Day 6Don and Barbra ConleyChurch planters Don and Barbra Conley are reaching out to the unchurched population of San Diego County, California, where only one in every 100 residents professes to know Christ and 75 to 80 percent of the residents are unchurched.
In the Encanto community in San Diego, where Don is pastor of Encanto Southern Baptist Church, theirs is the only Southern Baptist church around.
Don pastored there from 1975 to 1978, left and returned in 1981 as a bivocational pastor. He has worked there as a full-time NAMB-appointed missionary since 1999. Years before, God had given him a vision for planting churches, and in 1993 he helped start his first church plant in a local home. The Conleys have helped start seven other churches since.
Going out into the community has always been a vision of mine for as long as Ive been in the ministry, he says. Its been hard for me to stay the pastor of one church, because I really want to go out and knock on doors.
Mission: To plant churches and reach the multi-ethnic and prison communities near San Diego, California.
Prayer request: Pray that the people of Encanto Southern Baptist Church would have an expanded vision of ministry and that more opportunities would arise to minister to recently released prisoners. Also pray for the starting of a housing program for local inmates being released from prison.
In the Encanto community, the Conleys are knocking on doors and ministering to the multi-ethnic area of Caucasian, Filipino, Samoan, African American and Hispanic residents. In addition to making plans to plant culturally specific churches in the area, Encanto has an Hispanic pastor on staff and is reaching out to the different groups through education and career counseling, Bible study and mentoring.
On Saturdays, teams of volunteers from Encanto use computer-based training to teach elementary to high school children reading skills and biblical principals.
Don and Barbra Conley have made their harvest field the prisons and ethnically diverse community of San Diego County.
PHOTOS BY JAMES DOTSON
Members of Encanto also go to local prisons to minister to inmates. Barbra heads up a program called Women Refined, which is geared toward ministering to women inmates while in prison and even after.
We go in to build relationships so that when they get out theyll have a place to go, Barbra says. We try to keep them from going to their old friends for money and a place to stay. If they return to them, theyll probably get right back into their old life. We walk alongside them and help them set goals and stay focused.
Women Refined helps these women find places to live and steady jobs. Three months before they are released, mentors begin the process of forming friendships and trust with them so that when they come out they arent forced back into the old lifestyle. Through Bible study and support groups, the program teaches them how to live responsibly without drugs and the old influences that threw them into trouble to begin with. Barbra has seen women reunite with their children and grandchildren, and several have come to know Christ. A similar mens ministry is starting as well, and the Conleys hope to build transitional housing near the church where released inmates can live while they get back on their feet.
To make this a reality Don and Barbra have a vision to acquire the necessary resources over the next five years and to create church planters from within their congregation.
For us, says Don, church is what happens to hearts in our community.