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January 10, 2022

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Can Anything Good Come From The Hood

By Steve Perry National Missions Church Planter

I was born in Detroit, Michigan, during the 1980s, when the crack cocaine epidemic took place. My grandfather was a drug dealer, my mother and father were selling drugs as well. They were also drug users. The 1990s was when the police got more involved, and I watched many of my family members very close to me, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends were either locked up or die from the lifestyle. Thanks to Nancy Reagan’s campaign on “Say No” to drugs. I had a tangible reality on why to say “NO” to drugs. We lived in poverty; we had so many roaches that there had to be at least 3 Kingdoms of them, and on top of that, they were fighting wars.

It was just a sad situation. I knew as a child that for me not to die or get caught on drugs that I had to do something different. In August of 1990, I was seven years old. One Saturday evening, I asked my mother if my brother and I could go to church. She allowed us to go to church. We had never gone, so we wore a white shirt, black pants, and white gym socks. I also wore a belt for a tie.

We went to church, and I heard a gospel that Sunday so simple and with so much energy that I had to give my life to Christ. I was compelled in a church service that I needed a Savior. I needed a person that could change the direction I could have gone because of the examples I had around me.

I often ask myself what would have happened if that church was not in that community. Would I have tried Islam if it was there? If Hebrew Israelites were there, would I have made that choice? Why didn’t I join a gang? After all, that’s what young inner-city boys do when they have no guidance. What would my life be like if there was no Gospel-based church in that neighborhood? Maybe I would not have received God. When we started gathering our core group, all I had in mind was, “How could I reach a kid or an adult within this context that would be a follower of Jesus Christ.”

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General Baptist Ministries

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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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General Baptist Ministries

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January 4, 2022

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Women's Ministries

Learning To Multiply

By Vicki Smith - Director of Women's Ministries

If you attended the Summit, you heard on numerous occasions that we are one organization with a singular mission. We are one church. We must be clear and remain clear on who we are, how we act, and what we do. Women’s Ministries is one part of that church, with each ministry doing what they can do to equip the churches to fulfill the Great Commission.

The churches do not exist to support Women’s Ministries. We exist to support the local church and the women in those churches regarding missions and making disciples of women.

I began to evaluate what we were doing as an organization and if Women’s Ministries was doing all they could to inspire and equip. To be the most effective, the organization needed to multiply.

For the past two and a half years, I have had the opportunity to serve on the Restructure Task Force. The Council of Associations appointed this task force, and our assignment was to formulate a restructuring plan for the denomination. As we began to work through various models and began to think about our goal, we realized that, in essence, we needed to multiply and establish connections across the denomination, thus empowering churches to fulfill the Great Commission. From these conversations came the region director’s mistake model.

As a result of those conversations and that plan, it was precisely what Women’s Ministries needed to do. We needed to multiply to equip our women’s groups and churches to fulfill the Great Commission, pouring into the church or, in this case, the General Baptist movement.

On January 1 of this year, Women’s Ministries implemented a region plan. The plan is designed to complement the Restructure Task Force. It only made sense to pattern our plan after the RTF plan. Women and the churches would be familiar with the idea. It would be an easy transfer of organization, and it would be a good indicator of how successful the region plan would be for the denomination.

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