January 2004

For You Miami | New Hope New York | Vancouver | Philadelphia Spirit | Embracing Seattle 

FOR YOU MIAMI
Volunteers are continuing to have a major impact in Miami, especially with our new church plants. Over 90% of our volunteers are working with these young churches in areas of prayer walking, surveying, evangelistic door-to-door ministry, and block parties. Three of the nine churches that came to Miami in 2002 returned in 2003 for a total of 10 trips. Eight of the 44 churches that came in 2003 have already committed to come back in 2004, with several others still making their plans. Over 40 churches have already lined-up their volunteers for a trip to Miami in 2004, with many others still calling for information.
We anticipate 30 more new church starts in 2004.

We have a need for pastors in many of the 140 other languages. (Pray that God will supply many in 2004.) Miami looks forward to 2004, our Second Implementation Year, as enthusiasm continues to grow both locally and across the country.

Highlights

• South Biscayne Baptist Church has not only made several trips to Miami, but has also underwritten a two-year lease on a storefront for the new church.
• Southwest Baptist Church has made several trips to Miami and has purchased a bus for the mission church they have adopted.
• One of our new church starts, Kings Way Community Church, started on Sept. 21, 2003, reaching out to the lost in Homestead. As of December 31, they have baptized 38 and had a total of 61 decisions for Christ. Attendance now runs in the 130-140 range.

Significance

• Five churches that have sent volunteers have now gone to the next level of financially helping and/or making long-term commitments to work together.
• 60% of all volunteer groups have come from outside of Florida, a result of working in partnership with the Southern Baptist Convention over the last two years.
• Volunteer groups have realized the possibility of taking mission trips year-round. Groups are booked to come during every month to assist the FYM effort.
• Professions of faith correlate directly to the number of volunteers (more volunteers equals more POFs). To date, FYM has experienced 1,381 Professions nearly matching the 1,478 volunteers

Success Factors

• God is working in Miami and in our new church starts, but also in the hearts of volunteers as they see the great need of sharing their hearts with a few of the millions of lost people here in Miami.
• God has provided 38 full-time pastors for our new churches: 17 Haitian, 11 Spanish, and 10 English (3 of which are African-American).
• Our New Work Team is coordinating with four contract workers to develop Church starts in multiple languages and cultures.
• We are developing trainings, conferences, materials, and communications in multiple languages: English, Spanish, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese.

EVANGELISM STRATEGY
FYM leadership recognized the need for an evangelism manager to assist the Evangelism Strategy over the next two years. By the grace of God and the blessing of Dr. John Sullivan and the Florida Baptist Convention, Cecil Seagle has stepped forward to assume this role. Cecil has moved from Jacksonville to Miami to give leadership to the evangelism effort. While he will maintain his role as the State Director of Missions, he has been able to pass the majority of the responsibilities to state staff so he can give the major time to the FYM assignment. He has formerly served Florida Baptist as the state Director of Evangelism and has a real passion for elevating the evangelism impact in Miami.

NEW HOPE NEW YORK

New Hope New York continues to experience significant change. While some might focus on the difficulties that change engenders, we see it as the hand of God continuing to mold us into the kind of organization that can effectively participate and facilitate God-sized results in this, the greatest city in the world.

On December 1, Dave Howard moved from Strategy Coordinator of NAMB-SFC to City Coordinator of New Hope New York. At virtually the same time, Gary Frost, formerly Vice President of NAMB, Strategic Partnerships Group, accepted the call of God to move to the Metropolitan Area to assume the role of Executive Director of Missions. These two bringing their experience and gifts to the New York City area, although full of individual and personal challenges, is validation that God has (and hopefully will continue to) take extreme measures to have His Will in the City.

COLLEGIATE MINISTRY INVOLVEMENT
In a very short time, God has done a miraculous work with the college ministries in the Metropolitan area. Sponsored through the state convention (BCNY) and association (MNYBA), Aaron Coe and his team of existing campus ministers are centering their focus on new ministries that spring from a church-based approach to campus ministry. Aaron's fresh approach—including work on the Campus/Community Church and The Leadership Journey—has seen God bless their ministry with significant gains already. All totaled, the number of people involved in some form of SBC collegiate ministry currently total over 200. While this seems small in terms of the number of campuses and college students in the area, by this measure, it makes SBC’s college work in the New York Metro area the second largest evangelical campus ministry group in the city.

