May of 1987, 18 years ago, was a memorable month for my family and me. Just a few days before the beginning of the month, on April 26, I was ordained to the Gospel Ministry at my home church, University Hills in Charlotte. The second Saturday in May, I graduated from Southeastern Seminary. The following Saturday, my sister graduated from UNC-Charlotte. The following Saturday, May 23, Kim and I were married at First Baptist Church in Raleigh, where I was a member and Kim was on the church staff. About a month later, we moved to Washington, Virginia, where I began my first full-time, post-seminary ministry position as pastor of the Washington Baptist Church, in a rural area of Northern Virginia. It was a busy, stressful, exciting, life-changing time!
As a recent seminary graduate and an active member in a large, strong, “full program” church, I began my ministry in Washington with a clear picture of what a “real” Southern Baptist church should look like. It would have worship and Sunday School on Sunday morning, and supper on Wednesday night, along with programs for children and prayer meeting for adults. It would have about 20 committees to plan and coordinate the church’s many ministries. It would have the “Big 5” church programs: Sunday (continues on page 7)
May 2005
Would you like to give leadership to our fellowship in exploring the Missional Church? Our coordinator is forming a Missional Church Team. The genesis of this group met in Greenville in March in conjunction with the General Assembly. The purpose of the team is to develop ways to share the missional church concept with the CBFNC family through resources, conferences and other media. If you would like to join this group, contact Larry Hovis: LHovis@cbfnc.org 252-917-0583 or 888-822-1944
“499 thank yous and great jobs by planning team, churches, staff, etc.”
“[Friday] night’s missions presentation may be the best I’ve ever experienced – information, inspiration, and (thank you, thank you!) humor!”
“Overall a good assembly – well organized and well attended. I really appreciated all the greeters and helpers from the local churches.”
“The ministry workshops were excellent –this is why I came!”
“I attended my first CBFNC General Assembly . . . . It was fabulous! I was impressed by the emphasis on missions. It was an overwhelming and powerful celebration of missions, filling me with a joy for what CBF is doing in missions and giving me a strong urge to be more personally involved . . . .”
“I’ll be back!”
UPCOMING EVENTS
May 21, 2005
9:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon
CBFNC/BSCNC co-sponsor a Smyth & Helwys Sunday School Literature Workshop
First Baptist, Mebane
For details, see page 7 or call 888-822-1944
June 30 - July 2, 2005
CBF General Assembly
Grapevine, TX
For details, see www.thefellowship.info
July 28, 2005
Youth Event
Wet ‘n Wild Water Park
Emerald Pointe, Greensboro
For details, call 888-822-1944
September 9-11, 2005
Fall Youth Retreat
Myrtle Beach, SC
For details, call 888-822-1944
October 14-15, 2005
CBFNC Minister/Spouse Retreat, “The Careful Life,” led by Chuck Poole
Winston-Salem, NC
For details and registration, see page 4 or call 888-822-1944
ARE YOU & YOUR CHURCH BEING MISSIONAL?
I must begin by expressing my appreciation to everyone involved with the General Assembly held in Greenville on March 1819. The General Assembly Planning Team, with active participation by the CBFNC staff, did a superb job in planning the program and obtaining great leaders for each ministry workshop and worship service.
Oakmont Baptist Church’s beautiful facilities provided an excellent environment for the worship, training and exhibit areas. The Memorial Baptist provided a wonderful meal at a very reasonable price. The staffs and members of both churches went the extra mile to ensure that each person got where he or she needed to be and made all of us feel welcome in their facilities.
Oakmont and The Memorial demonstrated what it means to be missional during this General Assembly. Some would say, “Wait a minute. Those church members did not go to Africa, China or any Third World country.” No, but they did provide facilities, food and a warm welcome to a group of people hungrily seeking to discover God’s plan for their lives and to fulfill His mission through their talents, tithes and offerings.
