Eric House, Senior pastor First Baptist Church, Hokes Bluff, Ala. Like thousands of other Southern Baptist churches, First Baptist Church of Hokes Bluff, Ala., has a long and treasured history of missions involvement. Several of our families have served as foreign missionaries. We have given substantially to missions through our local association, the Cooperative Program and special Southern Baptist Convention offerings. Yet despite that long history, it has been nearly 15 years since … [Read more...]
Freshwater Church gives birth to ‘twins’
JEFFERSON CITY – Freshwater Church in Bolivar birthed two new churches on Sept. 8. One was in Jefferson City, the other in Springfield. Freshwater Church, Jefferson City, officially launched by meeting at a Lutheran high school near Wardsville. Joshua Hartley was called as planter/pastor in June. Freshwater Church, Springfield, was launched at Ed V. Williams Elementary School. It is led by Planter/Pastor J. T. Patton. Their mother church, Freshwater Church, Bolivar, is pastored by … [Read more...]
Portable baptisteries see use for church plants
ST. LOUIS – Two portable baptisteries have been provided for use in Kansas City and St Louis by joint funding from the North American Mission Board and the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC). Rick Hedger, MBC partnership missions strategist, provided the funds to support the church planting underway. “The need to support SEND Kansas City and SEND St. Louis church planting strategies was my motivation for providing them,” said Hedger. “Baptism is the first step of obedience in … [Read more...]
October: A great time to bless our pastors
Several decades ago a movement started to use October as a month to bless your pastor and/or staff members. According to Ephesians 4, a pastor’s role is to equip people in the church and encourage church members to reach their godly potential. This is both the most satisfying and daunting task you could ever imagine. A pastor can lead the flock of God but he cannot make the sheep consume all that God has for them. That is the role of the great motivator, the Holy Spirit. There are days in … [Read more...]
Churches, MBC hold apartment complex block party
WASHINGTON – One unique distinction held by Southern Baptists is a willingness to work together through the Cooperative Program to spread the gospel. A recent block party here demonstrated how that type of cooperation works at a local level. Joe Murray pastors Great Commission Baptist Church, consisting largely of attendees from a nearby apartment complex. A half-dozen churches and organizations partnered with Murray’s congregation to hold a block party for the people in the complex Aug. … [Read more...]
Church returns blessings to Cooperative Program
MARION, Iowa (BP) – A year after Community Baptist Church was planted in August 2009, its members decided to double their giving to missions through the Cooperative Program. Darin Ulmer, who became pastor of the Marion, Iowa, church later that year, said he can’t take any credit for the increase to 10 percent in CP giving. “What we saw was that we had been blessed greatly by the support of other Southern Baptists, and as the Lord blessed us as a church, it was suggested – I don’t remember … [Read more...]
God’s wrath taboo subject for PCUSA hymnal
NASHVILLE (BP) – One of Christianity’s most popular worship songs has been deemed too controversial to be included in the latest edition of the hymnal for the Presbyterian Church (USA) (PCUSA). “In Christ Alone,” a modern hymn written by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend, consistently ranks in the top 20 songs sung in churches of all stripes, according to Christian Copyright Licensing International. Yet it contains one line that the PCUSA’s Committee on Congregational Song did not wish to … [Read more...]
Bethany Church prayerwalks school halls
Forges loving partnership, could be model for other churches, schools CAPE GIRARDEAU – Who says there’s no prayer in schools? There is at Alma Schrader Elementary School in Cape Girardeau. Bethany Baptist Church here has adopted the school through a Chamber of Commerce program and that has led not only to a positive relationship between the school and church members, but allowed them to prayerwalk the halls and stop at each door before the start of school this fall. It began when the … [Read more...]
Aloha! Missourians plant new work in Hawaii
EWA BEACH, Oahu, Hawaii – The idyllic beaches with gentle ocean waves stirring the sand under palm trees don’t tell a complete Hawaiian picture. Missouri native Aaron Davis has pastored church-plant Aloha Community Church, on Ewa Beach on Oahu island in Hawaii since July, 2012, with wife Samantha, son Caleb, 10, and foster son, Kerry, 2. The initial church plant was funded, in part, by Cooperative Program gifts from the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) and Davis received his church … [Read more...]
Jefferson Baptist Association WMU group holds Christmas in August event
ST. LOUIS – The gift for attendees at a Christmas in August event for the Jefferson Baptist Associaiton Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) event was the conference itself. The conference Aug. 17 had the theme “The story lives on,” and featured St. Louis author Brenda Poinsett and actress Donna Douglas, best known for “Elly May Clampett” on TV’s The Beverly Hillbillies. Poinsett shared from one of her two Christmas-themed books Unwrapping Martha’s Joy, which asks can Martha have a “Mary” … [Read more...]
Midwestern Seminary announces Center for Church Planting launch; Hedger named director
Midwestern Seminary President Jason Allen announced the launch of The Midwestern Seminary Center for Church Planting on Sept. 16, and named a noted North American Mission Board church planter as its leader. According to Allen, the Center for Church Planting will serve as a hub and a catalyst for church planting in Kansas City and the Midwest, partnering with NAMB as well as the Missouri and Kansas-Nebraska state conventions. “In that Kansas City is one of NAMB’s designated Send Cities, … [Read more...]
Twin Cities church planter sees God’s faithfulness in SBC support
ROSEVILLE, Minn.-Fue Chee Her thought he understood the faithfulness of God when he started Gospel Hmong Baptist Church in metro Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., in 2013. But in the past nine months, that faithfulness has become a visible reality as he has seen God meet every need for his new church plant. Her says that Southern Baptists across the country and in his own Minnesota-Wisconsin Baptist Convention have been a part of that story through their faithful missions giving. "We've worked … [Read more...]