This past week we were able
to see several historic Baptist sites.
We traveled to J. R Christian's grave site, Squire Boone's grave site, the old Goshen Baptist church (one of Indiana’s oldest Baptist
Churches), Tidence Lane’s grave site, Lewis Craig’s grave site and several of the churches
they planted. As we were at the historic Bracken Baptist Church, the last
church Lewis Craig pastored, we could not help but to be thankful for the men
who seemly had so little but did so much for the cause of Christ. Lewis Craig moved his entire church from
Virginia to plant churches in the State of Kentucky, and they accomplished their
goal.
We were reminded of a
statement we heard many years ago. “There are no great men of God, only men of a
great God.” The God whom these men
served is the same God we serve today. The Book, which these men preached from,
is the same Book we preach from. The command these men obeyed is the same
command we claim to be obeying today.
These men are to be remembered, and we should be thankful for them and
for their ministries; but let us not think that the same God who used these men is
no longer looking for men to preach the Book or obey the command “ye shall be witnesses unto me both in
Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the
earth.” Yes the obstacles of our time are vastly different from those of the
early pioneers who first traveled by foot, horse, wagon or boat; but we also
have so much more than they did to work with. Could it be that we rely on what
we have instead of who He is?
We are thankful that there
are many churches and men of God who are not only listening to the voice of God
but are also answering the call to go. We shared in our last article how the
Lord has blessed us with three full time missionaries out of our church: Bro
Colin Christensen, who has now gone home to be with the Lord; Bro. Steven Harris; and Bro. Bryon Roberts.
Missionaries are scriptural, and
we should support them; but that does not relieve us of our command to go here
at home. We are thankful our pastor has led our church in the area of church
planting as a church. The Lord has blessed our church in that we as a church body
planted a church near us in Lynchburg, Ohio. The pastor is one of our former
deacons who felt led to take over the work once it was organized. We are now planting a church in Elmwood
Place, Ohio, using the same plan as we did in Lynchburg.
First there was a burden: Pastor Burke and I had gone to a funeral down in
Cincinnati a few blocks from Elmwood Place. As we drove through Elmwood Pastor
felt the Lord begin to place upon his heart to lead the church to plant a work
there.
Secondly there was a survey trip. A few weeks
later Pastor Burke; Evangelist Dan Souza; Brother Brown, missionary
to Bozeman, Montana; and I went and walked the streets of Elmwood. The Lord confirmed
the burden.
Then there was a commission: Pastor Burke presented the burden to the church to
pray about, and they followed. We began going down, walking the streets and meeting
people, business owners, and city officials. We shared our burden to plant a
church there and began to look for a storefront to rent.
Then we as a church went: The storefront was rented. We began to take about twenty people down weekly to blanket the area with tracts and brochures each Saturday.
On Sundays, the same number of people now bring their lunches, eat in the fellowship
hall and then ride the bus down to Elmwood where we hold services at 2:30 p.m. Some sit and sing
and are available as altar workers, some go outside to invite folks in, the
children sing specials, one of the men leads the singing and the Lord blesses.
Elmwood is a transit area, and
we have seen several come and then they are gone. When we had two who were
faithful, we started Wednesday night discipleship class to teach the basics of
the Christian life. At this point we normally have eleven adults and one child from
the area each Sunday and ten on discipleship on Wednesday nights.
Next blog we are going to
begin to compile a list of needy areas here in our state and share ideas we are
gaining from others who are planting churches.