CBF Coordinator Daniel Vestal said, “Now is the time for individual Christians and churches to discern God’s mission in the world and discover their participation in it.” At this point, these churches have determined that
MAY PRAYER CALENDAR
3Leah Harding, 1992, daughter, Florida
5____________, daughter, unevangelized people group, Southeast Asia
5____________, 2004, son, scripture translation, Asia
9David Harding, CBF International Coordinator–Emergency Response, FL
11Robbi Francovich, work with Banjara Gypsies, India
15____________, 2002, daughter, unevangelized people group, Asia
16____________, daughter, unevangelized people group, North Africa
16____________, 2001, son, unevangelized people group, Asia
17Nell Green, work with internationals, Brussels, Belgium
19Joshua Stocks, 1989, son, Hungary
21Pat Tosan, work with Persian speakers, New Jersey
21Ron Winstead, Emeritus
25Rick Burnette, work with Palaung people, Thailand
26____________, unevangelized people group, Asia
28Laurel Morrow, 1992, daughter, Germany
31Ann Skipper, Envoy, Texas
- DON HORTON, MODERATOR
CBFNC is part of the delivery system for God’s mission in the world and did their part in this assembling of God’s people. Now that spring has arrived, many of us will participate in Operation Inasmuch and many other mission projects. When we participate in these worthwhile projects providing shelter, food, clothing, or services, it is important that we not forget that while we are doing Christ-centered ministry, the greatest gift we can give those we serve is the knowledge of hope for eternal life through the saving grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is that hope that distinguishes the mission work of Christians from all others.
If we are going to be missional as churches or individuals, with God’s help, we must empty ourselves of pride, greed, envy, and other distracting obstacles so that we can be increasingly filled with the Holy Spirit. If we are to share the name of Jesus with others with maximum effectiveness, we must be overflowing with the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Missions have taken on a new perspective in the lives of many who have associated with CBF. While we recognize that Jesus told us to go forth throughout the world, he also modeled a life that met the needs of those that he encountered every day. Whether it was the woman at the well, the blind man, the leper or the tax collector, he met their needs where he was. He did not take up a collection or form a committee. He saw the needs around him and was moved with compassion. That compassion was then followed by action.
What will we do with God’s call for our lives? Will we see as Jesus saw? Will we discern God’s mission in the world and discover our participation in it?
WE WELCOME HESTER BAPTIST CHURCH,
OXFORD, NC, AS A NEW CBFNC PARTNERING CHURCH
place pdf here
“worshipping . . . what fellowship people do”
Fowler’s Forum
Being the Missional Church is empowering the people to use their passion, their gifts and their calling for mission and ministry to be the presence of Christ in the world. It is about being more of who we are as Christians. It can be witnessed in churches that are praying with knowledge of specific needs, going as volunteers and giving to support the world-wide mission effort.
We have a strong heritage of praying responsibly for missions. CBFNC helps churches know about CBF Global Mission work. The Missions Education curriculum will inform members about our work in our world without borders. Each month the church family will learn about a different aspect of Global Missions. Then they can pray together with an understanding of the needs and the ministry work going on all around them.
Churches are encouraged to learn firsthand how we reach the lost and most neglected peoples in the world. Through the AdoptA-People program churches can learn of and be involved in missions to a quarter of the world’s population that has never heard the gospel. Studying about a specific Unreached People Group will help inform the church concerning the needs and blessings of our field personnel in the most difficult areas of the world.
The Global Missions Offerings give us the opportunity to give specifically to support our global missions strategy. Both
CBFNC General Assembly Offering Goes toward Purchase of Water
Filtration System
One of the greatest needs in the aftermath of the Tsunami tragedy of December 2004 is clean water. Systems that filter out contaminated and brackish water and provide life-giving water are expensive. One unit which will provide clean water for a village costs as much as $10,000.
The purchase of one of these units became a goal for CBFNC. With the contributions from the General Assembly Offering and some end-of-year budget monies, we have been able to send $10,000 to CBF Disaster Relief for the purchase of a unit. Similar units have been constructed by NC Baptist Men in Sri Lanka. Since there are several types of units which are used, the picture may not accurately show the exact unit, but our monies will go toward filtration systems as needed in Southeast Asia.
