gathers up fruit baskets and distributes them to people in their community.
Operation Christmas Child shoebox gifts are collected for the Samaritan’s Purse organization. McCune said they have a goal of 100 shoeboxes this year, a challenging goal for a small church.
Jamestown Baptist Church gives generously to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions. Last year they collected $1,900 and the goal is $1,500 this year. McCune said he won’t be surprised if they match last years offering total.
They are very missions-conscious at Jamestown Baptist. The church gives 8 percent to the Cooperative Program.
There are exploratory discussions about doing a mission trip to another location in Missouri or somewhere in the U.S., next summer.
Asked about what prompts the church’s generosity, the pastor said, “We like to help people in the community.” They are quite supportive of the local public school and several members work in the school.
The town culture is a mix of a farming community, people who live in Jamestown but commute to work in other towns and a lot of retirees.
And more importantly than the numerical growth the small church is growing spiritually according to the pastor. “We are discovering who we are and what we are supposed to be doing,” he said.