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FROM THE STATES: S.C., Fla., Texas evangelism/missions news; ‘We need to share Jesus every day where we live’


Today’s From the States features items from:
The Courier (South Carolina)
Florida Baptist Witness
TEXAN Magazine

Local churches partner, reach
neighbors through ministry center
By SCBC Communications

ORANGEBURG, S.C. (The Courier) — The neighborhood is not unique; it’s like many others in towns of all sizes across the state. In fact, most locals drive by it every day without so much as a second glance. About 275 families call the community ‘home,’ most living in single or double-wide trailers. Many struggle economically, and some don’t speak English. This is the neighborhood in which God has called two churches to cooperate and reach with the Gospel.

In 2013, Wayne Ellis, pastor of New Hope Baptist Church in Orangeburg, and another local pastor, Stephen Broome of Highland Baptist Church, talked about how their churches could become active in a certain nearby community. Ministry ideas abounded, but the pastors quickly realized it would help if there was a place that volunteers and residents could meet one another and build relationships. The Dream Center idea was born.

“The Dream Center is an anchor in a transitional community,” Ellis says. “We are working to live out the concept that ‘I am the church,’ and that we need to share Jesus every day where we live. This mission center is an opportunity to live missionally, to ‘be the church’ in the community, to engage people where they are and with the real problems they have.”

A lot of work went into creating the center, and it started with obtaining permission from a land owner to place a portable classroom building on an empty site toward the front of the neighborhood. The churches rent the land space and purchased a 24 by 30-foot building that a local private school was selling. Grant money from the South Carolina Baptist Convention helped move the building to the community, and other volunteers donated supplies and services to build a large covered deck. First Baptist Church North donated materials for the deck and a group from First Baptist Church St. Matthews built a ramp for the building.

Ellis says the churches started working to build relationships as soon as the building was placed in the community, even though the first ministries did not start until summer 2014.

“We are working hard to build relationships and share about the difference Christ has made in our lives. Hopefully we are planting seeds about what He can do in their lives as well,” Ellis says.

The Dream Center kicked off its ministry with a block party to engage residents, and then hosted a summer reading program in conjunction with federal programs. Five days each week for six weeks, neighborhood children participated in the program that also provided lunch each day. Other church ministry teams hosted a Vacation Bible School at the center during the summer and one group distributed donated clothes as a way to meet residents.

Ellis says they have already seen that some ministry ideas have worked better than others. An English as a Second Language class, for example, wasn’t well attended by the target group of young mothers Ellis had seen moving around in the neighborhood. But a Monday after school Homework Huddle ministry has taken off. “Word gets around quickly when people are offering help with homework.”

A variety of volunteers from several area churches help with the homework ministry, including retired teachers and an 83-year-old man who has formed a bond with one student. Ellis says, “Our most senior church member, helping with Homework Huddle, comes each week to work with a young boy who has reading issues. The volunteer sits and reads with the boy, and helps with words when the boy needs it.”

Another grant from the convention’s evangelism group is helping the Dream Center purchase materials for its next ministry, Mats2Men, a mentor-based wrestling club for boys. Ellis hopes to also use the mats for a future tumbling class for young girls.

Other Dream Center ministries are still forming. The churches are looking into offering employment assistance including job training, interviewing and GED courses. In a few weeks a group will start studying First Place, a faith-based weight loss program. Ellis says there is also interest among several gardeners in the churches to find space in the neighborhood where they could start a community garden, which would be another way to connect with people.

The ministry potential of the center is endless, and the partnering churches are open to how God will lead. Right now, because of proximity to the church, Highland Church has worked to connect families from the community to their Sunday church services. Ellis says there is also potential for a church plant to meet at the Dream Center one day.

Ellis says the mission center concept is so simple that any church can do it even without a building. All it takes is an interest in reaching people where they are.

“When people ask why we are there, we talk about Jesus. When they say ‘you’re a good person to do this’ we share that it’s really because of Jesus. The Dream Center is a way that we can share Christ and what He means to us,” Ellis says.
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This article appeared in The Courier, newsjournal of the South Carolina Baptist Convention (scbaptist.org).
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District church’s Christmas
Eve Eve offering a new tradition
BY Nicole Kalil

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (Florida Baptist Witness) — Last December, on the eve of Christmas Eve, District Church in Jacksonville collected an offering that would end up impacting thousands of people in its Riverside community and beyond.

The church has given the money to three elementary schools and a nonprofit, Second Mile Ministries. While the amount collected exceeded expectations, it is not the dollars in and of themselves that are making such an impact. Rather, it is the church’s decision to invest into institutions that have no way of repaying that is changing hearts and minds

West Riverside Elementary, Ruth Upson Elementary and Central Riverside Elementary each received a gift of $2,500 as a result of District Church’s Christmas Eve Eve offering.

Lead Pastor Boyd Bettis said it’s part of District Church’s commitment to serve the city through the schools.

“It’s a new tradition,” Bettis said, adding that 100 percent of every Eve Eve offering from here on out will go toward city schools and church planting.

“We will never keep our offerings from Christmas Eve Eve,” he said.

At the Dec. 23 service, which drew more than a thousand worshipers, District Church collected $5,000. They then added $5,000 of their own money from their designated “generosity account” to be able to make the donations

“This is an investment into our own missions,” Bettis said. “From those three checks we impacted over 5,000 people.”