- JIM FOWLER, MISSIONS COORDINATOR
MissionConnect and the Global Missions Offering direct 100% of our monies to Global Missions. There are also many opportunities for members to respond to individual projects such as: The Village of Hope, Kiev; Tsunami relief in India/Sri Lanka; or Hurricane relief in Clyde.
Being involved in Missions has long been a tradition of NC Baptists. Through CBFNC, churches and individuals have found places of service in the communities in which they find themselves and in Ukraine, Morocco, Scotland, Romania, Miami, Helena, Toronto, New Jersey, Kentucky, and on and on.
“. . . be involved in missions to a quarter of the world’s population that has never heard the gospel.”
What is your passion for mission and ministry? Pray, go, and give as God leads.
Rural Poverty Initiative
Partners in Hope – Helena, Arkansas
The ACC (All Church Challenge) is coming back to Helena, Arkansas, June 11 – 17. This year there are 24 churches, many from North Carolina, sending volunteers to be a part of this citywide project. Volunteers will join with local residents to provide ministry to the community in various ways. One way is through a Sports Camp ministry that will teach children how to play baseball, soccer and swimming. A Vacation Bible School-type program will be held each afternoon, and the evenings are filled with family times at the community center. Some groups will be working in the Garden of Eden, while others on home repairs and renovation work on a senior adult community center.
An ongoing project of Partners In Hope is a Reading and Play Center where children can come to check out toys and books and enjoy them in a safe, caring environment. This year the First Baptist Church of Huntsville, Alabama, has contributed their church bus which will be converted into a mobile library. Contributions from CBFNC churches helped to furnish and prepare the bus for use this summer.
Pray for Ben and Leonora as they plan this summer’s ACC and for all the teams that are making preparations for this mission project.
Mark Your Calendars and Watch Your Mailbox!
Wet ‘N Wild Water Park, Greensboro – July 28, 2005 Fall Retreat, Myrtle Beach – September 9-11, 2005
Youth Choir Festival, Greensboro – March 31-April 1, 2006 2006 Spring Retreat – date and location to be announced
For more information, call CBFNC at 888-822-1944. Not on our Youth or Music email list? Send your email address to cbfnc@cbfnc.org and get up-to-the minute updates on all youth or music events.
The Call
“Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys. Don’t let them pick guitars and drive in old trucks Make ‘em be doctors and lawyers and such.”
That song by the great American philosophers Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson could be adapted by those who see the ministry as an ominous career, one burdened with irrational expectations, low pay, no job security and less and less social status. “Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be ministers.” There is reason to be wary. I receive calls weekly from ministers who are being forced out of their roles. As nonconnectional Baptists, there is no job security for the minister. “I’m always one Wednesday night business meeting away from being fired,” one pastor told me. Sometimes I receive calls from ministers who are leaving the Baptist ministry because, as another pastor told me, “I can hardly afford to feed my kids much less put braces on their teeth. The Presbyterians pay better.” And, of course, if you are called to the pastorate, but you happen to be a woman, you have even more hurdles to face.
RICK JORDAN, CHURCH RESOURCES COORDINATOR
soul-trying agonies, to its celebration of a personal relationship with God for now and eternity?
Jack Glasgow, pastor of Zebulon Baptist Church, provided a list of strategies a church could take to cultivate the call, including:
1. Affirm that the primary “vocation” of every Christian is to be a faithful, worthy follower of Jesus.
2. Encourage the discipline of prayer, of living life in dialogue with God, in order to hear God speak to our lives.
Recently, CBFNC co-sponsored a workshop on Creating a Culture for the Call. Our goal was to learn how we can better invite young people to consider the ministry as a career. Dave Odom from the Center for Congregational Health noted, “A missional church is a calling church. It calls every member to be a minister.” Kevin Spears, from The Fund for Theological Education, pointed out the anticipated crisis for the pastoral ministry including a significant percentage of empty pulpits and the worrisome fact that only 7% of clergy are under the age of 35. The FTE offers resources including workshops, consultants for individual churches, an online journal – all free to the local church. They also provide $4000 in matching funds for church scholarships (www.thefund.org).
