Start Something New

by Glen D. McLaughlin                                                                                                           Vol. X, No. 3, March 1997

Missions Is Our Heartbeat

            One of the primary motivating factors in organizing our new state convention, the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia (SBCV), was the desire to do missions in a fresh and fruitful manner. It has been well-stated that missions is our heart-beat.

            A high priority of the SBCV is planting new churches. But remember, the SBCV does not plant churches. Churches plant churches. The SBCV helps churches plant churches.

A Whole New World

            A major challenge before us for our pastors and churches is to get a new vision of the kingdom, one that moves us beyond the borders of our own church to the kingdom business of planting new churches. For most of us this is a whole new world. Because most of us have long ministered in a state convention that is an older, long established convention (with some churches founded before the American Revolution), we have focussed on the work of the local church to the exclusion of spreading the gospel by starting new congregations. Let’s realize afresh that we live in a priority mission field.

Kingdom Builders, Not Empire Builders

            Terms defined: An Empire Builder is one who builds his own work larger and larger, stronger and stronger, giving little or no effort to God’s work elsewhere; a Kingdom Builder is one who sees the larger world all around him and gives significant commitment to that field, as well as to his own flock or church. The commissions of Christ, the day in which we live, and the new opportunities and challenges that are ours mandate that we become Kingdom Builders rather than Empire Builders. This was the characteristic trait of those in the Book of Acts who turned the world right side up. Today the critical need is for Kingdom Builders!

Some Suggestions

♦           Become a Key Church, one that lifts the level of its missions ministry from an occasional emphasis to the level of its education and music ministries. Just as a church has a Sunday School Director and/or a Minister of Education, a Key Church would have a Missions Director and/or a Minister of Missions.

♦           Virtually every church could have a Missions Committee to lead the church in missions involvement.

♦           Prayerfully, seriously consider the possibility of your church being involved at some level in planting a new church. Here are some potential levels of involvement.

            ♦           Yours could be the primary sponsor or mother church.

            ♦           Yours could be a partner church working with a mother church — or with an existing new, struggling congregation — or with other partner churches helping a new church plant.

            ♦           Start Something New: an Evangelistic Bible Study, a ministry to internationals or some other special group, a student ministry, Backyard Bible Clubs, an outreach to those living in a retirement home, a Bible Study group in a multi-family housing area (apartments, high-rises, trailer parks, etc.) ... a work, a ministry, or a witness where you see God’s hand already at work.

Help Is Available

            Such efforts are both exciting and challenging. Most will need coordination with others on the team. Orientation and training will be needed. Though the organization of the SBCV is still in the beginning stage, help is available.

            Will yours be a church among one hundred committed to help plant new churches in Virginia by 2000? You can inquire about the possibilities by writing Doyle Chauncey, SBCV Executive Director, at 4661 Haygood Road, Suite 110, Virginia Beach, VA 23455, or by calling him at 757-363-0153. And you can let him know that you would like your church to be among the 100 by 2000. If we all get going, maybe it will be 200 by 2000!

Excerpts from SBCV Guiding Document, “A Strategy for Missions”

Foundational Facts and Premises

►           It is fundamental to the strategy of SBCV missions that we engage in equipping, enabling, and encouraging the local churches to do missions under the mandate of Christ.

►           Fundamental to doing missions is the principle of creating the flow of resources of all kinds from the sources to the places of need. Such resources include prayer, finances, personnel, and encouragement. A significant aspect of SBCV missions must be strengthening the flow of these resources.

►           Initial priorities of the SBCV are to be church strengthening and church planting.

►           Central to a successful strategy of missions is the concept of discovering where God is at work and applying ourselves in those places. Therefore, instead of creating a strategy that is a rigid template applied to every time and place, it is our purpose to create a strategy which constantly looks for the places where God is at work and to apply ourselves in those places.