Taking the church to the people

New Metro East church readies to receive Crossover volunteers

Collinsville | Months away from their official launch, David Seaton’s church is already preparing for a slate of summer outreach projects: community work days, door-todoor visits, and a multi-site VBS ending with a party at the local water park.

Collinsville Community Church may be new, but the core team of leaders is getting a lot of practice building relationships in the city of 26,000. In June, they’ll have help from Crossover volunteers in town for the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in St. Louis.

Seaton and his family moved to Collinsville last year to plant the church, and already, around 40 kids and adults are involved in weekly community groups. The church has seen nine people come to faith in Christ since last summer, and three people were baptized in January.

But, “It hasn’t happened like I thought it would happen at all,” said Seaton, a Collinsville native who served IBSA churches in Maryville and Benton before moving back to his hometown with his wife, Emily, and their three kids.

Seaton thought the church would grow through the relationships he had already built in the area. “But God brought people to us who I never met until I moved back to Collinsville.”

The move itself also wasn’t something he had imagined, “but God opened up every door for us to come back here, and now it makes sense because we see what God is doing.”

This summer, the church will host one of dozens of Crossover mission projects ahead of the Southern Baptist Convention. They will partner with Crossover volunteers June 11 to go door-to-door in the community, handing out water bottles with the church’s logo and looking for opportunities to share the gospel. They’ll also invite people to attend Collinsville Community’s second preview service, to be held the next day.

By most estimates, Seaton said, 20,000 Collinsville residents have no connection to an evangelical church. That’s a huge problem, said the church planter. In a community where works-based religion is common, there are a lot of misconceptions about what it means to be in a relationship with God, he said.

The church started as a community group meeting in the Seatons’ home, where the group studied Ephesians. The book’s focus on salvation through faith, and not works, resonated especially with one group member, Seaton’s mother-in-law. She came to faith in Christ a few weeks ago, he said.

The desire to start a new church was planted in Seaton’s heart while serving on staff at Immanuel. Through mission trips he took with the church, he saw the lostness of the world and realized there are lots of people who just aren’t motivated to get out of bed on Sunday morning to go to church. So, the church needs to go to them, Seaton said. His church’s focus is on building relationships, which the planter said they’re trying to do in practical ways and practical places—at the gym, at PTA meetings, and through opportunities to be involved in Collinsville’s community improvement efforts.

In September, Collinsville Community Church will celebrate its first official service at the local Knights of Columbus hall. They’ll take the church to the community, in hopes of reaching some of those 20,000 people. There are people who don’t want to go to church, Seaton said.

“I want to reach them.”

For more information on the Crossover evangelism outreach, go to namb.net/crossover. Go to meba.org/crossover-st-louis-2016 for a full list of Crossover projects in Illinois.

SBC Countdown See you in St. Louis

The theme for the 2016 Southern Baptist Convention is set, and online registration is open for messengers planning to be in St. Louis for the June 14-15 meeting. “Awaken America: Reach the World” continues SBC President Ronnie Floyd’s focus on prayer, unity, and revival.

On his blog, Floyd posted highlights of the 2016 convention, including a second SBC-wide prayer meeting, to be held the evening of Tuesday, June 14. Following last year’s revamped business schedule, the program will again include panel discussions on key issues. This year’s topics are racial unity and the church and politics. Plans for the SBC Pastors’ Conference June 12-13 also are underway, with a list of speakers taking shape at sbcpc.net. The line-up currently includes:

David Platt, president of the International Mission Board

Ed Stetzer, president of LifeWay Research

Greg Laurie, pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship, Riverside, Ca. Jack Graham, pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church, Plano, Tex. James MacDonald, pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel, Chicagoland Byron McWilliams, pastor of First Baptist Church, Odessa, Tex.

Pre-registration for messengers (those who can cast a vote for SBC officers, resolutions and other business matters) is open at sbcannualmeeting.net. Due to changes in the SBC constitution and bylaws, every cooperating church that contributed to convention causes during the last fiscal year can now send two messengers.

In addition, the SBC will recognize up to 10 more messengers from churches. Go to sbc.net/annualmeeting for details.