CANTON – Wyaconda Baptist Church is marking its historic past with an optimistic eye to the future. The church will mark 190 years of overcoming city, county, and association boundaries, along with membership challenges, war, weather, pestillence, and a fire. It is the Mt. Salem/Wyaconda Southern Baptist Association’s and Lewis County’s oldest Baptist church and may be the oldest church in the county of any denomination. A special afternoon service occurred Sunday, Aug. 25. “After a … [Read more...]

CENTERTOWN – The members of New Hope Baptist Church here helped to organize a back-to-school supply giveaway for their community, Aug. 3. The church has participated in this outreach event since 2005, working in partnership with a local ministerial alliance. Since the church is located about 7 miles north of Centertown, the school-supply giveaway is held elsewhere in town. New Hope Baptist works with area schools to find out what supplies students need for their classes, and they work … [Read more...]

EL DORADO – The First Baptist Church here sponsored a back-to-school fair, Aug. 12, to support families in the community.During the fair, there was vision and hearing tests for children, as well as a free backpack give-away; the backpacks were full of school supplies. Students also received a pair of new shoes. “We acquire the specific list of needed supplies for each grade from the local school. Each child will receive a backpack filled with all of the required supplies for their grade … [Read more...]

LA PLATA – Just because public school teachers don’t wear their testimony on their sleeves doesn’t mean Christian educators stop being followers of Jesus when they set foot inside their classroom. Just ask Billy Pippin. Pippin teaches elementary special education in La Plata, in north-central Missouri. A 21-year veteran of the classroom, he is also an ordained minister of the gospel and a member of First Baptist, La Plata. He “lucked into teaching,” he says. His mom, aunt, and cousins all … [Read more...]

LEBANON – Members of Hillcrest Baptist Church here are “standing in the gap” for local schools by praying on site for administrators, teachers, staff and students as the school year begins. They prayer-walked at several area schools on the evenings of Aug. 7 and Aug. 11, said Hillcrest Pastor David Brown. “Several of our folks don’t have direct ties to the school,” said Brown, whose wife Gena is a teacher. “So it has strengthened those ties and helped with year-long recognition – more … [Read more...]

O’FALLON – Hundreds of people heard the gospel and nine professed faith in Christ, July 22-27, during Engage O’Fallon, an evangelistic initiative organized by the First Baptist Church here. The initiative was modeled after the Southern Baptist Convention’s (SBC) Crossover events, which feature evangelistic outreach projects in the host city of the SBC annual meeting. It is also part of a larger effort by FBC O’Fallon to reach the 20,000 homes in their ZIP code with the gospel of … [Read more...]

OWENSVILLE – After a schedule trial and error method, Mount Pleasant Baptist Church outside of Owensville discovered a winning and unusual time for Vacation Bible School. “We started VBS on Wednesday night,” Dennis Spurgeon, pastor, said, “then, Thursday and Friday nights. On Saturday morning, we met 9-11:30 with our last session on Sunday morning.” “This schedule just clicked for us,” Donna Spurgeon, VBS director and pastor’s wife, said. “We are a small country church 13 miles south of … [Read more...]

ST. JOSEPH – As the neighborhoods on the south side of St. Joseph change and evolve, Journey Baptist Church is changing and evolving right alongside it – by keeping things the same: the gospel. “We do things like highway clean up and host Girl Scouts as a way to remind the community that we’re here, we care, we love them and are concerned about their physical needs,” said pastor Jacob McMillian. “That might get people into the church, but they’re going to stay because of the Gospel of … [Read more...]