Category Archives: The Summit

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

May 27, 2021

Posted under

Calling, The Summit

Being Called to Join God On Mission

By Danny Dunivan, Interim Executive Director & Moderator of the 2021 Mission and Ministry Summit

Where does mission come from? I am not asking about where we get the idea to do missions like those we undertake in other countries through International Missions or when we plant a new church in a community in the United States through National Missions. I am talking about the larger idea of mission, the very reason the church exists.

The word mission comes from the Latin word meaning “to send.” Literally, a mission is a sending. Scripture uses this idea of sending over and over. The entire life of the church is wrapped up in God’s commission sending us to go and make disciples for our Lord. However, scripture is also very clear that this sending of the church, in other words, the church’s mission does not start with the church. Before it is ever a commission to the church, the mission is God’s mission. Before the mission was ever related to the activities of the church, it was an attribute of God. God is a missionary God. In fact, the gift of the Son and the sending of the Holy Spirit are a result of the very nature of God as missionary. Mission is the movement of God toward the world, and the church is an instrument of that mission. In his classic book on missiology, David Bosch says, “There is church because there is mission, not vice versa. To participate in mission is to participate in the movement of God’s love toward people, since God is a fountain of sending love.”

Therefore, the short answer to the question about the source of the mission is that mission comes from God. God is the one who determines it. It is God’s mission before we ever think about it. We do not go under our own authority. We have nothing to do except in concert with what God is doing. We have no ministry apart from God’s ministry. We have no message apart from God’s message. The church has no reason to exist apart from what God is doing through us as he sends us into the world to fulfill his command. The mission is God’s, but thanks be to God we get to go along for the ride!

The nature of mission leads us to the undeniable truth that God never sends us where God is not already working. We never enter a place where God has not going ahead of us. Remember it is first his mission. That is what we mean by saying that we are called. We are called to join God. God is already present inviting us to come along! Like Jesus walking on the water calling Peter out of the boat to come walk on the waves, God calls us to join him in his mission in the world. He beckons to us to step out of the boat. I find it ironic that the calling of the church is also the sending of the church. They are one and the same, because the God who sends is already present and active calling us to join him in the place where he sends us on mission. Amazingly, along the way we find that the mission God invites us to join leads us to be who we were born to be! It is for his glory, but it is also for our good!

At this year’s Mission and Ministry Summit in Owensboro, Kentucky, on July 26-28, we will focus on the theme “Called.” We will be challenged to fulfill our calling to join God in what he is doing in the world in our families, in our communities, and around the world. At this event, you will be challenged to fulfill God’s call by keynote speakers and breakout sessions. This year’s Summit will also feature an important business session where we will be making decisions about God’s calling on General Baptists into the next generation.

I hope that you will begin to pray for our Summit gathering now, and you will make plans to join us in Owensboro this summer!

General Baptist Virtual Missions Conference
Standard

Posted by

Posted on

August 18, 2020

Posted under

Ed Stevens, Faith Home, GBBC, Honduras, India, International Missions, Mission One Teams, Philippines, The Summit

The Virtual World – 2020 Missions Conference

by Franklin Dumond, Director of Congregational Ministries

“Our Mission is Missions” was a popular slogan, vision statement a few years ago. It is not a very polished phrase nor is it particularly user friendly to the unbeliever who does not know about missions. But for those of us who believe in a General Atonement (that everyone can be saved), it sure rings true. This year the pandemic impeded the mission emphasis generally provided by The Summit and other large group gatherings.

To make up that deficit, Director Mark Powell and the General Baptist International Ministries staff have used technology to create a virtual missions conference. This event will be released in a few days. The Fall 2020 General Baptist Messenger provides an overview of the mission workshops that could have been offered in large group gatherings.

Here are an overview and an invitation to experience up-close-and-personal connections with missions and missionaries that I hope many of you will utilize to challenge your small groups, mission groups, and even the entire congregation with the missionary challenge to reach the world for Jesus Christ.

Missions Conference 2020
By Mark Powell
Make a difference. Share today!

Please join us in September for a Virtual Missions Conference.

The 2020 General Baptist M&M Summit became a victim of COVID-19 and was canceled. You may not know that M&M stands for Missions and Ministry, but missions have been an integral component of the Summit since its inception. General Baptist International Ministries places a high emphasis on the Summit each year offering many breakout sessions and offering General Baptist the opportunity to mingle with international missionaries and guests. We did not want to miss out on that opportunity in 2020, and so we asked each missionary family to produce a “break out” session for us to use in a “Virtual Missions Conference.”

We’ve included a synopsis of each presentation in the pages of this edition of the General Baptist Messenger – gbmessenger.org. Video presentations and additional information will be found at gbimissions.com/missions-conference-2020.

The possibilities for using these materials are endless but here are three suggestions:

  1. Personal or small group. The video presentations and papers will be online, downloadable, and available for your personal or small group as you desire. We suggest the month of September.
  2. Local Church Missions Conference: This could be over several days, a weekend, Wednesday nights, Sunday School, etc. The videos will be downloadable, and Word documents will be available for your own branding. Again we recommend September.
  3. Facebook Live: A schedule will be published when each of these videos will premiere on Facebook live. These events will take place on Tuesday and Thursday evenings in September. As much as possible, we hope that the presenter will be available to join the “Live” event in order to chat with participants (the COVID-19 version of mingling).

Follow the links provided to find the videos, handouts, and, for some speakers, additional information. Use them as you wish: individual, small group, church-wide conference, Sunday School. Really the sky is the limit!

Don’t forget that Ed Stevens Day is on September 20, 2020. This year the offering will go to do some work on the campus of the Matigsalug Bible Institute which prepares pastors for indigenous ministry throughout the Philippine island of Mindanao.

