Today’s From the States features items from:
The Alabama Baptist
Baptist and Reflector (Tennessee)
The Baptist Message (Louisiana)
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Ala. church staff ‘gives everything’
in part-time, bivocational capacities
By Anna Keller
MAYLENE, Ala. (The Alabama Baptist) — Some might say Community Baptist Church in Maylene, Ala., has an impressive list of ongoing ministries as well as several ventures on the horizon for 2017.
One of those ventures includes plans to partner with Flatbush Reformed Dutch Church in Long Island, N.Y., for its first long-term partnership.
Some of the other ministries Community Baptist is a part of include hosting a “Night to Shine” — a prom night for kids 14 and older with special needs — in partnership with the Tim Tebow Foundation; an ongoing Community Women Connecting ministry which will host a retreat in late April; and helping provide women with tools to grow in their relationships with each other and with God.
The church is vibrant, with attendance consistently around 350 to 400.
And one more detail — none of the church staff members are full-time.
Each staff member works either in a part-time position or serves bivocationally, juggling a “day job” alongside his or her ministry role.
Matt Monk, who has served as the church’s education minister since 2010, also works as an internal coding auditor for Brookwood Baptist Health in Birmingham. He says something that’s been critical to Community Baptist’s staff success has been to intentionally cultivate strong relationships with the church’s deacons and lay leaders.
Working together
“For a bivocational church to be successful and grow, the staff must work hand-in-hand with the deacons and lay leaders,” Monk said. “The deacons don’t run the church or act like ‘church bosses’ but they serve the church by supporting and providing accountability to the staff as well as minister to our church members. Without a strong deacon body we would not be able to do what God has called us to do. We also have strong lay leaders that we work with to make sure each age group is ministered to in our church.”
Monk credits the church’s emphasis on technology as being important to its ministry success as well. These channels help both church members and staff feel connected easily, he said. Community Baptist regularly uses email, Skype, Facebook, Periscope and other online outlets to communicate with members, sharing event reminders, prayer requests and more. They use Periscope to live-stream their Sunday services, and one Sunday School class started using Facebook Live to allow those who can’t attend to be a part of the lesson.
Bo Brown, who works as an assistant module manager for the Social Security Administration in addition to serving as the church’s pastor, advises other churches to ensure the correct staff becomes part of the team, especially if the church needs to rely on part-time and/or bivocational staff.
“What I mean by ‘the right staff’ is to hire those who do not see the job as part-time or as a stepping stone but instead are called by God to your church and have a heart to change the world,” Brown said. “Vision and leadership come from the top down so having a staff that will not settle and always have a burning desire to build God’s Kingdom is key.”
Enabling not only staff to be who God has called them to be, but also making sure volunteers and other lay leaders have license to bring their gifts and callings to the table, has helped their church thrive too. Brown has seen others carry more than their weight to keep ministry, outreach and other programs and tasks going.
’50/50′
“They say that statistically 10 percent of the people in a church do 90 percent of the work but in our church it’s more 50/50,” Brown said. “Bivocational ministry makes Acts 2:41–47 come to life, seeing everyone — every church member — take a servant role toward one another.
“For the record, there is no such thing in our church as ‘part-time,'” Brown said. “We all give everything we have to a God who deserves our best.”
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This article appeared in The Alabama Baptist (thealabamabaptist.org), newsjournal of the Alabama Baptist Convention. Anna Keller is a correspondent for The Alabama Baptist.
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Tenn. church gives
facility to church plant
By Connie Davis Bushey
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (Baptist and Reflector) — Phil Young hoped the meeting would go well. He was going to meet with Gayland Heights Baptist Church members to discuss options. The congregation had declined to a very small group of older members.
Young, director of missions for the Knox County Association of Baptists, proposed several revitalization ideas, including sharing their facility with a church plant. Of course, the church could close and give its property to the association.
Thankfully, the meeting went well, he recalled. The small group was very open minded, said Young.
Soon they had contacted him to say they would like to share their facility with a church plant. Unfortunately, Young didn’t know of a church plant to recommend at that time.
Then a week or so later, he was visited by Jim Florea, a church planter who had been called by God to Knoxville and was preparing to plant a church in North Knoxville. Young asked Florea to consider South Knoxville and the neighborhood of Gayland Heights Baptist because another church planter was targeting North Knoxville and because of the recent contact by Gayland Heights.
Though initially put off by the request, Florea replied smiling, “Well, my vision is written in pencil so God can do what He wants.”
Soon Florea and some of his leadership team attended a Gayland Heights service and met the members. The church planting team began attending regularly as they continued praying about planting the church God was leading them to plant.
Two months later, in November, Gayland Baptist members decided to merge with the fledgling church, to be called Forward Church.
“It’s absolutely amazing. It’s kind of unheard of in my opinion,” said Florea, citing the wisdom, charity and foresight of the members.