One of the people who profoundly felt the impact was Sylvia Johnson, the principal of West Riverside Elementary.

She said that when she learned from some of the parents in her school who are members of District Church that it was taking up the offering to benefit West Riverside, she was overwhelmed.

“They called us and said they were a working-class church, and that the people can’t come to tutor because they are working during the day, but that they could help financially,” Johnson said.

“I didn’t expect it to be much money. “I was looking for a couple of hundred dollars,” she said.

When Johnson was presented with the money, she said she was shocked.

“I was almost in tears. I couldn’t calm down,” she said.

In a school of just under 300 students, 30 percent of whom count English as their second language, Johnson said the money will have tremendous significance.

“We are a very tiny school, and we don’t generate much money, but we have children with a lot of needs,” she said.

Johnson plans on using part of the offering money to buy reading curriculum kits for teachers to assist their students as they learn English and prepare for the new Florida Standards Assessment (FSA), which has replaced the FCAT as Florida’s statewide educational assessment.

“Pressure is rough with the new state test. For me to give them another tool to help lowperforming and ESOL children will be amazing,” she said.

“It will be amazing to give this to the teachers,” she said. “We will need Kleenex.”

Johnson has other plans for the money as well, including some expenses that in the past she has covered out of her own pocket. She is also planning on using some of the offering to give back to her teachers.

“We never get to do things like that,” the principal said.

Johnson was particularly moved by the fact that the church wanted no accounting of how she would spend the money.

“They are amazing. To be as young as they are and so selfless and not ask for any accountability—nobody does that,” she said. “They don’t want you to say ‘thank you’ or give them a report. But I get to tell the story. People need to know the impact.”

Bettis said that District Church will focus its outreach on underserved and under-resourced schools in Duval County next year as well, moving beyond material needs and having its staff on campuses to meet the needs of students, faculty and staff.

“This is a huge open door,” he said.
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This article appeared in the Florida Baptist Witness (gofbw.com), newsjournal of the Florida Baptist Conveniton. Nicole Kalil is the North/Central Florida reporter for the Florida Baptist Witness.
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1 in a Million: Evangelism initiative challenges
churches to reach 1 million homes with gospel by 2018
By Keith Collier

GRAPEVINE, Texas (Southern Baptist TEXAN) — Southern Baptists of Texas Convention Evangelism Director Nathan Lorick believes Texas churches are poised to see the most comprehensive statewide evangelism effort in the history of the Lone Star State.

Through the recently launched “1 in a Million” evangelism initiative Lorick hopes SBTC churches — large and small — will embrace the vision of reaching 1 million homes over the next three years.

“The 1 in a Million campaign is about a strategic approach to bringing our coalition of 2,500 churches together in one sacred effort to share the gospel in 1 million homes,” Lorick said.

To accomplish such an ambitious task, the SBTC will sponsor two-day regional trainings where pastors and local church members will learn the personal evangelism method “Can We Talk?,” which was developed by John Meador, pastor of First Baptist Church in Euless. Meador’s church has seen an explosion of people coming to faith in Christ as a result of implementing the strategy in 2014.

After being trained, participants will put their newly learned evangelism strategies into action as they go out and share the gospel. They will also develop a plan to train other church members and reach their communities for Christ after they return home.

Registration for the trainings will be $150 per person. Any staff member or church member can attend the trainings, but the SBTC will supplement $100 for senior pastors of SBTC churches, reducing their cost to $50.

Lorick believes the 1 in a Million strategy “has the potential to be the most effective strategic evangelism effort in the history of Texas.”

Recent census data estimates nearly 9 million households in the state, yielding a population of 26.5 million or greater. Studies show that nearly 7 out of 10 Texans do not have a personal relationship with Christ, which tallies to more than 18 million people.

Still, Lorick says, faithful prayer and intentional evangelism could produce an abundant spiritual harvest if workers are willing to labor in the fields. He has already seen it happening in churches across the state.

“We are attempting something that is impossible without God’s favor upon it,” he said. “Imagine what Texas would look like if we joined together to charge the gates of hell with the good news of Jesus Christ. This can only be done by intentional evangelism.

“However, we must have pastors willing to be trained, to train their churches and to give their people a platform to share the gospel.

“I am asking our churches to seize this moment. Let us join together in one focused effort to penetrate the darkness with the gospel and see Texas changed forever.”

For more information, including registration information for regional trainings, visit sbtexas.com/oneinamillion.
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This article appeared in the TEXAN Magazine, a publication of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. Keith Collier is editor of the Southern Baptist TEXAN.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: From the States, published each Tuesday by Baptist Press, relays news and feature stories from state Baptist papers and other publications on initiatives by Baptist churches, associations and state conventions in evangelism, church planting and Great Commission outreach, including partnership missions. Reports about churches, associations and state conventions responding to the International Mission Board’s call to embrace the world’s 3,800 unengaged, unreached people groups also are included in From the States, along with reports about church, associational and state convention initiatives in conjunction with the North American Mission Board’s call to Southern Baptist churches to broaden their efforts in starting new churches and satellite campuses. The items appear in Baptist Press as originally published.

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