3. Model healthy clergy-congregation relationships.
4. Give young people experience in church leadership, ministry and mission service.
5. Include a seminary or divinity school student on the church staff or as an intern whenever possible.
Nevertheless, according to recent surveys, most ministers are happy and feel fulfilled in their ministries. Most do not live in or near the poverty level. Most have strong enough relationships to weather the occasional storms that pass through any organization, including the local church. Most see their calling as an amazing gift from God. The calling to be a minister is, like the call to the Christian discipleship, the call to “come and die to yourself” – yet, like the reward for the disciple, the reward for the minister is a “more abundant life” and a more abundant career. There may not be an abundance of “stuff.” (Someone recently said that “accumulation is the heresy of our age.”) But there is an abundance of unique experiences in the role of being the presence of Christ in a wide variety of circumstances. Who else gets to sits with couples before they marry to discuss their love life, their hopes, and their spirituality? Who else gets to lead a prayer in a circle of grieving family members around the bed of their just-deceased loved one? Who else gets paid to spend hours in prayer and Bible study to prepare a lesson or a sermon? Who else gets to guide an organization of volunteers as they seek God’s mission for themselves? Who else gets to plan events that are intended purely to build the fellowship of the group? Who else has the privilege (and the responsibility) to talk with dozens or even hundreds of people about their spiritual life, from its evangelistic birth, through its
Jeff Rogers, pastor of First Baptist Church in Greenville, SC, echoed the call for “every member a minister.” He said, “We don’t need more members in our church. We already have plenty of members, many of whom we seldom see. What we are looking for are more members who see themselves as ministers. When someone joins our church, I always say to them, ‘Welcome to the ministry.’” Although that church does not have a program designed to call persons to consider the ministry as a vocation, many of their young people and adults have gone into or are studying for the ministry. Those who show joy in the ministries they have as members are invited to consider whether that joy may be a call to serve as a professional minister. “We don’t have a program, but we are developing a more conscious effort to help our members connect the dots.”
Waylon and Willie may be right about cowboys. But the Church needs to encourage, “Mamas, please let your babies grow up to be ministers.”
Make Plans Now to Attend the CBFNC Minister/Spouse Retreat
“The Careful Life” from Ephesians 5:15 Guest Speaker: Dr. Chuck Poole
Registration fee: $25 single / $35 couple Hotel: $59
For registration brochure, call CBFNC at 888-822-1944.
CBFNC PARTNERING CHURCHES APRIL 2004 - MARCH 2005
Our 214 partnering (contributing) churches for the 12 months ending March 31, 2005, are listed below alphabetically by city. This list does not include churches who contribute to CBF National only, nor does it includes churches who partner with CBFNC in other non-financial ways. If you believe your church should be listed but it isn’t, or if your church is listed in error, please let us know at (888) 822-1944 or cbfnc@cbfnc.org.
