church planting

The ministry of Leroy Jones started in the television lounge of Sapp Brothers Truck Stop in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where thousands of truckers and other travelers pass weekly. After 14 years of presenting the gospel to drivers through the Coffee Pot Bible Fellowshipfirst meeting in the truck stop lounge, then in a converted truck trailer on the propertythe Mission Service Corps missionary and retired truck driver now works out of a double-wide mobile home the ministry installed last year. This building makes Coffee Pot the first permanent truck-stop chapel in the 28-state, 130-ministry network called the Truckers Christian Chapel Ministry whose goal is to reach with the gospel at least five percent of the nearly 8 million truckers on the road.

With this many truckers saved and discipled, wed have nearly half a million missionaries crisscrossing the country seven days a week, says Leroy.

In addition to seeing between 16 and 18 attenders at Saturday and Sunday church services, the Coffee Pot Fellowship reaches many people through its one-on-one counseling time. Whether Leroy and his volunteers are talking on the phone to drivers on the road or chatting with someone over coffee, there is usually some type of ministry going on every hour of the day.

Most of the important decisions are made when were just open and people walk in, Leroy says. People open up about their lives, then we open up with the gospel.

Leroy says the key to successfully starting a truck stop church is through partnering with churches already established in the area. Coffee Pot Fellowship has joined the efforts of Yellowstone Southern Baptist Church and Iron Mountain Country Church to help reach the trucker population.

opportunities
Did you know...

For the Reccord. Interested in what other Christians are doing and what you can do to be on mission following the hostilities in Iraq? Visit www.namb.net to view Operation Prayer Cover, Dr. Bob Reccords video address on NAMBs activities with disaster relief, chaplaincy and other Southern Baptist military ministries and relief efforts overseas.

The call to BeOne in a Million is a call to personal repentance, personal revival and national spiritual awakening. Sign up today and begin receiving the brief, weekly biblical prayer prompts. Register at www.namb.net/prayer.

Conference jet lag? Connection 2003 will get you and your church leaders wired until autumn. Without your having to tour the country, Connection conferences, now in their second year, offer you and your church the latest thinking on topics such as leadership building and renewal, constructing biblical community, cultural and spiritual trends in North America and getting the word out about your church.

Connection will be held at New Hope Baptist Church in Fayetteville, Georgia, July 30 through August 2 and at the Glorieta Conference Center in New Mexico September 24 through 27. To find out more about Connection conferences at one of these locations or to sign up for future events, visit www.namb.net/connection, call 877-320-1863 or email connection@namb.net.

RESOURCES
Top Picks

By Virginia Wilson

Gene and I have retired from the pastorate and full-time mission work after 30 years in Texas, Illinois and California, but we still have hearts for evangelism. Since moving back to Fort Worth, Texas, weve found plenty of opportunities to be witnesses for our Lord through prayer, verbal witnessing and lifestyle. Here are a few:

• Attend or teach a market place witnessing class in your church such as Sharing Jesus without Fear by William Fay, a four week study, or A Witness to all the World: Gods Heart for the Nations by Fisherman Bible Study, a nine-week study.

• Host a Beth Moore Bible study like Breaking Free in your home and invite your neighbors and friends who dont know Christ.

• Read evangelistic books such as How to Talk about Jesus without Freaking Out by Jim and Karen Covell and Witnessing Made Simple by William J. Cooper.

• Read classics like Destined for the Throne by Paul Billheimer, Shaping History through Prayer and Fasting by Derek Prince.

• Keep up-to-date tracks in several languages in your purse, jacket and car glove-compartment. Try Nascar, a World of Danger, and Survivor, by the American Tract Society (www.ATStracts.org), and Steps to Peace with God, by World Wide Publications.

Virginia Wilson was a pastors wife for nearly 20 years. Her husband served as a Director of Missions and state Executive Director in Illinois. She lives in Texas where she ministers to women through speaking and writing. She is the author of Lose the Halo, Keep the Wings (New Hope, 1996).

