SBCV Church on Mission

by T. C. Pinckney                                                                                                                      Vol. X, No. 4, April 1997

South Norfolk Baptist Church in Chesapeake. Virginia has begun to walk out the purpose statement which it adopted in 1994. According to Pastor, Roger O. Mardis, the congregation is being driven by it's; motto, “Impacting Hampton Roads and the World for Jesus." This realization is being seen in the church's passion for Evangelism and Missions. The church has baptized 300 people in the last 3 years, but that only begins to tell the story.

Roger Mardis, a 1991 graduate of Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary in Memphis, gives credit to his alma mater for building in him a burning desire for evangelism and missions. "Mid-America is a school solidly built on God’s Word and it shows by its emphasis in personal evangelism and national/international missions.

South Norfolk is a church with the world on its heart. During the last five years mission gifts have increased 100%. But according to Pastor Mardis, "our goal is not to just fund missions, we want to do missions.''

Mardis challenged his congregation in 1995 to get the world on their heart. "Our goal is to establish a sister-church relationship, begin a new church, or sponsor personal missionaries on every continent of the world by the year 2000. We are already doing this as a denomination through our Cooperative Program/Foreign Mission Board/Home Mission Board, but we wanted to bring this burden closer to our hearts. Currently we have relationships in Argentina, Zambia, Uganda, Moldova. Taiwan, and several in North America.” In 1997 teams from South Norfolk will be going on five different mission trips. These will be in West Virginia (World Changers-Youth); Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Elkton, Maryland; Alexandria, Moldova; and Abingdon, Virginia.

The Virginia and Pennsylvania trips are to black congregations with some serious construction and encouragement needs. As God builds His church, we will be going to build their buildings and morale. Our goal in 1997 was to aid two black congregations, and God has heard our cry.

The Valley Street Baptist Church in Abington, Virginia is pastored by the Rev. William Austin. They, like South Norfolk, are members of the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia. This mission week will be sponsored jointly by the South Norfolk church and the SBCV Missions Committee. “God has put this week together."

We were made aware of these two church needs through the Home Mission Board and the SBCV Office. Churches desiring similar trips can be aided by contacting these organizations.

The SBCV and Banner encourage other churches to follow in the footsteps of this Chesapeake congregation. Planting new churches, both Anglo and ethnic, and helping promising but struggling churches are two top SBCV priorities. You can contact the SBCV office (1) by writing: SBCV, P.O. Box 62000, Virginia Beach, VA 23466, (2) by faxing: 757-460-1104, or (3) by calling: 757-363-0153.