All forms of SBC works in both local church-based ministries, and on campuses like NYU, Columbia, St. Johns and Princeton, have 205 participants to date. This is significant both because it represents a more than doubling of the numbers from last year, but also in the fact that the increase to a large part has lately emerged from the church-based approach. To illustrate this point, three new church plants combined—The Journey (Manhattan), Crossroads (Staten Island), and Mosaic Manhattan (Battery Park City)— represent at least 150 collegiate ministry participants in these three churches.

The next two in order of size are Inter-Varsity with 150 participants on 7 + campuses, and Navigators with 40 on one campus.

Significance

• The size of the Collegiate Ministry in the Metro Area has doubled in a year to the second largest (evangelical expression) in the city.
• This growth took place during the strategy development phase; we believe that the increases will be even greater during implementation.
• This growth was achieved through new church-based ministries.

Success factors

• A church-based approach that marries collegiate ministry to a healthy church for sustenance and stability
• Ministry that raises up collegiate ministers through effective internships with The Leadership Journey

CASTING THE VISION FOR THE LARGER SBC COMMUNITY
Vision trips are not a new idea in mobilization. However, Shane Critser, the Director of Partnership and Mobilization for New Hope New York, has taken it to new heights. By devising a strategy that combines specific levels of partnership opportunity with pre-scheduled vision trips that churches, associations, and state conventions can attend; NHNY has enjoyed some significant levels of partnership in a short time. Rather than negotiating unique vision trips with individual groups, Shane saw the need to funnel (where possible) multiple small groups and individuals into combined vision trips. In so doing, NHNY has been able to be more focused and intentional about these few but impactful vision trips, and the results have born the fruit of this strategy.

From their inception in the Fall of 2003, to date NHNY enjoys about a 75% retention rate of churches that attend a vision trip and enter into partnership (at some level) with NHNY. In addition, by letting these vision trip participants see and work with a diverse cross section of ministries and church plants throughout the city, this gives them an even greater opportunity to find an ideal point of entry into the overall NHNY strategy. Finally, the partners are challenged:

• To look beyond the more typical forms of partnership
• To creatively evaluate their participation to possibly include sending staff and interns for longer periods of time
• To join other partnering churches to bring greater benefit to an emerging church and planter
• To consider entering long-term mentoring relationships with church planters using technology to bridge the gap of physical distance.

Significance

• The retention rate of vision trip attendees that become NHNY partners is relatively high (the level of partnership required in NYC demands such success). Some 50-60 churches have attended vision trips, with 25 committed to at least a Level 2 Partnership.

Success factors

• Focusing on pre-scheduled vision trips to increase quality and variety of the perspective that attendees were presented with
• Involving a broad range of church planters and ministry opportunities
• Providing every manner of opportunity for a church to creatively engage regardless of experience

THE JOURNEY
The Journey Church, launched after 9/11 in NYC, has shown impressive growth in a relatively short time. As of the first Sunday December 2003 they had over 300 in worship, 197 in small group attendance, and received over $8,000 in offerings.

SFC-Vancouver

Though the Implementation Year for Vancouver is 2006, last year (2003) was an important year to lay the administrative infrastructure for the Strategic Focus City initiative.

Several items are worth noting:

• The city coordinator and a part-time worker have been installed.
• The SFC Office is established and is operational.
• The Grand Strategy Team has been appointed and has completed the Purpose Statement and Core Values.
• The SFC website, temporarily using the domain name of prayvancouver.ca, is on now on the Internet.
• The above items prepare the grounds for concentrated efforts on the city-reaching strategies in 2004.

PHILADELPHIA SPIRIT

PHILADELPHIA SPIRIT OFFICE CLOSES
On August 31, 2003, the Strategic Focus Cities Philadelphia Spirit office closed operations, handing off responsibility to the 164 local churches of the Greater Philadelphia Baptist Association.

Significance

• Transition from national to local support has gone very well to date.
• We expect the groundwork of relationships with City Offices from the previous years expected to enhance and grow in the years to come.
• Churches will continue ministry in local areas by using SFC-era examples, such as block parties.
• Local leaders understand their need for greater dependency on God to carry out the good results left through the SFC process.
• New needs developed/realized during SFC require new means of fulfillment through greater dependency on the Sovereign Lord.