MOBILIZATION
Disaster Relief to Iraqis

Baghdad is not as far away as it seems. Though thousands of miles across the globe, the people of Iraq are in great need and within reach of followers of Christ, who can provide disaster relief such as food, clothing and shelter. The North American Mission Board (NAMB) and the International Mission Board (IMB) will deliver thousands of boxes of food supplies gathered by Southern Baptist congregations throughout North America. U-Haul packing boxes filled with staples such as rice, flour, powdered milk and tea were recently gathered to be delivered to Iraqi citizens by IMB disaster relief workers. One box can feed a family for a month.

Trained volunteers hope to follow up with these families. As soon as the dust clears and hostilities die down in Iraq, many of the 29,000 NAMB and IMB disaster relief workers on standby will be activated from 18 state conventions to provide aid in the relief effort in the Middle East. For more information on how you and your church can get involved, visit disaster relief at www.namb.net/dr or contact Mickey Caison at 800-462-8657.

CHAPLAINCY
Know peace in Troubled Times

As uncertainty seems to define our times and peace is for many a distant dream, well-known writers, artists and public figures such as Ravi Zacharias, Bob Reccord, Stephen Curtis Chapman, Oliver North, Chuck Colson, Shirley Dobson, Janet Parshall and Adrian Rogers offer us insight, hope and a biblical perspective on times of crisis in Know Peace In Troubled Times.

Its a collection of essays and reflections on how we should think and pray as events out of our control seem to overcome us.

Speaking with the voice of experience, many of the essays are true accounts from World War II to 9/11 to an airport bombing in March of this year.

When problems threaten to engulf us, we must do what believers have always done: turn to the Lord for encouragement and solace, writes Shirley Dobson. God does not abandon us. He keeps His promise: Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you (Hebrews 13:5).

Even during the storms, He stands just to the side, ever watchful, waiting to embrace us the moment we again seek His presence.

Now through June 30: For every book you order, an additional copy will be sent to a Southern Baptist chaplain.

To take advantage of this special offer, call in your order toll free to 866-407-NAMB. 

Mention order number 1593121113, promotion code CHAPLAIN or visit www.namb.net/catalog.

CHURCH PLANTING
Church-Planting Resources

So you or someone in your church has been called by God to plant a church, and its time for the next steppreparation and action. Here are some ways to get started. Call 770-410-6237 or go to www.namb.net/cp to order these and other resources.

Basic Training is an intensive four-day training for new church planters, their wives and mentors. All materials are provided.

Discovery Tools is a self-assessment booklet providing insights into how God may be preparing you for a church-planting ministry. It will help you explore your call, spiritual gifts, passion, ministry preference and behaviors. 

Mentor Training will orient the mentor about his role in the process of planting a church.

The Language Resource Catalog lists resources available in numerous languages.

Probe is a resource that guides an intensive one- to three-day field study of an area to determine the types of potential new work needs.

Acts 1:8 is a biblical process for a church or association to be obedient to the Great Commission in reaching our Jerusalem (community and association), Judea (state), Samaria (North America and Canada) and the ends of the earth (international).

Multiplying Church Network is the association of churches cooperating with the purpose of starting new churches that also will become multiplying churches.

www.churchplantingvillage.net is a website where the church planter can download information and review materials about the many aspects of church planting.

Church Planter Management System is a software database designed to assist the new church in member and prospect assimilation. It includes 29 books and manuals to help the planter with his new church.

Media Kit - Spanish contains high-quality resources, including a video with short commercials suitable for television, to help the Hispanic church present itself to the community.

Multiethnic Church Planting (Media Kit - English) includes a video, stationery, banners, bulletins and resources to make a positive impact in a multi-ethnic, multi-housing community. 

Macedonia Project helps you to discover the places in North America where churches need to be started.

Seven Steps to Planting a Church educates the church planter on the  issues and tasks involved in planting a church. 

The Church Planting Group Ministry Resources 2003 Catalog summarizes church-planting resources available through the North American Mission Boards church-planting office.

We call it church includes a brochure, overview sheets specific to different ministries and a CD-rom with information on creating a community in a multi-housing setting.

MISSION EDUCATION FOR BOYS  
Royal Ambassadors gets new look

Royal Ambassador Leaders will see a bit of a difference in their curriculum, uniforms and even the pledge recited by tens of thousands of boys each week in churches throughout North America.

