ST. LOUIS (BP) – Two years ago, First Baptist Church of Affton, Mo., knew it was dying. So it sought help from the local St. Louis Metro Baptist Association. In a process facilitated by executive director of missions Jim Breeden, First Baptist decided to replant itself in March 2016 as Church at Affton, led by replanter Jason Helmbacher. During its first year, the replant baptized 15 new believers and has come to average just over 100 worship attendees – about 40 of whom were First … [Read more...]
Legacy Church Plants keep the cooperation flowing
KANSAS CITY – Whether it’s a brand new church plant or an established congregation dating back to the Civil War, cooperative missions is the hall mark of a Missouri Baptist Church. In recent years, cooperation has even taken root in a church’s dying process, even to the point of springing new life and new ministry. Mark Clifton, a long-time Missouri pastor in the Kansas City area, is the North American Mission Board’s go-to guy when it comes to “Legacy Church Planting,” and explained the … [Read more...]
Rural Licking church reaches 180 youth weekly
LICKING – The numbers, humanly speaking, don’t add up. Rock Springs Baptist averages 120 in Sunday services. Yet on Wednesdays, they run about 180 in student ministry. “It’s a God-thing. It has nothing to do with me. I’m just blest to come in at the onset of this,” Pastor John Jordan admitted. Indeed, the student ministry began two years before Jordan arrived. “There was the regular prayer and Bible study, and a few kids came. They decided to put their effort into student ministry, … [Read more...]
Lottie Moon offering nears $153 million
RICHMOND, Va. – Southern Baptists responded to the challenge to play their part in helping the Gospel resound to all nations through their gifts to the 2016 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions, which neared the $155 million goal when the books closed on the annual offering. Southern Baptists gave $153 million through the 2016-17 campaign to support International Mission Board field personnel. Every dollar given to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering (LMCO) supports … [Read more...]
‘Bulletproof’: Grace Place to host Men’s Conference
LAMAR – Several guests of international renown are scheduled for the Bulletproof Men’s Conference August 4-5 at the Thiebaud Auditorium. Grace Place pastor Reg Givens said this is the second year for the conference and many of the presenters last year are back this year. These include Victor Marx, a martial arts expert and holder of the world record for fastest gun disarming; Eric Ludy, a Colorado pastor, author, and lead instructor at Ellerslie Discipleship training; Ryan Noble and … [Read more...]
Hillcrest Baptist Church, Lebanon, sees divine appointments in Africa
WEST AFRICA – During the past six years, the members of Hillcrest Baptist Church, Lebanon, have seen God move among the people of West Africa along the arid fringes of the Sahara Desert. Pastor David Brown said he has been amazed by the “divine appointments” that God has placed in the path of mission teams from the church as they’ve engaged a people group here. “God puts people before you, and maybe they’ll tell you that God has spoken to them in a dream,” Brown said, “and they’ve … [Read more...]
When angels desert
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the sixth in a series of excerpts from the new MBC resource, “The Last Apologist: A Commentary on Jude for Defenders of the Christian Faith,” available at mobaptist.org/apologetics. The identity of certain angels in Jude 6 is a matter of much debate. Unlike Satan and most demons, who roam the earth in search of mischief, these angels are kept “with eternal chains in darkness for the judgment of the great day, angels who did not keep their own position but deserted … [Read more...]
Living between the times
Someone once told me that all crazy women have super-thin eyebrows. I don’t see how I could even begin to argue with that logic. So I pencil. And I pencil strong. I feel I have a lot to prove. That’s one reason doing makeup in the car is such risky business. One hard stop and a gal could end up with a seriously high eyebrow. No one could ever be as astonished as that kind of brow implies. And please excuse me if the humor here is a bit…ah…highbrow. The other day, even full-well … [Read more...]
The foundational principles of worship
EDITOR’S NOTE: John Francis is an Assistant Professor of Music and Worship at Hannibal-LaGrange University where he teaches music and trains young musicians to be worship leaders through HLGU’s Bachelor of Music with Worship Concentration degree. John has a blogsite, www.gloryhorn.com and is available for worship leading and speaking across the state on the subject of worship. You may email John at john.francis@hlg.edu. To explore the essence of a subject, a helpful exercise is to go all … [Read more...]
Prayerwalking lifts church’s heart for community
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...]
Calvin & Calvinism
When Martin Luther pinned (or pasted) his 95 Theses on the church door in Wittenberg in 1517, John Calvin was only 8 years old. By the time Calvin published the first edition of his classic Institutes of the Christian Religion in 1536, Ulrich Zwingli—the Reformer of Zurich—had been dead for five years, having been cut down in battle against the city’s Catholic opponents in 1531. Multiple pathways for reform had been carved out across the European landscape before Calvin even entered … [Read more...]
Baptists make disciples, multiply churches, develop leaders in Italy
VENETO, Italy – There’s a church on every block in northeastern Italy. At least, there are church buildings on every block. Most of them now stand empty or have been converted into museums, pizza joints or banks. Kevin Finch, a member of First Baptist Church, De Soto, said he noticed these relics from Italy’s Christian past during two mission trips he took with the church during the past six months. He also noticed Italy’s spiritual darkness. Despite the nation’s history, very few people … [Read more...]
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