Tag Archives: church growth

An Unclosed Church
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December 9, 2016

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Church Growth, Congregrational Ministries

A Church Unclosed!

An Interview with Pastor Jerry Crowley of the Harmony Church in Ellsinore, MO.

Every year an estimated 1% of the churches in the United States close their doors. This means that about 4,000 churches annually cease to exist. Many times a new church will restart in the same site but only rarely does a congregation that closed its doors unclose those doors. In spite of National trends, the Harmony General Baptist Church in rural Carter County, Missouri is now unclosed!

We asked Pastor Jerry Crowley to tell part of the Harmony Church story as we celebrate with this UnClosed church.

Harmony GB Church - Unclosed!1 . Harmony Church is an older church. can you tell us about its early history?

The church actually started on Cane Creek about two miles away from its current location in July, 1927. This is actually the third church building that has been there. To find the church from Elsinore take Highway A to County Road 354 follow it about 2 miles, go through a wet weather creek and if the creek’s not too high (occasionally we have to postpone services due to high water), you’ll drive right up to the church.

2. Harmony Church closed its doors. About how long was the church closed?

The church closed for a few months. It wasn’t closed very long. Some folks moved away and others just quit coming.

3. What motivated you and others to reopen the church?

Well this was my old home church. I just couldn’t stand to see it closed. It’s been an old-time General Baptist church for a long time. I just couldn’t see it closed. Some people went there the Sunday before we started and Josh Francis actually got started and 4 or 5 others of us came along to help.

4. The church is located in a very rural area, in a sparsely populated county. Where did you find people to reopen the church?

Continue reading →

Mission & Ministry Summit Workshop tracks
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March 21, 2016

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General Baptists, Leadership, The Summit

Mission & Ministry Summit Workshop Tracks

Summit workshop tracks provide focusIn 2007 leaders of the General Baptist denomination took intentional steps to re-engineer the denomination’s annual meeting.  The meeting originated in 1870 when a General Association of General Baptists was organized in Junction, Illinois.

For many years this General Association functioned as a convention of sorts where various independent General Baptist agencies made their annual reports to the assembled delegates.  With the creation of the General Baptist Council of Associations in 1996 the business portion of the annual meeting was, for the most part, unnecessary for the denomination to function since the operational detail of denominational life was assigned to the Council of Associations and the executive staff that comprised the Leadership Team.

A new format that utilized powerful worship, practical training and intentional missionary contact caused the attendance at the annual meeting to double in just two years!

Now in its 10th year of operation the Mission & Ministry Summit continues to provide missionary connections and to offer powerful worship in large group settings while also providing practical training in workshop environments grouped into workshop tracks. Continue reading →

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October 19, 2015

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Christian Life, Christian Walk, Family, General Baptists, National Missions, Staying Connected, Staying Strong

An Interview with Gary Baldus – Part 2

This is the last of a two-part post of an interview with Gary Baldus, pastor of New Walk Church in Zephyr Hills, Florida.

General Baptist Ministries asked Gary several questions about his walk with Christ, his calling to ministry and church planting, the personal and ministry connections with General Baptists, and the ongoing work of New Walk Church.

General Baptist Ministries (GBM):  You served as Moderator/Host for the Mission & Ministry Summit in 2013. How did this experience impact you personally? How did it impact New Walk Church?


Gary Baldus (GB):  What an unbelievable experience!  Our church loved it.  They look back on that as one of the coolest things to be involved in that we have ever done by serving all those leaders who traveled to Florida.  It was like a New Walk Event.  We just watched our church rally to the cause. We told them, “We have all these people coming down and these are the General Baptist people who helped us get started.”  They just thought it was awesome that they could serve those people who had invested in New Walk from a distance.

Pastor Gary Baldus

GBM:  As you look to the future what do you see as the greatest challenges for our General Baptist network?

GB:  It all boils down to money and men.  Many are called and few are chosen.  God sifts through people and not all guys are capable to lead church work.  I have people tell me of their call so I give them ministry assignments.  It is not unusual that six months later they are crying because ministry is so hard and they quit.

GBM:  How did your connections with General Baptists aid in the construction of New Walk’s first permanent buildings?

GB:  Our building would not have happened if not for the General Baptist Investment Fund.  This was like when the Kingdom Expansion Campaign was involved at the outset.  This is a faith based thing for us so we had to have someone who believed in us to be the right kind of lender. We are going to spend the next 2-3 years on stabilization and taking care of things to maintain a healthy operational base but if it had not been for a group of people seeing the potential in New Walk we would probably still be in the YMCA setting up and tearing down every time we had a meeting. Continue reading →