The following are some of the things that I envision to make such a program come to fruition:

• Pastors would identify 1 or 2 gifted individuals or couples from our churches who have express interest in being part of a bi-vocational church planting team. Pastors should look for individuals who have differing skills in evangelism, teaching, preaching, worship, etc.
• Invitations would be sent to these individuals asking them to participate in a church planting basic training at a central location. I will lead this training program and it will be done over several months with assignments being completed in their church or community. Where necessary I would bring in people who are experienced in the different facets of church planting to facilitate the learning process.
• Basic Training will be designed to walk a church planting team through an intensive journey of exploring the strategic issues of a church planting process and of assisting them in developing a customized strategy for planting healthy, reproductive churches.
• The following topics would be covered:
  • Prayer
  • Dedication
  • Vision
  • Values
  • Focus Group
  • Mission Statement
  • Evangelism Core group
  • Worship
  • Leadership Development
  • Building Relationships
  • Master Plan
  • Administrative Issues
  • Mileposts

• During training, we will trust God to pull team members together into a cohesive group that have the same heart and mission for planting a church in a viable area.
• Our aim is to put these teams on the field in bi-vocational positions where they will begin to form home cell groups within their community as they plan for a launch date within 15-18 months.

Please join me in prayer that we could see such a training program up and running in the near future. I want to wish all of our churches a very Merry Christmas and I pray that God will use your church in a mighty way in 2008.

Danny Kirk

2. We are losing the battle in keeping up with our population. In 1900 there were 27 churches for every 10,000 Americans. In 1950 the ratio had dropped to 17 churches for every 10,000 people. Today there are 30% fewer churches than in 1950 but our population continues to grow. There are now 3 times as many churches closing each year than are planted.

3. Many of our churches are in survival mode. It is estimated that 80-85 percent of all churches in North America are on the downside of their life cycle. That is, 8 out of 10 churches are either standing still, declining, or dying. These churches have little or no evangelistic impact in their town or community. Nearly one half of all American churches did not baptize one soul in the past year.

4. Today’s churches are not reaching today’s young people. The vast majority of Christians are saved before reaching age twenty. Yet, today researchers estimate only 4% of all young people below the age of 22 are saved. We are losing a whole generation of young people. New churches with young pastors and leaders are our best hope for reaching millions of unsaved young people.

As a state association we have been concerned that we have not been successful in planting a new church in Missouri in the new millennium. That concern should continue to burn within our hearts so we will continue to pray for laborers, search for open doors, and give our resources to the work of missions.

For this past association year we have the following highlights to report. As a state association we have:

• seen a small increase in offerings from the churches.
• given $5000 to the Baptist Publishing House to assist in the purchase of a new printer for Spanish publication.
• partnered financially with the SEMO association in their church planting effort in Charleston, MO
• provided some financial assistance to Camp Garwood.
• assisted the Kakilala family in Hawaii with their church planting efforts.

Now the “Go-and-do” church also cares about attendance, the membership, the building, but they spend most of their money and activity hours on the community at large. The church empowers the people in the pews to go out and serve the unconverted people, the poor, and the disadvantage. They will allocate between 10 and 20 percent of their annual income to reach outside the four walls of their church building. The go-and-do church will make sure that 50 percent of all volunteer hours are invested in people who don’t even care about the church.

Within the churches of our associational work, September is the month where financial budgets are worked on, tweaked, and decided for the coming year. We will choose a new slate of teachers, officers, and ministry teams (or rework last year’s list with minor personnel changes). I have been studying our church budget for the past year at Lindsay Lane Baptist and I was somewhat disturbed that we seem to be a “come-and-see” church. Oh, we are involved in our community with VBS efforts, food pantries, pregnancy resource centers, and the open-to-all Awana program, but our budget reflects that these things are not the priority that they should be. As a pastor, I realize that I spend a lot of my time cheering on folks to come to church and serve and while they are doing that, they should invite others to come to church and serve as well. Yet, I have not done much in the way of encouraging folks to get out there in their neighborhood and make a difference with folks we may never see in church. This is something I need to work on…how about you?

