Category Archives: Church Growth

The GB-12 Pilot Program
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January 7, 2022

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Church Growth, GB-12

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The GB-12 Pilot Project

By General Baptist Ministries

Through a partnership with Intentional Churches, we are piloting a church revitalization project with a select group of General Baptist churches. We hope that the GB-12 Initiative will provide opportunities for local churches to establish a Church Operating System (ChurchOS) that can lead them to fulfill the Great Commission more effectively.

The churches in the pilot project were selected using key metrics, including geographical location, average attendance, salvations, baptisms, and financial resources. The hope is to make the tools available for a wider audience of churches once there has been a “proof of concept” in some key demographics and contexts. In particular, a set of resources called the Activate Experience will be made available online to any General Baptist leader interested in implementing ChurchOS.

Each church participating in the program kicks off their participation through a one-day strategic session (“install”), where a group of 6-12 church leaders joins the pastor(s) for a day of focus on their Great Commission Engine. After this initial install, the leadership of the church receives six months of coaching as they implement the system. This is called “Lap 1.” After this initial six months, another one-day strategy session takes place, and depending on progress, another six months of coaching. This is called “Lap 2.” All included, the coaching for the church would take place over 12 months (thus, GB-12).

Churches who go through this program will receive some practical equipping to mobilize the church to reach their community digitally and physically with increased Great Commission impact!

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The Harvest Church in Marlow, OK
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December 30, 2021

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Church Growth, Church Planting

The Harvest in Marlow, Oklahoma

By James Mitchell - Church Planter

If you’ve ever been excited to watch a shuttle or rocket launch, you know sometimes there is a delay. That is just what we’ve experienced. In mid-September, my wife and I both tested positive for COVID. Our quarantine covered the date of our launch. It was hard, but we knew we had to decide to delay. What we have learned through the process is nothing short of amazing.

Our team is ready, still growing, and eager to lead. On the date which should have been our launch, September 26, our worship team, recovery ministry team, and greeters wanted to go ahead and meet, even though their pastor was home. By the afternoon, we had a team brimming with confidence in their roles, contacts from first-time visitors that Sunday, a hunger to see God “add to our number,” and a passion for people far from God.

Pastor James Mitchell

It’s time to lean into our strengths and work on the weak areas. We have already begun the process of acknowledging what we do well and showcasing it. The flip side is seeing where we are weak and finding out ways to right the ship. Our student ministry is thriving, with many of the teenagers who attend Wednesdays coming from homes where parents do not attend church yet. We have chosen to use the word “yet” deliberately.

We hope that Christ at work in the lives of these young people will be the catalyst to bring entire families to saving faith in Jesus.

Lastly, our family has seen we are genuinely not alone in this desire to reach Marlow and Northern Stephens County. I am delighted, proud, and excited about the future of the Harvest Church because it’s not a Mitchell family project. It is God at work in the lives of believers, new and seasoned, with a passion for reaching the “nones and dones,” as we put it. ‘Nones’ are people who traditionally have had nothing to do with church. ‘Dones’ are people who have given up on attending church or decided to ‘never go back.’

A FEW PRAYER REQUESTS:

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We Exist FOR The Church!
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December 27, 2021

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Church Growth, Executive Office, General Baptists

We Exist FOR The Church!

By Danny Dunivan - President of General Baptist Ministries

God has called General Baptist Ministries to exist for the church.

We do not exist so that churches can support us. We exist to make it possible for the local church to fulfill the Great Commission. The role of the national organization is not to make disciples. We exist so that the local church can do that work more effectively. Whether we come alongside a church to help them make a bigger impact in their community or give them the ability to extend their ministry to other communities in the US and around the world, our God-given core purpose is to be for churches. Full stop.

We do this by inspiring and equipping churches to make disciples through strategically focusing on developing leaders, engaging with churches, and doing missions. Everything else is a distraction!

The focus on multiplying the local church’s ministry is not a new focus or an accident of our time. We have always been passionate about this common mission! We are loyal to our organization because we believe the mission is worth it! We give ourselves to serve one another because we believe that we can do more together than we could alone. Any time we have strayed from these shared values, we have violated our identity.

We Exist FOR The Church!

Even our doctrinal convictions are a product of these values! We believe that making disciples of all nations means that all people are the object of our mission. Christ died for all, and we are sent to share this good news with all. We have believed that the scope of such a venture requires us to work together.

Despite our shared mission, values, and beliefs, sometimes we have failed to live them out as an organization, as individuals, or as churches. We have sometimes focused on the wrong things and decided that we can do more alone than together. This also is not new!

Recently while looking through some older materials developed by different General Baptist ministries before I was born, we discovered conversations about mistrust or failures to cooperate that sound as they could be from last week. Even as far back as the late 1800s, I have read people decrying our failure to partner and were exasperated because the common mission was so clear!

Our future together is bright insofar as we can leverage our partnership around our shared mission and values! Moving forward, we will continue to focus on how our working together makes us better. I will champion engagement with our churches and lead so that the mission is clearly at the fore, and we will be transparent in the way we operate to accomplish the mission.

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