The Gathering CBFNC Newsletter - March–April 2015

The Gathering of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina

March/April 2015 • Vol. 20 Issue 2 Bringing Baptists of North Carolina Together for Christ-Centered Ministry

transformation! college ministry stories on pg 11

developing your own

scorecard

How do you measure success as a Christian? When I was young, Baptists had a simple, clear way for us to chart our progress as disciples of Jesus. It was called the Six Point Record System. On our offering envelopes that we dutifully carried to Sunday School were printed six items on which we could rate ourselves. The more of these tasks we completed each week, and the more faithfully we performed them over time, the more we were considered to be faithful Christians. r Attended Sunday School

r Brought Bible

r On time

r Brought Offering

r Studied Lesson

r Attending Worship

It’s been a long time since any church I was part of published this list on offering envelopes or anywhere else. No church leader I’m aware of publicly advocates for these items as key indicators of spiritual transformation today. But on at least a subconscious level, we still grade the success of our churches (and sometimes individuals) on a few easily calculated metrics such as attendance (Sunday School and/or worship) and financial support. If the sanctuary is comfortably full, the Nominating Committee roster is complete, and we are making budget, people feel good and assume the church is fulfilling its mission of making disciples and transforming the world.

There are two problems with this way of thinking. First, if those metrics take a downward turn, it deflates morale, depresses a congregation, sometimes creates conflict because of blaming and finger-pointing, and can actually lead to more numerical decline. Second, even if a church is holding its own when it comes to these statistics, there is sometimes no indication (and certainly no guarantee) that it truly leads to the transformation of individuals, communities and the world.

But if these aren’t the right metrics, what are? How can we measure transformation?

A New Scorecard Many Christian leaders today affirm the concept of the missional church, though we are still unpacking what that means. In Missional Renaissance: Changing the Scorecard for the Church, Reggie McNeal states, “Missional is a way of living, not an affiliation or activity… To think and to live missionally means seeing all life as a way to be engaged with the mission of God in the world” (p. xiv).

McNeal then goes on to describe three shifts we must make in both thinking and behavior: • From internal to external in terms of ministry focus • From program development to people development in terms of core activity • From church-based to kingdom-based in terms of leadership agenda He not only provides theory and examples of what these shifts mean, but he offers ideas for new things to measure to encourage these shifts.

2 • The Gathering – March/April 2015

by Larry Hovis, CBFNC Executive Coordinator

Here are a few possibilities to help make the shift from internal to external: • Keep track of volunteer hours and publish them as an act of celebration of gifts and obedience.

• Monitor the growth of the number of people involved in some short-term ministry or missions project both globally and locally.

• Along with small group and worship attendance, track how many groups and individuals use church facilities each week for AA meetings, food collection, mentoring and other services to the community.

Leadership Conversation Though McNeal offers dozens of suggestions for how churches can develop a new scorecard, it would be a mistake to think that all churches should develop the same one. Part of being missional is understanding that each church (individual members and the congregations as a whole) has unique gifts, capacities and opportunities to pursue God’s call to mission. Each church should develop its own metrics for measuring its effectiveness in transforming individuals, the church, and the part of the world it has been called to serve.

One way to develop such a scorecard would be to convene a group of church leaders (pastor, staff ministers, lay leaders) to read and study books on this topic together. Missional Renaissance would be a good place to begin. Out of this study, develop a few key metrics to track that would constitute a new scorecard for spiritual transformation. Don’t make it too complicated at first. Pick a few items that can be tracked, monitored, published (in newsletters, bulletin boards, worship folders, websites, etc.) and celebrated.

Over time, some of the original metrics might be dropped and others could be added, but it would begin to change the mindset of the congregation about what success (transformation) truly looks like and how it can be achieved. In the end, it’s not about the numbers related to our ministries, but the impact our ministries make on us, our churches, and the world.

Most of us would agree that the Six-Point Record System is no longer a valid way to measure spiritual transformation. Simply throwing away an outdated system isn’t enough. It needs to be replaced with something that will work for our time. What does spiritual transformation look like for you, your church, and community? How will you measure it? Who will you work with to develop a better scorecard?