Success Factors

• Churches are expected to continue hosting Evangelistic Block Parties. This means of evangelistic outreach has become a strong part of the culture of the Philadelphia churches.
• Churches are continuing local evangelical outreach through the “Stand for Africa Conference.”
• Local Church Leaders are taking on leadership positions and continue ministry.
• The Fire of Philly Associational Newsletter was updated and republished to facilitate communication and viable networking among the 7 counties encompassed by the Great Philadelphia Baptist Association.

CHURCH PLANTING MINISTRY CONTINUES
Twenty-seven Church Plants birthed from Philadelphia Spirit continue to reach their communities for Christ.

Significance

• Church Plants’ support continues from the Baptist Convention of Pennsylvania/South Jersey.
• Fledgling Church Plants continue sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
• The thousands of people in Philadelphia who need Jesus Christ will have new opportunities for Salvation.

Success Factors

• Older Church plants are looking for more permanent buildings for worship and operation.
• Church Plants continuing ministry and planning new evangelistic outreach for 2004.

METRO-COLLEGIATE VACANT POSITION FILLED
Rev. Stan Williams began in December 2003 as Metro-Collegiate Director with the Greater Philadelphia Baptist Association.

Significance

• After three years of prayer and multiple interviews, an initial goal of Philadelphia Spirit was reached.
• The 82 campuses of Greater Philadelphia now have a leader to initiate and develop ministry.

Success Factors

• Rev. Williams met with officials on several campuses to discuss future ministry possibilities.
• Despite the close of Philadelphia Spirit, the Greater Philadelphia Baptist Association added one of three vacant positions. Still required are a Director of Missions and Church and Community Ministries Director.

CREATED AND PRINTED A BOOK THAT REPRESENTS A FOLLOW-UP EFFORT TO PHILADELPHIA SPIRIT
Stories of God in Philadelphia: A Narrative Collection was created in conjunction with Greater Philadelphia Baptist Associational Church Leaders, Associational Staff, and US/C2 Representatives. Thirty-two meetings were conducted, resulting in a 194-page book describing the work of God in Philadelphia through the eyes of the local church leader.

Significance

• God has been revered and glorified through the telling of His Stories in Philadelphia.
• Urban Church Leaders provided a voice to express their blessings, needs, and concerns.
• This book is just a beginning limited only by the time allotted. More churches are encouraged to share their stories and continue the collection and telling of God’s current day stories.
• This is the first time a “Collection of Stories of God” has ever been created in Philadelphia, and possibly elsewhere.
• Evidences of the ministry from Philadelphia Spirit are found in this Nonprofit Collection.
• God brought the work together in an amazing 9-month period.
• This collection also facilitates growth of the present network of churches and ministries in Southeast Pennsylvania.

Success Factors

• 32 individuals shared stories
• 114 copies were printed (including photos) through the Greater Philadelphia Baptist Association Office and Bux-Mont Baptist Church Office.
• 32 books are being sent to the contributors for the Collection, other copies available for interested parties.

EMBRACING SEATTLE

Embracing Seattle (ES) concluded its follow up to its 2002 Implementation Year with some encouraging signs that God is continuing what He began during the emphasis. Strategic Focus Cities (SFC) not only helped churches reach people with the gospel and plant new churches, but also appears to be catalytic in strengthening the work of the churches of the Puget Sound Baptist Association. This is reflected in increases in average worship attendance, resident membership, and baptisms prior to SFC beginning there.

With 80% of the 133 churches reporting, the following is a reflection of the growth momentum that has been achieved over the past three years.

In addition, churches are reporting substantial increased involvement of volunteers, both local and out of state. In the benchmark year of 2000, there were 1,719 such volunteers. In 2002, there were 6,040 volunteer participated and in 2003. there were 6,818.

During 2003, six additional churches were added to 51 planted in 2001-2002. The partner churches from across the nation have enabled many of the plants to exist. At the end of 2003, there were 91 partner churches that had come to work with the ES church planting movement.

We are thankful that we have experienced and continue to experience a movement of God. Much must be credited to the commitment to prayer and the continued commitment of over 6,000 prayer warriors to pray for the work in Seattle that has resulted in 693 Lighthouses of Prayer. Intercessors continue to be trained in order to keep prayer a priority in Seattle.
 

Copyright 2004 North American Mission Board, SBC
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