GREENWOOD (BP) – Ten years ago, after several years of decline, the future for a 175-year-old Southern Baptist church in Greenwood, seemed bleak. But a sister church in the area embraced the dwindling congregation and helped them recover their place in the community. In August, the reborn and growing church will host the North American Mission Board's Replant Summit to help others learn how to do the same. "The First Baptist Church of Greenwood has an incredible testimony," said Mark … [Read more...]
Southern Baptists donate 200,000+ masks, protective equipment items to medical workers
ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP) - As COVID-19 cases continue to increase in the United States, many medical facilities have faced shortages of masks and other protective gear. In response, Southern Baptists have donated more than 228,000 sets of protective equipment to hospitals and healthcare workers in different states. On Thursday (March 26), the U.S. surpassed China as the nation with the most confirmed cases of the virus. Southern Baptist donations include more than 172,000 N95 masks and … [Read more...]
NAMB church planting missionaries adjust to COVID-19 crisis
ALPHARETTA, Ga. – Eight months ago, Gregg Gober and his family arrived in New York City, ready to begin the process of launching a new church. Hope Community in Brooklyn had just started gaining momentum when the COVID-19 virus brought life in the city – and the world – to a halt. "We had just moved the church out of our apartment," Gober said. "We started renting space in an old synagogue. Last Wednesday (March 11), we had more people than we've ever had, and this was a momentum killer … [Read more...]
Tomorrow’s missionaries serving today through GenSend
SAN DIEGO — Southern California sounded like a vacation spot to Ebbie Davis at first, not a location for serious mission work. Besides, the seminary degree she was working on at the time focused on international church planting, not North America. But as she looked at an opportunity to serve in San Diego through the North American Mission Board’s (NAMB) GenSend program, a friend asked some questions about what her time there would entail. “I said, I’d be working with a church plant … [Read more...]
Answering life’s questions for Mongolians in Denver
DENVER — Thousands of people move to North America every year, many coming from nations and regions that have historically been difficult to reach with the gospel. Mojic Baldandorj, a 2020 Annie Armstrong Easter Offering Week of Prayer missionary, immigrated to the United States specifically to revive Maranatha Mongolian Church in Denver and reach out to the large community of Mongolian immigrants who live there. “America is a big mission field,” Baldandorj said. “We can see so many … [Read more...]
Missionary steps into unknown — one hour from home
CINCINNATI—Kirk Kirkland felt a stirring in his soul to start a church in the inner city. For seven years, he served as an associate pastor at the Baptist church where he grew up in Dayton, Ohio. “We got the sense that maybe God was calling us out from this place of comfort,” Kirkland recalled, “where we lived just a couple of blocks from our church and we got paid every Friday—kind of living the American dream.” Every year during a missions conference, he would hear testimonies from … [Read more...]
College students see lives change through GenSend
ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP) – A group of students in Calgary had the opportunity to share their faith with another student and saw him come to Christ. The next week, another team of students, 3,400 miles away in Puerto Rico, led a grandmother to Christ. In New York City, an unexpected subway detour led a student to a gospel conversation with a Muslim man. All summer long, students participating in Send Relief's GenSend program have been living "on mission" in 19 cities across North America by … [Read more...]
Reaching Africa in Minneapolis: Nigerian missionaries serve with NAMB to plant churches in Midwest
MINNEAPOLIS – Philip Nache could have given in to despair. Boko Haram, the jihadist militant group located in Nigeria, had threatened his life, martyred a convert to Christianity and continued to intimidate Christians. But despite the danger, Nache expected to return and serve the people he’d spent nearly 20 years ministering to, pastoring and planting churches among. He had come to the United States to attend Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, a moment of divine timing that coincided … [Read more...]
NAMB church planter takes gospel into Miami’s complex culture
MIAMI – Full of color, life, beauty and disparity, Miami is a city where “you can lose yourself and find yourself all at the same time,” said church planting missionary Muche Ukegbu. Miami’s spectrum of economic, ethnic and cultural diversity generates a complexity that Ukegbu and his family have been navigating since moving to the city to start their church, The Brook Church, which launched in the April of 2015. As residents in Miami attempt to find themselves, they experience a certain … [Read more...]
Santiago rebuilds communities in Puerto Rico
COMERIO, Puerto Rico – When Jorge Santiago left Puerto Rico as a young man, he never thought he would return. His family sent him to the U.S. mainland in a last-ditch effort to shake him loose from a lifestyle of doing and dealing drugs. “I never thought that I was going to come back to Comerío,” recalled Santiago of his home town, “and I didn’t want to come back.” In 2007, Santiago left behind a community that was struggling economically, whose people wrestled with hopelessness. Santiago … [Read more...]
Baptist promoted to Air Force Deputy Chief of Chaplains
WASHINGTON (BP) – The U.S. Senate confirmed the promotion of U.S. Air Force Chaplain Colonel Ronald M. Harvell to the rank of Brigadier General on Aug. 20. With the promotion, Harvell, a Southern Baptist, becomes the Air Force's 26th Deputy Chief of Chaplains. He has been serving as the Air Mobility Command Chaplain based at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois. Harvell will now transition to the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., for his new pastoral leadership responsibilities. "My wife and I … [Read more...]
Army chaplain Squires cleared of all charges
FORT BRAGG, N.C. (BP) – The U.S. Army has dropped its investigation against Southern Baptist chaplain Jerry Scott Squires, fully exonerating the major of all charges, Aug. 24. "This is great news for both Chaplain Squires and all of the military chaplains who are serving our men and women the U.S. Armed Services," said Gen. Douglas Carver, executive director of chaplaincy at the North American Mission Board (NAMB). "It is a significant victory for all who support and defend the freedoms … [Read more...]