Forest Hills....................................Raleigh Greystone.......................................Raleigh Hayes Barton.................................Raleigh HomeStar Fellowship....................Raleigh Macedonia.....................................Raleigh
New Hope......................................Raleigh Ridge Road....................................Raleigh St. John’s........................................Raleigh Tabernacle......................................Raleigh Triangle ..........................................Raleigh Richfield........................................Richfield
First................................................ Smithfield Sharon............................................Smithfield First................................................Southern Pines Southport....................................... Southport First................................................Spindale Spencer..........................................Spindale Ephesus..........................................Spring Hope First................................................Spruce Pine First................................................Stanfield First................................................Statesville Concord.........................................Stedman First................................................Stoneville First................................................Sylva Antioch.......................................... Taylorsville First................................................Taylorsville Teachey..........................................Teachey First................................................Tryon Heritage.........................................Wake Forest Wake Forest...................................Wake Forest First Fellowship............................. Wallburg First................................................Washington First................................................ Weaverville The Church at Weddington................................. Weddington Weldon........................................... Weldon First................................................West Jefferson Fishing Creek................................Whitakers First................................................Whiteville Mount Zion....................................Whiteville New Hope......................................Whiteville Wilkesboro..................................... Wilkesboro First................................................ Wilmington Masonboro..................................... Wilmington Winter Park ....................................Wilmington First................................................ Wilson Wingate.......................................... Wingate Ardmore .........................................Winston-Salem College Park..................................Winston-Salem Fellowship.....................................Winston-Salem First................................................Winston-Salem Knollwood.....................................Winston-Salem Northwest......................................Winston-Salem Unity..............................................Winston-Salem Westview .......................................Winston-Salem Youngsville....................................Youngsville Zebulon..........................................Zebulon
A MISSIONAL CHURCH PICTURE (continued
from page 1)
School; Discipleship Training; Music Ministry; Womans Missionary Union; and Baptist Men. It would have an annual stewardship campaign. It would have weekly workers’ meetings for Sunday School teachers.
It was amazing to me that Washington Baptist Church (with around 75 in attendance on a good Sunday) had managed to survive for over a hundred years without most of those things! They had Sunday School and worship on Sunday morning, but no weekly workers’ meetings. In fact, they
Community context, congregational history, and the gifts, talents and passions of members should determine a church’s mission, ministries and organization, not a pre-determined template . . .
didn’t even use literature from the Sunday School Board! In addition to preaching on Sunday morning and providing pastoral care, I understood my main responsibility to be to organize them into a “full program” church, just like FBC-Raleigh.
Eighteen years of pastoral ministry later, my view of what constitutes a “real” church has changed. Developing a complex church organization according to a “cookie cutter” model from a denominational manual is no longer a worthy goal. Instead, I now
understand that every congregation is unique and has a distinct mission. The challenge facing ministers and congregational leaders is to help their church discover and fulfill its unique God-given mission. No two churches need to look alike or act alike. Community context, congregational history, and the gifts, talents and passions of members should determine a church’s mission, ministries and organization, not a pre-determined template from a denomination or another congregation.
Additionally, the programs or ministries or organizational structures that enable a congregation to accomplish its mission one year or one period may not be the programs or ministries or organization that will enable that same congregation to accomplish its mission another year or period. The “wine” of the church’s message doesn’t change, but the “wineskin” through which the message is shared needs to change with the times.
This is a new way of thinking for many of us who have been nurtured and trained in a 20th century denominational, programcentered model. But it is a shift in thinking we must make if we are going to be effective stewards of the Gospel in the 21st century. One word that is being used now to describe this view of the church is “missional.” The emphasis on the missional church is something we are taking very seriously in CBFNC. It is the leading Directional Point in our strategic plan. To be honest, there is still much I
You are Invited to a Smyth & Helwys Sunday School Literature Workshop
Co-Sponsored by Smyth & Helwys, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina, and Baptist State Convention of North Carolina
Saturday, May 21, 2005 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon
First Baptist Church 301 S. Third St. Mebane, North Carolina
No charge and no pre-registration required. For more information, call CBFNC at 888-822-1944.
- LARRY HOVIS, COORDINATOR
don’t understand about the concept of the missional church. It defies simple definition or exact description. Like the Kingdom of God, it’s easier to picture than explain. I can’t tell you what it is, but I know it when I see it.
Missional churches vary in age, worship style, facilities, staffing, organizational structure, and in just about every category. Missional churches take missions seriously, but having a missions program doesn’t make a church missional. Missional churches live out the Scriptures, are led by the Spirit and share the presence of Christ within their membership and in the world. Missional churches aren’t perfect and are willing to experience failure in an effort to be faithful.
I expect you’ll hear the term, “missional church,” much more in the coming months and years (I believe far beyond the scope of the current three-year strategic plan). More importantly, I pray that you’ll join with others in the CBF family to embark on the missional journey. Our congregations won’t all look or act or minister the same, but we will experience common joy and fulfillment in service to our One Lord.
