GREENWOOD, S.C. (BP) – Members of Abney Memorial Baptist Church have prayerwalked every street within a five-mile radius of the church. The South Carolina congregation's two-year outreach has encompassed 2,000 homes and businesses, praying for the people living or working inside. It has become a meaningful ministry that affects residents and church alike in Greenwood, S.C., pastor Brent Bennett said. "Prayerwalking has opened our eyes and helped our church catch the vision that … [Read more...]
Treasury of Testimonies: A tool for reporting accurate church membership
Baptists are notorious for throwing numbers around. “There are 16.5 million Southern Baptists!” the brochure proudly exclaims. If so, where are they? If only 4 million show up for Sunday school, and estimates run as high as 8 million for worship, what makes us think we can account for all who actually belong to a Southern Baptist church? In the context of churches affiliated with the MBC, we estimate somewhere between 550,000 to 600,000 people acknowledge their membership at one of our … [Read more...]
Missourians train disciples in England’s Lake District
BOOTLE, Cumbria, England – Neither Jerry nor Carolyn Cox had ever set foot outside the United States. Yet, when God placed a call on his heart to serve for six months making disciples with a small church on the coast of the Irish Sea, both Cox and his wife, Carolyn were ready to pack their bags. Cox, a bi-vocational pastor who served at Henderson Baptist Church in Rogersville, was reading The Pathway last July and noticed an article about American Interim Pastors Ministries (AIPM), a … [Read more...]
Governor stands for freedom ahead of Trinity Lutheran case
JEFFERSON CITY – Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens went public with a defense of religious liberty less than one week before the Supreme Court heard a high profile religious liberty case coming out of Missouri. But his actions raised concern among some Supreme Court Justices as to whether the case was still worth addressing. Greitens posted a video, April 13, on his Facebook page and website, announcing that the state of Missouri would no longer discriminate against religious … [Read more...]
Developing leaders in the church
Geiger, Eric, and Kevin Peck. Designed to Lead: The Church and Leadership Development. Nashville: B&H, 2016. 234 pp. $22.99. The church needs leaders. The world needs leaders. Jesus saves us to be leaders in advancing the gospel to the ends of the earth. One of the purposes of the church is develop and send out leaders to advance the gospel to the ends of the earth. Most Christians and ministry leaders agree with the previous paragraph. So where are all the leaders in our churches? … [Read more...]
Hamlin Baptist pursues new ministry, refuses to abandon old community
SPRINGFIELD – In 2015, the members of Hamlin Baptist Church here had to face a harsh reality: They could either relocate, or they could merge with another church. In any case, if they didn’t make some adjustments, they would be forced to close their doors permanently. “We voted unanimously to relocate,” Sharon Andrews, a ministry assistant at the church, told The Pathway. But the congregation wouldn’t simply abandon the community where they had ministered since the church’s establishment … [Read more...]
Tower View Baptist embraces prayer ministry
KANSAS CITY – It’s a great view at Tower View Baptist Church in Kansas City, Missouri. The congregation with a gospel-centered, and Christ-serving vision has been praying for other area congregations. This ministry for other local churches started in April 2015 when Pastor Darin Smith began ministering at Tower View. Initially prayers were random. Then in 2016, they began praying for their affiliated association and local congregations. “On the first Sunday in 2016, we started praying … [Read more...]
Greek refresher said to make sermons ‘exciting’
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP) -- Especially in this information age, pastors and other seminary graduates have no excuse for letting their grasp of New Testament Greek slip away, say Greek scholars at multiple Southern Baptist Convention seminaries. Having a firm grasp of New Testament Greek was the emphasis of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary's Jan. 13-14 Alumni Academy. And it also has been a theme of publications by professors at other Southern Baptist Convention seminaries. "It's … [Read more...]
Impact church lives up to name
FESTUS – A church plant here is living up to its name in servicing the Lord. “We want to love God and love people with the Great Command (‘Love the Lord with all your heart, mind, strength…) and with the Great Commission,” said pastor Scott Douglas. Douglas and wife Theresa, both Hannibal-LaGrange graduates, were in different churches since the mid 1990s serving in student, music, and children’s ministries. "I had the opportunity to serve in full-time church staff in the area. In early … [Read more...]
El Paso-area church takes over local bar
SAN ELIZARIO, Texas (BP) -- An El Paso-area church withstood the opposition of alleged drug traffickers and credit the protection of God as they sought to expand their presence in a strip shopping center in San Elizario, a city of 5,000 in El Paso County. Iglesia Bautista Dios con Nosotros, translated in English as "God with Us Baptist Church," quickly outgrew the small space rented in 2012 and expanded the storefront. Within a few years, they again needed more room, but the owner of … [Read more...]
Five reasons sermons fail
To preach is to occasionally lay an egg. Every preacher has felt it, and every preacher hopes to never feel it again. What did I do wrong? Why did the sermon flop? How do I avoid this ever happening again? These questions, and many more, hound the conscience of the preacher who’s delivered a still-born sermon. Unfortunately, I’ve not only been on the receiving end of a sermon flop, I’ve been on the delivering end also. From observation and experience, here are five reasons why sermons … [Read more...]
Go, pray, proclaim, repeat
NEOSHO – For a decade, Calvary Baptist has been on mission in Thailand and in Africa. One truth coming from both locales is the need for repeat visits. The work in Africa “Calvary was a guinea pig for the engaging churches that the IMB started. Rick Hedger (now MBC staff) was pastor before I came,” said current pastor Roger Brumley. “First we had to “find the (African) people group we had adopted,” Brumley said. Through the years, they found and ministered to them in Guinea-Bissau, … [Read more...]
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