While the 95-year-old organization will continue to mentor boys, grades one through six, through North American and International missionary role models, additional emphasis will be given to developing biblical virtues that build positive character traits.

Through all of these efforts boys will learn to develop an on mission lifestyle and reach out to others to share Jesus Christ.

We want boys to be aware of missionaries working throughout the world. We also want them to have the integrity and ability to take the gospel to the world as partners, says Rob Carr, childrens mission education strategist for the North American Mission Board. We are developing in boys an on mission point of view through the RA organization.

The RA pledge, motto and logo reflect this on mission perspective. In addition, NAMBs Mission Education team will produce Sons of Virtue, a process that fathers and sons can work through as they test drive Royal Ambassadors (see sidebar on page 25). For more information, visit www.royalambassadors.org.

EVANGELISM  
Oral Learners

Interested in penetrating what might be the least reached population in North America? Oral communicators represent as much as 60 percent of the worlds population, but did you know they represent at least 50 percent of people in the United States? asks Sam Turner, state and associational strategist for the International Mission Board.

Many, by choice, do not read. And some do not read or understand written material well because of lack of exposure or use. A few must communicate orally because they have not learned to read. In other words, potentially half the people who live in the community surrounding your church may not benefit from a sermon outline, a hymnal or follow the progression in a Sunday school class. This breech could even result in their not accepting Christ.

One could say that to the degree that a person is illiterate, the chance of that person hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ is diminished, says Jim Slack, consultant for evangelism and church growth for the International Mission Board. This fact is especially true when the majority of the gospel communicators are literate.

So what does this mean for you and your church? Try finding ways of telling biblical truth through stories. Many sermons are step-by-step analyses of a Bible passage or an outlined break down of some issue addressed by scripture. But in an oral culture, the only way of passing on knowledge is through word-of-mouth and memorization. This is how the Hebrew people passed along the truths found in the Old Testament, and the practice is still used among many people to pass along knowledge and wisdom. Bible stories, everyday stories that apply biblical truths and songs that convey wisdom through narrative will appeal to oral communicators.

To learn more about making your church on mission for oral communicators, look for the September/October 2003 issue of On Mission, and read how one director of missions addresses the needs of this group of seekers.

PENETRATING THE CULTURE  
Effective Church Ads

If youre looking for a way to get the word out about your church, word of mouth and Sunday bells are a good start. But if youre looking to reach a specific audience in your community and get on the radio or local television stations without paying too much, the church advertising resources of the North American Mission Board can provide you with the right ads and bargaining power to impact your area for Christ.

Churches need the same commercial savvy as the businesses that surround them, says Ron Lawson, director of the media strategy team, NAMB. They dont want to throw money into strategies that dont appeal to the people theyre trying to reach.

For more information on how to spread the word in your community, visit www.namb.net/ads.

Coming up next in On Mission magazine

Teaching truth. Does driving past the local public school stir your imagination? Do you see that campus as a field of souls waiting for workers, but feel too intimidated to share your faith? While your children and grandchildren are learning about the worlds origins, you have a great opportunity to teach them more about their relationship to their Creator than any physical science class ever could.

In the September/ October issue of On Mission, learn effective ways to move beyond the legal issues and political correctness to penetrate classrooms with the gospel.

Out on a limb. If you want to reach people for Christ but havent turned to the mission field of your family, perhaps its time to start barking up a different treeyour family tree.

According to George Barna, 42 percent of Christians have accepted Christ because of family influences, and nearly half of those said their conversion was the result of a conversation about Christ with a relative.

In the September/ October issue of On Mission, learn how to build and rebuild kinships and live out your faith among the people who know you best, warts and allyour family.

Before you know it, the new school year will be in full swing with the holiday season close behind. Find out in the November/ December issue of On Mission how you can turn the busy time of Thanksgiving and Christmas into on mission opportunities.

One woman writes of her creative use of autumn leaves as a centerpiece to convey the truth of the gospel, while a man relates how he hosts Christmas parties to bring his unsaved friends into a relationship with Christ.

Look for these and other practical ways to be on mission during the year-end festivities.