• Lost job, 1832
• Defeated for legislature, 1832
• Failed in business, 1833
• Elected to legislature, 1834
• Sweetheart (Ann Rutledge) died, 1835
• Had nervous breakdown, 1836
• Defeated for Speaker, 1838
• Defeated for nomination for Congress, 1843
• Elected to Congress, 1846
• Lost renomination, 1848
• Rejected for Land Officer, 1849
• Defeated for Senate, 1854
• Defeated for nomination for Vice-President, 1856
• Again defeated for Senate, 1858
• Elected President, 1860

It seems that Honest Abe lost more times than he won. Failure was a big part of his life…yet it did not prevent him from moving forward.

I am reminded that when it comes to church planting there will also be failures. In my first church planting effort, God blessed with a core group of 50 people within the first year. Tragically, Satan took notice and caused a conflict that eventually led to most of those families leaving the mission work. I was devastated and felt I was a complete failure. Friends told me it would be best to pack up my home and family and move to another state. It really seemed like good advice.

God would not give me peace about moving to a new location. I stayed and God showed me what He could do. Within three years, I stood looking out the window of our new church building one Sunday morning as over 100 people made their way to the mission. I remember thinking, “God, I am not much and I have made many mistakes, but You are a great God.”

I still believe that God has a work for us to do in planting a church in our state. The past couple of church planting efforts did not go as we had hoped. In many ways, we’ve been knocked down…but we must get up and go at it again. Why? Because God is still great!

One of the issues that we discussed during that workshop was the need for churches to be “multiplication centers”. This means that churches, no matter their size, need to do the work of planting new churches. In a recent article by H.B. London, it was noted that even smaller churches have been successful at sponsoring new church plants.* London wrote:

Multiplying churches, or churches that plant other churches on an ongoing basis, believe that the mandate of Acts 1:8 requires them to focus their resources and energies not just on themselves, but on birthing new churches. Ed Stetzer… the director of LifeWay Research, points out that successful multiplying churches have a number of values in common:

• The belief that God has called them to reach the unchurched in their communities, their states and the world.
• The importance of establishing long-term strategies and goals that will involve both staff and church members in the planting process.
• A focus, not on becoming a larger church, but on the growth of the Kingdom around the world.
• The importance of maintaining fellowship with daughter churches as they become more independent.
• The understanding that staff, salaries and other valuable resources will need to be freely given in order for new churches to more effectively impact their communities. (The churches on the list designated between two percent and 30 percent of their overall budget for church planting.)
• The belief that lack of size or staff, or poor timing are not acceptable excuses for delay.

The workshop and the article encourages me that even smaller churches can have an impact on church planting. Look that list of values over again. Does your church maintain the same kind of values? What do you need to do to prepare your church for a church planting challenge?

*The list of the 25 churches can be found at http://outreachmagazine.com/docs/25innov_JA07.pdf. Outreach magazine has also published lists of the fastest growing and the most innovative churches in America.

What does the health of your church look like? How would one know if a church is in trouble? The following are some “diagnostic” questions that if answered in the affirmative, may indicate a church that is in trouble:

1. Is there an abundance of unused space, classrooms, and pews in the building.
2. Is there a steady declining number of professions of faith, baptism, attendance, and giving?
3. Are worship services proper and orderly but kind of “blah”?
4. Is there little excitement for outreach and few stories told of people being saved?
5. Are there few new and young families, but lots of gray hair?
6. Does the “work of the church” only take place inside the church building?
7. Is there a chronic shortage of leaders and volunteers?
8. Do members serve out of a sense of duty, rather than out of joy and vision?
9. Is there a high percentage of inactive members?
10. Our community is not truly represented in our church?

Are you aware of these kinds of problems in your church? Church health guru Thom Rainer states in his book, “Break Out Churches”, that awareness is the first key to becoming a healthy church. Rainer states, “One of the key reasons many churches today are in a slow but deadly path of erosion is the failure of the people to accept that the church is in trouble and that immediate changes are needed.”

Can God turn-around a church that is in a downward spiral? I believe that He can, but it will take that church family waking up to the fact that they are in trouble and a willingness to make the necessary changes to create an environment for spiritual life and growth. Is it time for a wake-up call?

Danny Kirk

The Symposium and the mid-year meeting of the BMA of Missouri will be held at Lindsay Lane Baptist Church in Florissant, MO, on Friday and Saturday, May 18-19. Bro. Jerry will be speaking on the subject of, “STRUCTURING FOR SUCCESS”. The Symposium will begin at 4:00 PM, Friday and during our time together, Pastor Jolly will address the following:

1. Determine what is success. Is your definition of success scriptural? Developing a structure that will support your concept of success.