Recalibrate: 10 Steps Every Church Must take this Year, Or Be Dead In A Decade
Standard

Posted by

Posted on

May 10, 2018

Posted under

Church Growth, The Summit

Recalibrate – 10 Steps Every Church Must Take This Year…

Recalibrate: 10 Steps Every Church Must take this Year, Or Be Dead In A Decade

Everything but Jesus and the Bible must be on the table.
by Karl Vaters – Keynote Speaker at the 2018 Mission & Ministry Summit

The church is not dying. It’s in fine shape. Jesus said he’d build it, and he is. Relentlessly and beautifully.

But individual congregations, denominations, and ideologies? Now that’s another story.

While the church of Jesus around the world continues to move forward, chasing away the darkness with the light of Jesus, many local expressions of the church are watching their candles flicker in recent years.

RECALIBRATE CHURCH

I believe the next decade or two will be critical for the western church. The culture around us is experiencing a once-in-a-millennium shift right now. A recalibration of the way we think about everything from our morality, to our sexuality, to our identity, and our theology.

It’s only just beginning. And the pace of it is being propelled into hyper-speed by new technology.

So what’s the local church to do? We must hold two seemingly competing ideals in our hands at the same time.

Ideal #1: Stand strong on the unchanging principles of God’s Word.

Ideal #2: Adapt our methods to a fast-changing world. If we hope to do these two things well, local congregations must reinforce the following 10 principles. And the sooner we get to work on them, the better.

1. REESTABLISH THE BIBLICAL ESSENTIALS

According to a recent article in The Washington Post, churches that stand firm on the biblical essentials are more likely to be thriving, while those that compromise on them are more likely to be dying.

We shouldn’t need a newspaper article to tell us to stick to the essentials. While everything else can change, the essentials cannot. Any church that abandons biblical principles won’t just fail to survive, they don’t deserve to.

2. EMPHASIZE DISCIPLESHIP AND LEADERSHIP TRAINING

The days of hiring a team of pastors to do all the ministry of the church is dying. Finally.

Instead, churches that thrive are taking Ephesians 4:11-12 seriously by equipping the saints to do the work of ministry and raising up a team of ministers.

In the coming decades, the pastor’s main task must shift from preaching and caregiving to training lay leaders to do the ministry of the church. That has always been our calling, anyway. Events on the ground are now forcing us to do it the biblical way.

For many, maybe most churches, this will be a long-term turnaround of attitudes and methods. Start now, or you may miss the boat.

3. REDUCE YOUR OVERHEAD

By all accounts, giving trends are down and will continue to fall. Churches with top-heavy staffing, excessive mortgages and high maintenance bills will find themselves buried under their increasing weight in the coming decades.

If local congregations, denominations, and parachurch ministries hope to survive, they need to get to work on

  • Getting out of debt (including mortgage).
  • Reducing the percentage of paid staff.
  • Training and empowering volunteers to lead and serve.
  • Sharing expenses with other churches and ministries.
  • Making bi-vocational ministry the new normal and anything else that can reduce the financial burden of church maintenance.

4. RETHINK YOUR BUILDING

Until very recently, if someone wanted to start a business, the first thing they did was find or build a store, office, warehouse, or other physical structure. Not anymore. Today, the rule is to avoid the encumbrance of a physical building for as long as possible. Churches need to do the same.

If your church doesn’t have a building, don’t be in a hurry to buy one. Stay nimble as long as possible. If you own a building – especially if you’re one of the growing number of churches that own a too-big building for your shrinking congregation – be relentless about finding creative ways to utilize the space as often as possible.

For many of our churches, it’s Use It Or Lose It time. As in, use the building or lose the church; facility, people … everything.

Recalibrate5. WORK WITH STRATEGIC PARTNERS

In many places, smaller churches are banding together – even across denominational lines – to share resources, think strategically, mend old wounds, and minister to their shared community.

In addition, there is a small, but growing network of parachurch organizations that are increasingly willing to come alongside local churches for little or no money to share everything from outreach ideas to administrative assistance, to graphic design and more.

Start by asking around on social media. You may be surprised what you’ll find. Or start a network yourself. It’s easier to do now than it’s ever been.

6. ENGAGE YOUR COMMUNITY

Churches must stop being identified by the location of their building and start being recognized for the passion of their heart.

A church that’s known as “the people who love kids (or addicts, or single moms)” has a much higher likelihood of thriving and surviving than the church that’s known as “the old building on the corner of First and Main.”

7. EMPHASIZE JESUS OVER TRADITION (OR DENOMINATIONS, OR BUILDINGS, OR POLITICS, OR…)

Everything but Jesus and the Bible must be on the table. Ask yourself this question. Would I be willing to give up (insert your preferred method or style here) if it meant doing a better job of reaching our community for Jesus?

If anything you’d put in that blank makes you pause (other than the biblical essentials), it’s an idol that must be abandoned.

8. RESTRUCTURE WHAT NEEDS TO BE RESTRUCTURED

Quit fighting to keep your favorite ministry, method or tradition alive. If it’s not part of the solution, it’s part of the problem.

9. MAKE DISCIPLES, NOT JUST CONVERTS

Converts join a club. Disciples start a movement. Converts follow traditions. Disciples follow Jesus. Converts change their minds. Disciples change their lives. And other people’s lives.

10. FIGURE OUT WHY YOUR CONGREGATION SHOULD SURVIVE

If your church disappeared tomorrow, what would really be lost? Yes, that’s the hard question. It might even feel cruel and uncaring. But it’s not. It’s essential. Any congregation that can’t readily answer why they should survive, won’t.

START TODAY

It’s been said that the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago – the second best time is today.

The same goes for these principles. If you’ve been doing them, strengthen them. If not, get started now. Then be relentless at them. Not just this year, but every year. The survival of your local church depends on it.