Craig Webb

Assistant Executive Director for Assist – Dr. Craig Webb HPBC 2020 Annual Meeting Report for November 2019 – October 2020

Thank you for the privilege of serving Hawaii Pacific Baptists. As I work alongside the HPBC staff team, my primary areas of focus include leadership development, theological training, pastor development, church revitalization, pastor and family support, and communications.

As we see every Hawaii Pacific Baptist Church working together to be leaders in impacting God’s Kingdom throughout the Pacific and Asia, my role primarily supports our strategy to build and sustain a stronger Kingdom network of like-minded churches and ministry partners to facilitate God’s Kingdom through Hawaii Pacific Baptists. I also seek to fulfil our vision to leverage the SBC network in positive Kingdom relationships and provide excellent resources for Hawaii Pacific Baptist churches.

Of the three areas of focus in our team, advance, assist, and accounting, my primary responsibility is “assist” or a focus on assisting existing churches. The team I lead includes Dr. Robert Miller, Director of Regional Ministries, and Diana Ventura, Director of Women’s Ministries.

I have worked this year with Dr. Robert Miller to develop training opportunities for pastors and church staff in the area of theology, pastoral care, and leadership. We continue to explore and implement ways to inform and resource pastors through online, remote, and on campus seminary training. In developing ways to provide ongoing training for lay leaders, we are leveraging our SBC network to bring the best opportunities for training and development.

We are currently helping several churches in transition and are developing strategies to help many HPBC churches who are facing transitions (pastor-less churches, retiring pastors, churches in need of revitalization). The networks we are leveraging include NAMB, IMB, Lifeway, and the Revitalization Network.

I have also worked with Diana Ventura in her new role as Director of Women’s ministries. Her role includes support for WMU, Women’s Ministry, and Wives in Ministry. We are working together to leverage our SBC networks including WMU, IMB, LifeWay, and other like-minded churches and ministries. We are both working on plans to support the long-term health of our pastors, staff, and wives in ministry through ongoing connections, retreats, and gatherings.

As I look back to November 2019 through mid-February 2020, I treasure the countless pre-Covid inperson interactions, gatherings, training events, and meals. These include New Worker’s Orientation, Missions College, the 2019 Annual Meeting, fellowship on Hawaii Island with Pastors, Church Revitalization training in Texas, and travel to Japan in February 2020.

While part of our visit to Mainland Japan, South Korea, and Okinawa in February was cut short due to Covid-19 travel restrictions, Barbara and I were still able to have valuable in-person meetings in Yokohama and Tokyo, Japan. I was able to preach and provide and afternoon of training for deacons at Yokohama International Baptist. Barbara and I were able to spend time with the pastors, wives, and staff of three Asia Baptist Network churches (Yokohama International Baptist, Tokyo Baptist, and Mariposa House Christian Fellowship) and six IMB field personnel. While we had to abort our trip to South Korea and Okinawa, we have made up for this by e-mail communication and Zoom meetings in the following weeks.

Since mid-February, my attention has been on working with the HPBC team in providing current and practical information and guidance for our pastors and other church leaders regarding coronavirus restrictions. We have been able to provide clear direction and resources for moving worship online, online giving, online small groups, and other options for keeping the church informed and connected. I have worked with our team to provide pastors and church leaders this content through our website, email blasts, social-media posts, online training, and one-on-one phone calls.

During the early days of the Covid-19 shutdown in April and May, I worked to provide online preaching and worship content for two pastor-less churches during the social distancing orders including Central Baptist and Living Faith Baptist. We shared the pre-recorded Central Baptist worship services with First Baptist Nanakuli and Kaunakakai Baptist (Molokai). This process helped me understand what so many of our pastors had to do in order to communicate with and minister to their congregations.

To leverage the SBC network in positive Kingdom relationships and provide excellent resources for Hawaii Pacific Baptist churches, I worked with our HPBC team to host an online training event to learn “Best Practices for Online Groups” from Ken Braddy, LifeWay’s Director of Sunday School and two other Adult Ministry Specialists. We also hosted an online training with Ken Braddy on “24 Questions Your Church Should Answer Before People Return.”