Then the leadership team of about 10 people of Forward Church got to work, which has been frutiful, reported Florea, Young, and Steve Tiebout (tah-boo), pastor, The River Community Church in Cookeville, which is sponsoring Forward Church.
Forward Church drew about 60 people to its first preview service on Feb. 12, “which was really exciting to us,” reported Florea. The launch service will be held on Palm Sunday.
Work to plant a church
“I almost feel like I’m standing on the shoulders of giants,” said Florea of the gift by Gayland Heights Baptist which was started about 100 years ago. “It’s a beautiful thing.”
Florea, who planted a church in Nashville, knows of the hard work required. This one, though, is so much easier than the other church which met in a popular downtown music venue. Forward Church, Knoxville, has a facility, thanks to Gayland Heights Baptist.
The church facility of Gayland Heights Baptist is debt-free and includes a 150-seat sanctuary, fellowship hall and classrooms.
One of the first outreach projects of Forward Church was to help families associated with Montgomery Village Baptist Center of Knox County Association of Baptists by distributing food baskets for Thanksgiving. Young said he was so glad for ministry by Forward in that “unreached” neighborhood, which includes government-subsidized apartments.
Also soon after the merger, Forward Church began renovating the facilities with funds from The River Community.
Young arranged for help in these efforts from City Reach Knoxville, a missions effort of the TBMB. Recently about 40 Baptist pastors who were gathered to investigate City Reach Knoxville met at the church to learn more about missions projects there.
Young, Florea and Tiebout agreed that the neighborhood, which includes “the poorest of the poor in Knoxville,” noted Florea, needs Forward Church. The church’s community includes lower- and middle-class residents. Additionally, located less than half a mile away, are new apartments filled with about 10,000 young adults, many of them students of the University of Tennessee – Knoxville. Another plus is the church’s closeness to downtown, noted Florea.
Church revitalization through sharing, then merger
Young said usually a declining church takes longer to make the decision made by Gayland Heights. “There was no question that God was working in the hearts of the people of Gayland Heights….”
The members were “able to put their personal preferences aside” and invite someone in who would use “a very different approach,” he added.
Their action “enables us to be the best stewards of the existing resources within the association because we had a church that more than likely would have closed within a very short period of time,” he added.
Lewis McMullen of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board staff agreed. He served in a supporting role in the process. “This is one of the ways in which a congregation can leave a legacy to the Great Commission: passing on resources and facilities to make an impact for the Gospel in a community. This is also a great benefit since one of the biggest challenges for church plants is finding facilities to minister out of and challenges for existing churches is no longer being able to maintain their facilities or ministry,” he responded in writing.
“The beautiful thing in all of this is a church, a church plant, the mother church, the association and the TBMB partnering together to impact lostness.”
Very thankful church planter
Since its beginning, when Forward Church was just in its infancy, it has financially supported Southern Baptists, Tennessee Baptists and Knox Association of Baptists, said Florea. But he never imagined the returns would be so great.
The gift of the Gayland Heights Baptist facility has helped Forward Church financially, culturally because of the legitimacy a facility gives a congregation, and jump-started the planting effort, said Florea. Usually a planter will live in a city for about 12-16 months before being able to hold a preview service. Then the new church will spend thousands of dollars a month to rent meeting space.
He is also thankful for other supporters. Besides The River Community, the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board and several other churches and individuals support Florea and Forward Church. He also wants to thank Valley Grove Baptist Church in Knoxville for allowing his family to live in its missionary house.
This approach of church planting or revitalization “frees up … resources for the Kingdom of God…. We’re going to just pick up where this last generation left off and reach this community.”
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This article appeared in the Baptist and Reflector (http://tnbaptist.org/BRNews.asp), newsjournal of the Tennessee Baptist Convention. Connie Davis Bushey is news editor of the Baptist and Reflector.
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La. churches
merge, reset
By Will Hall
ALEXANDRIA, La. (The Baptist Message) — Brad Webb, pastor of Family of Grace Church in Alexandria, praises his congregation, which now includes members of the former Baptist Temple, because of their commitment to worship God through corporate ministry as well as through corporate church services.
“God has granted favor to Baptist Temple members for their step of faith in embracing the vision of what we could do as one congregation,” Webb told the Baptist Message. “Likewise, He has blessed our people from family of Grace, who also stepped out in faith to see the possibilities here.”
Those possibilities are reality now as more than 300 people receive ministry each week at Family of Grace on the south side of town, where attendance for Sunday morning service as Baptist Temple had dropped to fewer than 40.
The campus is alive with children who receive academic tutoring three nights a week and other youth who come by bus on Wednesday nights for discipleship, families who are enrolled in English class, adults who are part of literacy courses, and people who come to be set free from addictions.
Webb said the ministries meet needs in the neighborhoods surrounding both campuses while everyone gets to see the face of Christ and hear the Good News of His love and mercy.
Mutual needs
Webb said the north campus was facing space limitations when God brought the two congregations together.
“We averaged 250 people per week prior to our merger and had just converted our office space to children’s space and moved our leadership team into a trailer, and we were looking at having to possibly finance a building program,” he said.