Being a community of faith called to grow in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6:4f); to be a blessing (Gen. 12); and to Go ye into all the world…and as you go teach, preach and baptize (Matthew 28) suggests that advancement, growth, maturity and impact are essential to being a New Testament church. Talking about measuring faith formation and church impact is difficult, yet it can call us to a deepening of faith and impact if we take it seriously. How would you frame transformational indicators in your ministry context as you learn to live into Transformation, Engagement and Community? Consider …

transformational etrics m

by Eddie Hammett, CBFNC Church and Clergy Coach

Transformation is the work of the Spirit in and through the lives of the people of God. It speaks of change in attitudes, behaviors, direction, impact, and influence.

1. Identify 20 families in your congregation who commit to helping each other pay attention to attitudes and behaviors that need to shift, providing them resources for a transforming journey as family. What does a faithbased focused family look like? How does it become a faith lab in the home?

2. Invite these families to share and celebrate their learnings through their successes and failures with other families in the congregation on a monthly basis. What differences does intentional focus make in family life? What was learned?

3. Enlist 10 of your church groups (Sunday School classes, mission groups, choirs ...) to intentionally adopt a community group (schools, Girl or Boy Scouts, YMCA, Home for Domestic Abuse, Homeless ...) as an avenue of presence and impact for Christ in our communities. What heart shifts happened?

4. Provide quarterly forums for these groups to share their discoveries, faith challenges and next steps with the congregation.

What insights surfaced? What was their impact?

Engagement speaks to involvement and intentional engagement with persons, groups and activities/projects in the communities in which we reside and worship.

1. Interview, as you go through daily life, five persons who are non-church attenders or members. Ask non-threatening questions to invite their voice into the church: What family trends do you see in our community? What challenges do you see for our community in next three years? What would you want to say to our church? Do not defend your church, just listen carefully.

2. Share interview summaries/experiences each month with church leadership groups and the congregation to hear voices from those non-members/attenders to inform planning for ministry engagement.

3. Identify two issues of justice in your ministry context that calls for prayer and leadership. Share with the congregation and enlist persons who share the concern to continue the exploration and engagement. What ministry exploration teams need to emerge now to act on what is learned?*

Community speaks to our connection to each other in fellowship and missional function as the Body of Christ in the church and in the world.

1. Identify one church experience each month as an intentional avenue of deepening fellowship and community among church members who do not know each other by name, family affiliation, neighborhood, worklife, etc.

2. Design an intentional avenue to celebrate new relationships being experienced within the congregation each month. What is the impact on the persons and the church?

3. Be as intentional about discovering and building deeper relationships with those unchurched in the community. Share the discoveries and impact in church gatherings at least once a month.

These are offered as possible ways of planning and designing measurable strategies around the framework of goals for CBFNC in 2015-2016. We invite you to consider them and report back to CBFNC staff the impact of such transformational metrics being used in your church to guide forward movement in faith and mission. Let us know if we can help your journey. *Other thoughts can be found in my new book, Recovering Hope for Your Church: Moving Beyond Maintenance & Missional to Incarnational Engagement, 2014) The Gathering – March/April 2015

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2015 CBFNC General Assembly

Transforming... together “Be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good, acceptable and perfect, will of God.� Romans 12:1-2

new date and schedule!

Thursday and Friday, March 19-20, 2015 Providence, Charlotte

Register today at www.cbfnc.org/GA

Items of Note — Thursday/Friday Schedule We listened to feedback from our attendees and found that a slightly different schedule would suit our attendees. So, our 2015 Assembly will take place on Thursday and Friday, March 19-20.

Food Trucks At lunch on Friday, we will have food trucks from 11am-3pm in the Providence parking lot. The food trucks will offer a variety of food — from pizza, hamburgers and hotdogs to BBQ, Asian tacos, and cupcakes. Gluten-free, vegan and vegetarian options will be available.

Worship Proclaimers

You spoke, we listened!

Andrea Dellinger Jones

Pastor, Millbrook Baptist Church in Raleigh, NC

Workshops

Steven Porter

Turning Events into Transformational Experiences ...

Preaching on Ethical Issues - How to Bring More Light Than Heat ... Giving Caregivers What They Need Most ... Fighting Hunger, One Potato at a Time ... Constructive Conversation: Discussing Difficult Topics in Church ...

Becoming a Transforming Leader ... Praying the Ten Commandments ... Can Conflict Be Transformed? ...

