TOBIN PERRY /Baptist Press MACOMB, Mich. (BP) – Scott Blanchard is familiar with all the public perceptions of Detroit and its surrounding area: It’s dying. No one wants to live there. The church can’t thrive in the Motor City. But the fact is, the Detroit-area native and Southern Baptist church planter just doesn’t buy those perceptions. During the past three years as he has planted Lakepointe Church in Macomb, Mich., just outside Detroit, he has seen a different story take … [Read more...]
Church planters help two Quebec university students encounter gospel
ADAM MILLER/Baptist Press LENNOXVILLE, QC (BP) – Canadians easily dismiss Christianity – especially in Quebec. The history of mistrust is woven deep within the fabric of Québécois culture – a culture that’s decidedly Catholic and, at the same time, increasingly secular. But Lucas Aube in Lennoxville, Quebec, has worked to make rejecting Christ a greater challenge than ever among the thousands of students of Bishops University and Champlain College. The immediate response many give to … [Read more...]
Missouri’s Annie Armstrong goal $2M
JEFFERSON CITY – Easter is fast approaching, and that means it istime for the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering to support the efforts of the North American Mission Board (NAMB). Missouri Baptists have set a goal for the 2014 offering of $2 million. That is up from the $1.75 million goal last year, since Missourians blew by the goal and gave $2,002,727.17. The nationwide goal is $70 million for ministry across the country, including in Missouri. This year’s week of prayer for NAMB … [Read more...]
God carries Poplar Bluff native through hurdles to plant NYC’s Graffiti 2
SARA SHELTON/Baptist Press NEW YORK (BP) – High school student Shamar Smith has been attending Graffiti 2 Community Ministries’ after-school program for years. Raised in the South Bronx neighborhood of Mott Haven, Shamar is no stranger to the lifestyle and perils that mark the lives of many in the neighborhood; his own brother is already serving out a sentence on Rikers Island, New York’s primary jail complex. Had he not found his safe haven at Graffiti 2, Shamar knows his path might … [Read more...]
NAMB announces 2015 Send Conference date, location
By Adam Miller ALPHARETTA, Ga. - The North American Mission Board (NAMB) is developing plans for its 2015 Send North America Conference slated for Aug. 3-4 at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. This will be the third time NAMB has hosted the conference to encourage, equip and mobilize lay leaders in local congregations to penetrate lostness in North America. Almost 2,000 people attended the Send North America Conference at First Baptist Church Woodstock, Ga., in 2012. The … [Read more...]
On Mission magazine debuts redesign
Joe Conway/North American Mission Board ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP) – The North American Mission Board’s (NAMB) flagship publication, On Mission, has undergone a redesign, and something of a re-launch, with the New Year. “Beginning with the current issue, we have begun to organize the magazine around the themes of gospel, mission and ministry,” said Aaron Coe, NAMB vice president for mobilization and marketing and editor in chief of On Mission. “This makes the magazine a tool for use in our … [Read more...]
Ezell: We must redefine success for churches
Mike Ebert/NAMB INDIANAPOLIS – Kevin Ezell told trustees of the North American Mission Board that he is determined to help pastors and laypeople redefine what success looks like for their churches. “Success cannot be defined based on how many people a church keeps,” Ezell told trustees gathered for their Feb. 5 meeting. “We must help them redefine success based on how many a church sends. Churches are designed to be sending agencies.” As Ezell addressed the entity’s leaders, winds … [Read more...]
TOBIN PERRY/North American Mission Board KANSAS CITY – Church planter Luis Mendoza didn’t know he was a church planter when he started doing it more than 20 years ago. A new believer, in the late 1980s, Mendoza thought building relationships with non-Christians, sharing Christ and starting up new Bible studies was just what Christians did. “I became a believer in 1989 when I came here to this country,” said Mendoza, a North American Mission Board (NAMB) church planter now in Kansas … [Read more...]
Elliff: Southern Baptists taking gospel to the world
Laura Fielding/International Mission Board CHARLOTTE, N.C. (BP) – In a “Thanksgiving report” to International Mission Board (IMB) trustees during their Nov. 7-8 meeting in Charlotte, N.C. , IMB President Tom Elliff expressed gratitude to God for Southern Baptists’ support of IMB through the Cooperative Program and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. Elliff also expressed thanksgiving for the untiring work and interest of IMB trustees, the dedication of IMB personnel in the U.S. and … [Read more...]
Missionaries say God reoriented their lives
Marie Curtis/International Mission Board RICHMOND, Va. (BP) – John* had his comfortable American life all arranged. Moving up the corporate ladder, he was successful in a plywood company and looked forward to his next opportunity. “I planned on being somebody,” John said. “Money and recognition were my main motives for getting up every day.” But when he spoke to a missionary appointment service Nov. 10, he had a different story to tell. “I was planning on making a name for … [Read more...]
Workers in the Harvest (WITH) making disciples
Missionaries working in Turkey once took me to the place where they believe Paul received his “Macedonian Call,” which Luke recorded in Acts 16. The hill looked out over straits that separated us in Asia from a gray sliver of land over in Europe. Most of us with a European heritage appreciate the westward advance of the gospel. We live in a state that commemorates with a 630’ tall Arch America’s westward advance. And believers in Missouri appreciate that pioneers took the gospel with … [Read more...]
Baptist tornado relief continues in Midwest
By Tobin Perry KOKOMO, Ind. – For many exhausted homeowners in Kokomo, Ind., working around the clock to clean up their homes, Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (SBDR) has been a welcome reprieve. SBDR volunteer Karol Jones, a member of Ladoga Baptist Church in Jamestown, Ind., says over and over this week she has talked to worn-out homeowners who can’t believe Southern Baptists would help them—even in the midst of freezing rain—with cleanup, yet not ask anything in return. One … [Read more...]
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