Guest Blog: Guilty of Distorting Acts 1:8

From the blog, Rankin Connecting by Jerry Rankin

I have been a part of crafting the Acts 1:8 challenge for the SBC. This grew out of some initial

efforts of the IMB to mobilize churches for personalized involvement in international missions. An SBC task force sought to strengthen the cooperation between various denominational entities and came up with the concept of Empowering Kingdom Growth.

Kingdom Growth is not just the reign of Christ in our lives, our churches, our communities and our nation; kingdom growth is also the geographic expansion of God’s kingdom through our mission efforts. The concept of the Acts 1:8 challenge was based on the fact every denominational entity exists not for its own program and purpose, but to empower churches through serving, enabling and facilitating them to fulfill the Great Commission.

Read more here.

Dr. Rick Lance: NA Missions Important

(Click on image for video link)

The Alabama Baptist sat down recently with Dr. Rick Lance of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions to ask him about his views on the importance of North American missions and the North American Mission Board. This video offers a taste of that interview. To view the full interview, go to www.ricklance.com/missions.

NAMB Focuses on Panta Ta Ethne

The North American Mission Board (NAMB) is focusing on people groups through its new North American People Spectrum emphasis.

“The New Testament gives examples of one-on-one sharing, but in the majority of New Testament evangelism stories, groups, households, even towns came to Christ,” says Mark Snowden, a coordinator of Strategic Planning and People Groups for NAMB’s Church Planting Group.

To lay this out as a way for churches to reach their communities, the North American Mission Board has developed the North American Peoples Spectrum along with other practical resources. The Spectrum is a visual tool illustrating the ways in which people group themselves according to kinship, geography, and interests. To apply this understanding toward evangelism in a community, additional tools such as surveys, people team training, and online databases will assist churches in locating the different peoples in their communities to help members network for evangelism.

“Sharing a full gospel message requires understanding who the people are, and how they might process and understand what you’re saying,” says Snowden. “With a love and concern for the lost we can strip our cultural baggage that may confuse the gospel message and enter their world just as Jesus entered our world to give us life.”

Read the entire article at On Mission magazine's website.

Church Personalizes Missions with Great Commission Connection

Hayes Wicker, pastor of First Baptist Church, Naples, Fla., hopes change the way his church thinks about missions and missionaries by launching the “Great Commission Connection.”

The goal of GCC is to personalize missions and link missionaries and church members, while at the same time boosting support for Southern Baptists’ missions funding mechanism, according to Wicker.

Read the entire story from the Florida Baptist Witness.

NC Church Works the "Acts 1:8 Way"

Dudley Shoals Baptist Church in Granite Falls, N.C. goes with the "tried and true" when it comes to doing church.

Going with what works also is why Dudley Shoals Baptist Church gives 25 percent of its undesignated receipts to missions through the Cooperative Program, says pastor Ronald Winkler. "It still works."

"The Cooperative Program is the lifeblood of our church," Winkler said of the way state conventions in the Southern Baptist Convention work together the Acts 1:8 way -- supporting local, regional, national and international missions and ministries.

Read the entire story about Dudley Shoals Baptist Church on Baptist Press and visit its website www.dudleyshoalsbaptistchurch.org.

Podcast 58: A Church On Mission-Antioch

In this month's Acts 1:8 Challenge Podcast, Danny Sinquefield, pastor of Faith Baptist Church, Bartlett, Tenn., shares a message about the importance of the local church and its role in fulfilling the Great Commission.

A18C Podcast 58 - "A Church On Mission - Antioch," was recorded at the recent Acts 1:8 Summit held in Carson Springs, Tenn.

Download the Acts 1:8 Challenge Podcast today at www.ActsOne8.com/podcastfeed or search for the Acts 1:8 Challenge on iTunes. Direct link: http://tinyurl.com/ax44ak

Church Reaches Students Around Acts 1:8

As a part of their Acts 1:8 strategy to reach its community with the love of Jesus Christ, members of First Baptist Church in Gordo, Ala., assisted 60 underprivileged elementary school students start the school year with backpacks full of school supplies in eastern Alabama.

"We set the bar high, and we said we wanted to raise enough for 60 kids, but we actually got all 60 and had money left over," Singleton said. "We're trying to fulfill the Acts 1:8 mandate and fulfill the needs of our community."

Read the entire story on Baptist Press.

Hawaii-Pacific Acts 1:8 Conference

Acts 1:8 in Hawaii - Derrick Norris, left, pastor of Mililani Baptist Church; Sung Ho Kang of the Hawaii-Pacific Baptist Convention, center, and Tim Yarbrough, Acts 1:8 Challenge coordinator, at the block party held during the Acts 1:8 Glocal Mission Celebration.

Tim Yarbrough, Acts 1:8 Challenge coordinator with the North American Mission Board, had the privilege the past couple of days to be with more than 100 pastors and mission leaders attending the Acts 1:8 Glocal Mission Celebration hosted by the Hawaii-Pacific Baptist Convention.