I enjoyed supporting the weekly pastors and church leaders Zoom gathering that Chris Martin hosted each Wednesday at noon from April through mid-August. In mid-August, we transitioned this Wednesday gathering to a new format called “The Wednesday Forum.” In this new format, we engaged some of the hot topics circulating among pastors and leaders across the Hawaii Pacific Baptist Convention regarding ministry during the continued effects of the Pandemic. This was done via Zoom Video. Our staff team rotated responsibilities to present the topic, then pastors and church leaders discuss the topic in virtual “breakout rooms”, then return to the larger group to share best practices. We recorded these sessions, post-produced them, and shared them online. We did this together as part of our strategy to provide excellent resources for our churches and to position them to be engaged and influential in the areas God calls them.

During the month of May, many of the indicators led us to believe that Hawaii would lag way behind other states in allowing churches to re-gather for in-person worship services. That changed overnight. Kauai, then Oahu, followed by Hawaii Island, Guam, Korea, Japan, and finally Maui, allowed regathering of places of worship. Our team worked hard to research the sometimes confusing and conflicting communications from officials and share that with pastors and church leaders. We also compiled best-practices and guidelines to help churches re-gather. We used social media, website, zoom meetings, and mass e-mails to get this information to pastors and church leaders in a timely manner. Some of the other ways we helped churches included: equipping churches to survey their congregations to gauge readiness/expectations; counseling church leaders on what they needed to do to prepare their campus and their congregation to re-gather; sharing church’s stories on social media and in the Pacific Connector. All this was done as part of our strategy to provide excellent resources for Hawaii Pacific Baptist churches and to position Hawaii Pacific Baptist churches to be engaged and influential in the areas God calls them.

To build and sustain a stronger Kingdom network of like-minded churches through excellent communication I worked with our HPBC team, the HPBC Communications Committee, and our partners at Innovative Faith Resources to produce seven editions of the Pacific Connector between Nov. 2019 and the edition that is being published for the 2020 Virtual Annual Meeting. This bi-monthly

publication is one of the primary ways for Hawaii Pacific Baptists to learn about, celebrate, and pray for their sister churches. We have sought to dedicate the majority of the pages to telling the story of how Hawaii Pacific Baptists are working together to be leaders in God’s Kingdom throughout the Pacific and Asia.

We have also worked together to provide regular communication updates through e-mail, website, and social media. The primary focus of this communication is to tell the story of what God is doing as Hawaii Pacific Baptists work together to be leaders in impacting God’s Kingdom throughout the Pacific and Asia. The secondary focus is to make Hawaii Pacific Baptists aware of excellent resources and opportunities for connection, training, and being on mission together. All this was done as part of our strategy to provide excellent resources for Hawaii Pacific Baptist churches and to position Hawaii Pacific Baptist churches to be engaged and influential in the areas God calls them.

While we had to cancel our in-person Pastors Retreat in May, on Monday, June 29, 2020 we hosted a gathering of Hawaii Pacific Baptist pastors via Zoom with guest speaker, Dr. Rodney Woo of International Baptist Church of Singapore. The purpose of the retreat was for pastors to fellowship, connect with, encourage each other, and to receive equipping and exhortation. 40 pastors from the Hawaiian Islands, Bangkok, Okinawa, Mainland Japan, South Korea, Guam, and Texas participated in this 2-hour event. Teaching content is available on our Vimeo page (https://vimeo.com/434103769).

Responses to a follow-up survey expressed appreciation for the strong teaching from Dr. Woo and an appreciation for the fellowship during the breakout discussions. Several respondents expressed that they would like more opportunity for this type of small-group discussion with pastors. The retreat was intended to fulfil our strategy to empower and mobilize the churches of the HPBC by providing excellent resources for Hawaii Pacific Baptist churches.

