N.C. Baptists take the gospel into neighborhoods
A Biblical Recorder staff report
Just as members of the early Christian church frequently took the message of God's love and ministered to people in their own communities, so N.C. Baptists are taking the gospel to their neighborhoods.
Roberdel Church, Rockingham, began the process of "re-visioning" in 1996. Re-visioning is a way for churches to bridge the gap between what they are and what they should be. |
Learning to Plant at Fruitland
At Fruitland Baptist Bible Institute in Hendersonville, students are learning how to reach into the community in a new class on the topic of church planting.Students learn about starting new congregations and ministering to different needs, then get hands-on experience by putting into practice everything they've learned.
"I want to be one of those preachers who can get out and do things," said Fruitland student Craig Ratliff, adding he wants to make certain he reaches the lost world around him.
Classmate David Blackwelder feels God has called him to be a minister, but he doesn't see himself as "a conventional-church type." He believes that church planting might just be the unconventional work for which he is best suited. The class will teach him how.
Originated through the Church Extension Department and the Missions Division of the Baptist State Convention (BSC) of North Carolina, the church planting curriculum is taught by Mike Eller, Ken Holland and Pam Mungo, all BSC General Board staff members. They hope at least eight new congregations will be formed as a result of the students' work.
Church Planters Find Congregation
Davis and Mary Kay McGuirt are doing the work being taught at Fruitland. While many church planters build congregations "from scratch," the McGuirts are working in a church that has been around for three years.The McGuirts, church planter apprentices with the North American Mission Board, had a congregation waiting for them when they arrived at Central Church in Lexington.
Members already were involved in the community, ministering regularly to neighbors and helping those who are hurting find healing. They also wanted to move from temporary space to a worship center where they and the rest of the community could minister together.
What the members needed most to fulfill their desires was a vision. With the McGuirts' help, Central Church's members are working on a vision that includes ministry, prayer, observing the ordinances, fellowship and worship - all with others in their community.
Asheboro's First Church Dreams
Some older churches are finding new ways to minister.
Paula Settle (far right), the new chaplain at Coleridge Road Apartments in Asheboro, poses with a few of her neighbors. |
For the next two summers, church members sponsored activities at the complex including Bible clubs, but members still believed there was more to be done. Their answer came in the form of Paula Settle, who was interested in a multihousing ministry.
She has moved into the complex and is meeting her neighbors to find out the kinds of programs that interest them. As a full-time chaplain, Settle is charting new territory for mission work, hoping to offer tutoring classes for children and to enroll adults in high school equivalency, parenting and citizenship classes.
Outreach Ministry Under Way
The members of Parkwood Church, Concord, are also reaching out to people in their community. To meet their desire to bring the message of God's love to a nearby apartment complex, they called Jonas Perez as outreach and community missions director.Parkwood members tried for years to work with residents at nearby Huntington apartment complex by holding block parties and Christmas socials. Now with Perez and his family living at the complex, results already are being seen as Perez leads Bible studies, has established a kid's club, and offers after-school tutoring.
While the spiritual and physical needs of the apartment residents who do not regularly attend church are now being met on a higher level, Perez is finding satisfaction in his own life. When he left Venezuela and his career as an architect in 1996 to come to the United States for religious higher education, he had no idea what the Lord had in store for him.
Soon after the Perez family joined Parkwood, the outreach projects in the Huntington complex began and Perez had his answer. His work is sponsored in part by the BSC through its state mission program.
'Re-visioning' in Rockingham
The members of Roberdel Church, Rockingham, looked at their future needs and those of the community. The process, called "re-visioning," took place over the summer and began with surveys of the congregation and the community.Church members said they wanted a daycare, a preschool and recreational and discipleship opportunities, while people in the community were interested in daycare, literacy, marriage enrichment and money-management classes. The question was how to balance the family-related concerns of the church and the personal and spiritual needs of the community.
With the encouragement of ministers Mike Eller, Ron Bruce and Jack Lee, church members came up with a vision: to exalt, evangelize and equip. That means promoting meaningful worship, reaching the unsaved and developing disciples -- to be a visible and powerful force in the spiritual development of the community.
Since then, the congregation has designated $8,000 of the church budget for local missions, and members are involved in Habitat for Humanity and at local homeless shelters.
Eller, who was pastor of the church, now works for Tar Heel Baptists' church extension department, leading other churches through the revisioning process.