The conference, held at Mililani Baptist Church, was co-sponsored by the Acts 1:8 Challenge and featured plenary and breakout sessions and an evening celebration service. Derrick Norris, pastor at Mililani, has led the church to a strong commitment to the Acts 1:8 Challenge.

Tim led a two-hour overview of the Acts 1:8 Challenge and an update on new tools available through the initiative.

Twelve people made professions of faith during a block party at Ewa Baptist Church on Saturday. What a wonderful testimony! The block party was held in conjunction with the conference.

New Acts 1:8 Videos Posted

"Pray, Go, Give – Acts 1:8," is one of three new videos added recently to our Acts 1:8 Challenge video resource library. Access the library here. All Acts 1:8 Challenge videos are free to download and distribute.

First Baptist Church, Cumming, Ga., is using the Acts 1:8 Challenge to build a comprehensive strategy to take the gospel to all the earth. In the video, pastor Bob Jolly and missions pastor Lee Weeks share about the church’s journey to be obedient to the last words of Jesus Christ.

Other new videos feature Splitlog Baptist Church in Goodman, Mo., and Grove Avenue Baptist Church in Richmond, Va.

Check them out today! If you would like to share how your church has embraced the Acts 1:8 Challenge, contact me: Tim Yarbrough, Acts 1:8 Challenge National Coordinator, tyarbrough@namb.net, or call 1 800 4 ACTS18. I would love to hear from you!

Direct Link: http://www.actsone8.com/site/pp.asp?c=euLXJfMQKrH&b=494949

Acts 1:8 - "The bonfire around which the church gathers"

I have traveled throughout the Southern Baptist Convention this past year helping dozens of local churches, associations and state conventions to more fully implement and utilize the Acts 1:8 partnership. As a result, I am amazed and humbled by the renewed passion God is creating among His people for His mission.

The Acts 1:8 Challenge is unique among denominational emphases of recent years. From the beginning, the purpose of the Acts 1:8 Challenge initiative was to not to become a program, but a passion!

Pastors and other key leaders of Southern Baptist churches of all sizes are identifying a return to an Acts 1:8 style of missions as God's way of refocusing their ministries. The purpose of the church is for every member to be actively sharing Jesus Christ with a lost and dying world..."in Jerusalem, in all Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth!"

Versailles Baptist Church in Versailles, Ky., recently celebrated what God has done through its focus on Acts 1:8 since officially kicking off its Acts 1:8 Challenge emphasis in November 2007.

“Our missions giving has increased over 30 percent this past year,” said Michael Cabell, minister of discipleship and evangelism. “Our Lottie Moon giving was double what it was the year before. In 2007, we had 16 people go on short-term mission trips. In 2008, we had 138 people [go]…that’s an 870 percent increase!

“Acts 1:8 has made a marked difference in our church,” said Cabell. “It has become the ‘bonfire around which our church gathers.’”

Stories like that of Versailles Baptist are being repeated in many of the nearly 3,500 churches across the Southern Baptist Convention that have accepted the Acts 1:8 Challenge.

When a church focuses on the Acts 1:8 paradigm of missions, every aspect of the church—His church—has purpose. For example, no longer is a small group Bible study, music or youth ministry only for members who have been assimilated into the body of the church. Rather, these programs become strategic and significant outreach tools to share the message of Jesus Christ.

First Baptist Church, Star City, Ark., was founded in the 1800s and has a long history ministering to the rural community surrounding it.

During an Acts 1:8 conference hosted at the church for the Harmony Baptist Association, I visited briefly with the church's young pastor, Stephen Beavers.

As with many churches its age, tradition sometimes trumps new and innovative ministry to the community. But through the church’s focus on God’s mission and a commitment to the Acts 1:8 Challenge, Beavers said God continues to keep its evangelistic glow alive.

Recently, after the church’s youth pastor left, God used a mission trip to its Samaria to raise up a new leader for the church’s youth.

“While in Wichita, Kansas, where we were dong street witnessing, God ignited a passion for youth ministry in a man who was saved at our church,” said Beavers. “He personally led several people to the Lord.”

Today, the man serves as the church’s interim youth pastor.

“God has done a great work there,” said Beavers. “And it started during a missions trip experience. He is a real soul winner!”

At this time of year with the Christmas Season and New Year at hand, now is a great time for a church to consider "rebooting" its mission, so to speak, and install new Kingdom focus "software" and missional DNA that will fuel everything it is and does.

A commitment to making disciples of all nations by taking the Gospel to a church's community (Jerusalem), region/state (Judea), nation/continent (Samaria) and world (ends of the earth) clarifies purpose, simplifies and gives direction to a church’s earthly existence.

While it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement and pageantry of Christmas programs, churches with God’s mission at their core focus on the true reason for the season and how they share Christ in a world so desperately in need of Him.

Tim Yarbrough is a mission strategist and leader of the Church Relations Team at the North American Mission Board. He serves as the national coordinator of the Acts 1:8 Challenge initiative. More information about the Acts 1:8 Challenge is available at www.ActsOne8.com.