Meanwhile, Baptist Temple had declined, said Bob Mellon, long-time deacon of Baptist Temple Church, and members were convicted that, “In the interest of being good stewards we could not sit here on this empty property knowing somebody ‘has to need it.'”
Baptist Temple’s leaders reached out to Robert Daniel, director of missions for the North Rapides Association, who led them to contact Family of Grace.
“We found out they were driving past us in their vans and buses wondering if we might be able to provide space,” Mellon recalled. “Here we were with all this space and no children. There they were with all the children and not enough space.
Mutual blessings
Four women who are deeply involved with the multi-dimensional ministries of the new Family of Grace congregation (two from the original north campus and two from Baptist Temple) said they feel like one body now.
Donna Cedars, a Baptist Temple member for about 30 years and a longtime pianist, said the outside focus of her renewed congregation challenged her notions of being in her spot. She no longer plays the piano, but “it looks like she might learn the keyboard” in order to help out the praise and worship team.
“The Lord has given me many other things [besides the piano],” she said. “‘Undefeated’ is one — that’s the discipleship effort we’re doing tonight with all the little children coming in on the buses.”
Sue Haynes, a 65-year member of Parkview Baptist Church in Alexandria before joining the Family of Grace congregation four years ago, said the blessings are mutual.
“Family of Grace did not have a Sunday School program per se,” she said. “We just had classes for children. But when we merged, Baptist Temple had a Sunday School program, and Family of Grace members who could not make it to a home Bible study joined a Sunday School class.”
Donna Hickman, originally a Baptist Temple member, said the transition “has been seamless,” and she was especially complimentary about the Saturday night service.
“We started about five weeks ago with praise and worship and a sermon followed by fellowship,” she said. “It’s been different and wonderful, and a great way to reach the community, who are responding.
“We were standing room only that first night!”
Marion Burback, a member of Family of Grace, added that, “We’ve combined some things, and we’ve left some things separate, allowing people to come together.”
Grace & favor
Ashley Mack, director of Undefeated and Cultivate After-School Program, said even in her area of responsibility Family of Grace takes a different approach.
“We reach people who ordinarily might not go to church, by going out and bringing in kids from the inner city,” for a Wednesday program called Undefeated, Mack explained. “They enjoy a meal and we present a Bible lesson. The K-6 students do crafts and games and they learn about missions.”
The same is true for outreach to students in seventh through 12th grades, she said. The focus is on youth from the inner city.
The youth pastor Brandon Allen “preaches a series to them on Wednesday nights,” she said, and they do activities to grow closer as a group.
“God is doing something very unique in the life of the Family of Grace. But while we are trying new ways to reach the city, the people are experiencing the familiar love and grace of God.”
Webb said now the majority of the ministry by Family of Grace is taking place at the former Baptist Temple, and the multi-cultural congregation now looks more like the surrounding community.
The congregation has completed extensive renovations of the offices and worship center, without a budget to support it, after being led by the Holy Spirit to move ahead with the updates — in faith. He said the congregation has not had to buy any materials, contributing only free labor.
“We’ve not had to spend one penny from the Family of Grace general budget,” he said. “Outside donors, people from the community, have stepped in to provide materials,” responding in love to the church’s ministry to the inner city.
Moreover, he said what has happened to Family of Grace is possible for other congregations in similar scenarios and sizes.
“A multi-dimensional strategy for going outside the church building is a different pathway for an established church or a church plant to embrace the whole community,” he said. “Even for a church that thinks closing its doors is inevitable.”
Mellon agreed, saying churches need to remember God’s strategic vision for them.
“The first piece of land for Baptist Temple was given by Calvary Baptist Church, here in Alexandria, back in 1947. Then we acquired the ‘L’ piece which expanded our parking,” he added. “Now this site takes in the whole corner — the biggest part of our property — which always had been for lease, but we were told it was never going to be for sale. Then it became available and we were able to purchase it, before we knew we were going to merge with Family of Grace.
“So now we have 400 feet, plus, of frontage right here on MacArthur Drive at what is a gateway to the city, with a facility that is for Him.
“This is a strategic site,” he said, “and we were able to keep it a strategic site to reach people for Christ.”
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This article appeared in the Baptist Message (baptistmessage.com), newsjournal of the Louisiana Baptist Conveniton. Will Hall is editor of the Baptist Message.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: From the States, published each Tuesday by Baptist Press, relays news and feature stories from state Baptist papers and other publications on initiatives by Baptist churches, associations and state conventions in evangelism, church planting and Great Commission outreach, including partnership missions. Reports about churches, associations and state conventions responding to the International Mission Board’s call to embrace the world’s unengaged, unreached people groups also are included in From the States, along with reports about church, associational and state convention initiatives in conjunction with the North American Mission Board’s call to Southern Baptist churches to broaden their efforts in starting new churches and satellite campuses. The items appear in Baptist Press as originally published.