While we were not able to travel to see pastors face-to-face, our team has made a special we have made an effort to “check-in” with pastors by phone, e-mail, and text using a rotating list we have been using since early May 2020. These check-ins have continued to bear fruit to help fulfil our strategy to build and sustain a stronger Kingdom network of like-minded churches and ministry partners to facilitate God’s Kingdom through Hawaii Pacific Baptists.

The pandemic also brought challenges to our pastor-less churches. The churches who have been without a lead or senior pastor in 2020 include Songtan Central (Pyongtaek, South Korea), Waianae on Oahu (currently with long-term Interim), Central on Oahu, Cornerstone Fellowship Mililani Mauka on Oahu (currently with long-term Interim), Haleiwa on Oahu, Mt. Ka’ala on Oahu, Nanakuli on Oahu (currently with long-term Interim), Mililani on Oahu, Kaunakakai on Molokai (currently with long-term Interim), and Waikoloa on Big Island (currently with long-term Interim). Our team is helping these churches by providing or coordinating pulpit supply, pastor search committee training, vetting candidates, and coordinating background checks. We are doing so to build and sustain a stronger Kingdom network in order to position these pastor-less churches to be engaged and influential in the areas God calls them. We also seek to empower and mobilize these pastor-less churches by providing excellent resources for them.

Another fallout of the worldwide pandemic was displaced IMB Missionaries. 150 IMB missionary units (a unit is an individual, couple, or family) were displaced from a security sensitive East Asian country. We received a request in late June to assist in the housing of some of these displaced IMB missionaries from the East Asian Peoples Affinity. While Mike Martin and Lisa Tabudlo provided logistical support,

my role has been communicating the need to churches and working with Brian Smart on finding ways for these IMB missionaries to serve Hawaii Pacific Baptist while they are here. We have done this as part of our partnership with IMB East Asia Affinity Group. This also fulfils our strategy to build and sustain a stronger Kingdom network as we leverage the SBC network in positive Kingdom relationships. We hosted 6 missionary units on Oahu in July. At the beginning of October, 2 of these units have moved to their new permanent assignment with IMB.

As International Mission Trips were cancelled due to Covid-19 travel restrictions, we worked with the IMB East Asian Peoples Affinity Group to plan, promote, and implement our first “Discover Japan & East Asia Virtual Mission Trip.” This online event took place Monday, September 28, 2020 via Zoom. While we hoped to involve 50 Hawaii Pacific Baptist pastors and leaders, nearly 160 Hawaii Pacific Baptists on The Big Island, Maui, Oahu, Kauai, Guam, Manila in the Philippines, and both Okinawa and Mainland Japan joined over 40 International Mission Board Personnel live and by video in Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Virginia, as well as Fukuoka, Kobe, Yokohama, and Tokyo, Japan for an amazing Virtual Missions Experience. This was part of our ongoing strategy to leverage the SBC network in positive Kingdom relationships and provide excellent resources for Hawaii Pacific Baptist churches. It is also a part of our ongoing partnership with IMB’s East Asian Peoples Affinity Group.

The last big project of this reporting period is the 2020 HPBC Virtual Annual Meeting. It’s been a privilege to work with Dawn Akutagawa, HPBC Executive Ministry Assistant, along with Arrangements Committee Chair, Pastor Larry Hale (Eleele Baptist, Kauai), and Programs Committee Chair, Shane Okimoto (Waikea Baptist Bible, Hawaii Island), and the HPBC staff team to gather 22 separate elements of the annual meeting into a 70-minute professionally produced video by Innovative Faith Resources. This video will be “premiered live” on Facebook @hawaiibaptist on Thursday, November 5, 2020, 3pm HST. It will also be made available on our Vimeo Page (vimeo.com/hpbcvideo). We believe this virtual annual meeting will help us to fulfil our vision of seeing every Hawaii Pacific Baptist Church working together to be leaders in impacting God’s Kingdom throughout the Pacific and Asia. We are hoping and praying that this online event will also help us to accomplish our strategy to build and sustain a stronger Kingdom network of like-minded churches and ministry partners to facilitate God’s Kingdom through Hawaii Pacific Baptists and fulfil accomplish our strategy to leverage the SBC network in positive Kingdom relationships.