RAYTOWN – The first step to weathering a disaster is being prepared. The same goes for ministry, but doubly so when that ministry takes place during a disaster, and may involve cleaning out flooded basements, sawing away downed trees, cooking thousands of hot meals for communities in crisis or lending a patient ear to listen to a survivor’s story. Gaylon Moss, director of Disaster Relief for the Missouri Baptist Convention, said training is essential for those who are interested in serving … [Read more...]
Ready Conference at Midwestern Seminary equips youth to defend their faith
Midwestern Seminary welcomed over 1,000 students from more than 90 local and regional churches on Jan. 24-25 for its annual Ready Conference, which exists to equip the youth of the church to defend their faith. This conference—which is based off of Jude, verse 3—encourages students to be ready to defend “the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints”—featured main sessions from speakers Sam Bierig, Cam Triggs, Jared Bumpers, and Noe Garcia, and included a number of breakout … [Read more...]
Truman State BSU adopts cheerleaders
KIRKSVILLE – It all started with a fundraising car wash one Saturday in July. Missouri Baptist Convention collegiate campus missionary Greg Xander and his wife stopped to have their car washed by a group of cheerleaders from Truman State University, where he does college ministry. Through talking with the coach while waiting for their car, they learned that the cheerleading team doesn’t receive funding from the university. The cheerleaders were back at school for the next week-and-a-half … [Read more...]
Priceless: Decades after decision to save premature twins, Marrs family advocates for life
KANSAS CITY – Matt Marrs and his youth group were stopping at a restaurant in Dallas on the way back from a mission trip to Houston when a waitress handed him a life-changing message: “Your wife is in labor.” That message would send any dad-to-be in a flurry to the nearest airport. For Matt, it also sent a rush of alarm through him. His wife, Kerry, was carrying twins. Her due date was still over 14 weeks away. Matt caught the first flight back to Kansas City, where the doctors revealed … [Read more...]
Costephens leaving Ferguson for Navy chaplaincy
FERGUSON – After serving four years as pastor of First Baptist Church in Ferguson, Pastor Joe Costephens is entering the U.S. Navy as a chaplain. He will be entering as a lieutenant, and after training he will be attached to a Marine unit. He grew up in the North County region of St. Louis, part of the First Baptist Church, Ferguson. After seminary he and his wife, Sarah, planted a church in 2009 called Passage Community Church in nearby Florissant. In 2015 that church merged with First … [Read more...]
Rondon challenges lawmakers: ‘live prayerfullly’
JEFFERSON CITY – Captain Jose Rondon held the attention of more than 400 elected officials of all political stripes, their staff and guests Jan. 8 as he challenged them to three “resolutions” for 2020 based on Philippians 4:6: “Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” It was the 15th annual legislative prayer service hosted by the Missouri Baptist Convention’s Christian Life Commission and Concord Baptist … [Read more...]
Mo. churches seek to break ‘Lottie’ record
JEFFERSON CITY – Missouri Baptists set a goal of $4 million for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions during the 2019 Christmas season, but Missouri Baptist Convention executive director John Yeats wanted to see that goal shattered on the way to record giving in Missouri. “In 2015, the Lottie Moon Offering from Missouri Baptist churches hit its highest peak at $4,244,074 (we cannot find any amount in our records that is higher),” he said. “It is about time we hit a … [Read more...]
Christmas blessings: Child joins new family for the holidays
DURHAM – This is a story of a birth celebrated in December. No, not that birth, the Savior, but an adoption with providential seasonal timing. When John and Lindsey Bedsworth were engaged in Aug. 2015, they began planning a family and married four months later. “We thought we’d have one child of our own and adopt one or two. There were difficulties. We tried having children for three years unsuccessfully, and invitro fertilization failed in May 2018,” said John, Durham Baptist’s pastor … [Read more...]
Christmas concert goes to prison
JEFFERSON CITY – Roughly 150 prison inmates at the Jefferson City Correctional Center (JCCC) celebrated Christmas with a “Festival of Light” concert performed by the orchestra and choir from Concord Baptist Church here, Dec. 16. “One of my goals here is to help the worship ministry become more missional,” Brad Newbold, music pastor at Concord Baptist Church, told The Pathway. While he had been seeking a global mission opportunity for the music ministry, God was working behind the scenes to … [Read more...]
Missouri Baptists set new record for MMO giving
JEFFERSON CITY – Missouri Baptists in 2019 shattered the previous mark for giving to state missions projects through the Rheubin L. South Missouri Missions Offering (MMO), contributing a record $821,722. Total MMO receipts for 2019, which are disbursed in 2020, outpaced the goal of $715,000 by nearly 15 percent and exceeded last year’s hefty offering total of $791,104. The previous highest giving total for MMO in its 35-year history was $802,960, posted in 2000. 2019 marked the seventh … [Read more...]
MBF’s Franks discusses Windermere purchase in exclusive interview
EDITOR’S NOTE: After the Missouri Baptist Foundation’s (MBF) subsidiary Straighway Holdings, Inc. (SHI) purchased Windermere last month (see story, here), MBF and SHI President Neil Franks agree to answered several questions about the purchase. The following is a transcript of the interview. Prior to answering the questions via email, Franks also gave the following statement in writing to The Pathway: “Our goal was to secure the property of the campground commonly known as Windermere … [Read more...]
From foreclosure to ‘greater things’ – Mo. Baptist Foundation subsidiary buys Windermere off courthouse steps
CAMDENTON – The Windermere Baptist Conference Center (WBCC) may have a new lease on life after being bought off the steps of the Camden County Courthouse, Dec. 11, following the campground’s “non-judicial foreclosure.” Straightway Holdings, Inc. (SHI), a subsidiary of the Missouri Baptist Foundation (MBF), put in the highest bid on the courthouse steps, gaining ownership of Windermere for $4.745 million. The property was purchased with a loan from WatersEdge Ministry Services, which “is … [Read more...]