2. Structure for your soul. An inward structure must be developed before true outward success can be enjoyed.

3. Structure for your self. This structure includes accountability, time, exemplary life style, influential, visionary leadership etc:

4. Structure for your service. Providing a structure that will enable your church to meet the spiritual needs of your community. Staying abreast of current methodology that will keep your churches ministry on the cutting edge, etc.

I hope that your church will make a special effort to attend this two day meeting and that you will bring your key leadership with you. This meeting has been conceived to help our churches to grow and to move forward. Pastors, your job in leading your people will be made easier if they can hear the same challenging messages and instructions that you do. So, load up your church van and come to Florissant. We promise to make your stay here as enjoyable as we possible can!

I hope that you will agree with me that anything that is healthy ought to grow….it reproduces itself. Healthy tomato plants ought to reproduce healthy tomatoes. A spiritually healthy Christian ought to reproduce himself in others. A healthy church should also produce other churches. In the book of Acts, the early church grew and it seemed to be a natural process. Planting another church was not forced upon New Testament believers, but was simply a core value.

When I read Acts 14:20-23 I find that Paul did three things that produced church formation:

1. He preached the good news: “And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had taught many….” Acts 14:21 Paul and others would share the good news and a number of people were saved.

2. He strengthen the believers: “And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch, Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith…” Acts 14:21-22 Today we would say that Paul disciple (grounded and trained them in the word of God) these new believers.

3. He established new churches: “And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.” Acts 14:23 Paul made sure that the believers were congregated and had consecrated leaders. They were now a church ready to serve God and if they were healthy, they would soon reproduce another church.

I think this plan still ought to work today. Each of our churches need to take inventory of the programs and activities that fill our plates and ask: “Are we making new believers? Are we bringing these people together in Bible study, worship, and fellowship? Can we find a leader who will take this new group and reach out to another part of our community?

If we can give an affirmative answer to these questions, then growth ought to happen…naturally!

I have to admit that I am a one of those men who does not like to ask for directions. I figure that if I keep driving long enough, I will find my way. It does not always work. Sometimes, I have to stop and at least look at a map. Once I discover where I am and see the best way to get where I need to go, I usually can reach my goal.

I think that sometimes we can get lost at church as well. I do not mean that we cannot find the Toddler room, but that perhaps we are not headed toward the goal that God has for our church. We are doing a lot of programs and having a lot of meetings, but God’s purpose for our church is no longer in our sight. If we are not aiming at what God wants our church to do, then we are lost.

What should we do? I think Berean Baptist is doing something, once a year, that helps pull them back on track. I would encourage your church to get together much like they did and discuss activities and goals for the coming year. Together, as a church family, you can regroup and talk about what is working, what is not, and where improvement can be made. It will be a great time to inform your new members about ministry opportunities and to solicit their help. It can help everyone to realize that “Yes, we are here for a purpose! Let’s do it together!”

The recommendations from the Special Missions Committee relating to a full time missions director was met with opposition. Many questions were asked and there was much deliberation before a vote was taken. The recommendations passed both in the Missionary Committeeman meeting and then later by the messenger body. Our Moderator noted that there was opposition during the voting. I immediately suggested that although the majority of the messengers voted to accept the recommendations, it would not be the best thing for our association to do when some of our pastors were not in agreement. A motion was made, seconded, and passed that we not go forward with the implementation of the recommendations at this time.

I was disappointed with the final outcome, but I know that these things are under the control of our God. Like many of you, I have gone through Henry Blackaby’s “Experiencing God” study. There is one part that really spoke to me as a pastor. In the study Blackaby spoke of the wisdom of waiting to move on a decision until most of the church family was on board. In Unit 10 of his study, he laid out four questions for the reader’s consideration:

1. Do you believe God wants the body to come to one heart and one mind on His will for the body?

2. Do you believe God is able to bring His people to understand His will?

3. Do you believe God is able to bring your church to this kind of unity?

4. Would you be willing to wait on God until He has had time to adjust the members of the body to His will?

In the study, I answered “Yes” to each question. As with my church, I believe this may be true of our association as well. If I take those same questions and apply them to our association, I would still answer “Yes”. I may be disappointed with the outcome of the meeting as it related to missions, but I am confident that God is not limited in what He can do. May God bring us to a spirit of unity as we work together in His Kingdom and for His glory.