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| Church Planter is Proud to Be Kentucky Baptist |
| Release Date: 04/02/2008 |
PAINTSVILLE – Now one of the Kentucky Baptist Convention’s most enthusiastic ministry partners, Jason Hutchinson wasn’t always as committed to the Baptist denomination as he is today.
Before affiliating with the KBC in 2006 to launch one of it High Impact church plants, Hutchinson said he seriously considered becoming non-denominational to avoid the Baptist label. Since then, he has gained a deep appreciation for the convention and its funding source, the Cooperative Program.
It’s difficult for Hutchinson to even place a value on the suggestions and advice he received from convention staff, saying this interaction is what persuaded him that becoming a Kentucky Baptist church was the wisest choice.
“I do have an appreciation for it,” he says of the Cooperative Program and the state convention staff. “Just knowing that they’re there, and they’re not just going to talk about (church planting) but they’re going to help. They’re going to do what they can to help you with missions.”
Mountain Community Fellowship in Paintsville, where Hutchinson serves as pastor, now has 100 to 120 attending Sunday services in its converted office complex location. The church has also seen 20 people accept Christ, including two families who decided to follow Jesus last spring.
One was a couple who had been living together prior to their conversion, and the woman’s 14-year-old son, who has since sensed God’s call to the ministry. The other was a family of five headed by a single mother, who led her four children to faith in Christ.
“We want to stress we’re a missional church,” he said. “We’re on mission wherever we are, taking the gospel home and sharing it with family and friends. That has gotten across the DNA of our church better than anything else.”
Hutchinson believes the church’s effectiveness is a result of the strong foundation of support laid by the KBC.
“In church planting, you need substantial resources and the KBC put has put substantial resources into this,” Hutchinson said. “They put their money where their mouth is.”
Hutchinson recalled changing his mind about affiliating with the Kentucky Baptist Convention after meetings with Larry Baker, the KBC’s director of new work and associational missions; Mountain Missions Director David Aker, and Randy Jones, leader of the Missions Growth Team.
While in a meeting to discuss a different planting effort, Hutchinson heard Jones break into tears over the lost during a prayer time. Those tears touched Hutchinson’s heart.
“I came out of the meeting and called a friend and said, ‘I’m about as blueblood a Kentucky Baptist as you can get,’” Hutchinson recalled. “I’ve always encountered that same spirit, that same desire, in the state convention.”
While not all of Mountain Community’s funding is directly attributable to the Cooperative Program, the KBC’s training programs, church planting efforts and Hutchinson’s salary—a combination of North American Mission Board and state convention funds—all come from CP monies.
So did the funds that helped provide the pastor’s reasonably priced education at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville.
Baker points out the Cooperative Program played a key role in forming the Paintsville church even before it applied for a High Impact grant.
The church planter who attended a three-day training session with Mountain Community’s core group decided he wasn’t called to this field. Meanwhile, Hutchinson realized his vision didn’t match with the group he was part of at the seminar.
The KBC staff then helped match Hutchinson and the other group, and the rest is history.
“We bring in church planters on occasion and allow them time to share what’s working and what’s not, and try to develop a network,” Baker says of the cooperative nature of this effort.
“We also have a reporting system that allows them to share prayer requests, what problems they’re facing and what questions they have.”
Baker says the exciting thing about all KBC church planting efforts is these new congregations’ emphasis on reaching converts and the “de-churched,” people wounded in the past who are reluctant to return to church.
These new churches are reaching people who didn’t know Christ or had gotten disconnected from the church, Baker says.
Supporting Mountain Community Fellowship is just one way the gospel is spreading through the Cooperative Program in Kentucky. On April 13, churches across the state will celebrate 83 years of combined missions and evangelism efforts during this year’s Cooperative Program Sunday.
According to Billy Compton, executive associate for Cooperative Program and resources, it is an important focus because “the Cooperative Program has been the most consistent funding source for most Southern Baptist missions and ministry endeavors.”
Churches can access a variety of CP resources available for download at no charge at www.kybaptist.org/cpmissions. Resources are also available by calling 866-489-3578 (toll free) or 502-489-3578.
The Kentucky Baptist Convention is a cooperative missions and ministry organization made up of more than 2,400 autonomous Baptist churches in Kentucky. A variety of state and worldwide ministries are coordinated through its administrative headquarters in Louisville, Ky. including: missions work, disaster relief, ministry training and support, church development, evangelism and more. For more information, visit www.kybaptist.org.
Release prepared by Ken Walker, KBC Communications |
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