The Spirituality of Fundraising ... When Helping Hurts: Equipping the Church to Love The Poor Effectively ... and many more!

Global Missions Coordinator, CBF in Decatur, GA

Children’s Assembly Free faith experiences, new friends and fun times for your child (infants - 5th graders). Be sure to pre-register!

Worship Offering Last fall, CBFNC entered into a partnership with CBF Global Missions to bring Marc and Kim Wyatt, CBF Field Personnel, to North Carolina’s Research Triangle Region. With experience in southeast Asia and Canada, the Wyatts are experts at cross-cultural mission, working with international students, refugees, various types of immigrants, and victims of human trafficking. Following their successful model, they are networking with local agencies and ministries and equipping local churches to engage in ministries with the internationals in their communities.

This year’s General Assembly Offering will be directed to their ministry, specifically providing much needed funds for program and operations.

Please give generously to support this vital ministry as a community we engage and transform the world on our doorstep.

Book and a Buck Donation Please bring Bibles and Christian study books to the General Assembly for Books on Mission. Those donations will be sorted, repackaged in waterproof boxes, and loaded on to the big container for shipment to seminaries and Bible schools overseas.

To help cover the cost of shipping, please tuck $1 inside each book.

If you are unable to include $1 per book, please donate your book anyway!

All are welcome!

To register for our free gathering or to find more information, visit www.cbfnc.org/GA. The Gathering – March/April 2015

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congregational

by Larry Hovis, CBFNC Executive Coordinator

transformation

The Gospel of Jesus Christ brings about transformation at many levels – individuals, families, communities and the world. Congregations are called to be agents of the transformation the Gospel brings. But congregations themselves also need transformation.

The opening plenary session of the upcoming CBFNC General Assembly at Providence Baptist Church in Charlotte, at 2:30 pm on Thursday, March 19, is entitled “Stories of Congregational Transformation.” It will consist of a panel discussion featuring five partner congregations, all of which are undergoing transformation to become more effective agents of transformation for individuals, their communities and the world.

In addition to the panel discussion, each church will lead a workshop where they’ll tell their stories in greater detail. Our hope is that by sharing our stories with one another, we will inform and inspire one another to pursue our own unique journeys of transformation. Here is a brief profile of each congregation.

Oakmont in Greenville, a 1,300 resident member,

multi-staff congregation, celebrated its 50th anniversary in April 2014. The church’s numerical and ministry growth parallels the growth Greenville has experienced in recent decades through new business and industry, East Carolina University, and Vidant Medical Center. The church, situated in a neighborhood setting, purchased Oakmont Square Apartments in August 2007, which surrounds the church’s campus. The apartment complex includes 112 units on 10 acres. The congregation initially viewed the purchase as an opportunity for future building and parking expansion. Utilizing the CBFNC Congregational Coaching process, the church re-envisioned God’s purposes for the apartment complex. Ultimately, the church’s years of spiritual formation emphases paved the way for missional and incarnational community engagement.

The apartments are now a hub of ministry focusing on the working poor, college students, and senior adults, meeting their educational, vocational, medical, and spiritual needs. Affordable housing for the working poor, ministry with the unsheltered homeless, a free monthly medical clinic, tutoring and literacy for children, college ministry, Oakmont Job Corp, a community garden, and an Oakmont Community Center minister living at the apartments reflect our story of congregational transformation.

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First, Waynesville, is in a small town in Haywood County.

Haywood County is in the western part of the state, with a population of about 55,000. In the 1980s and 1990s, our church grew in numbers because of an influx of retirees. But the recession that started in 2007 caused the county and church to stabilize and decline.

As our church looked for new directions following a split, we retained CBFNC Church and Clergy Coach, Eddie Hammett, to help us identify three main areas to address in the following 2-3 years: creating a more welcoming environment; establishing more relevant and vital worship; and becoming more engaged with our community.

Since the coaching process, the church has transformed its vision and structure to focus on being incarnational. Not everyone has supported this transformation, but it continues to take place.

Our process is ongoing, and we’ve faced many challenges, but our church is working hard to be the people God wants it to be.

Neill’s Creek

is a semi-rural congregation located halfway between Lillington and Angier in Harnett County.

We have a traditional worship service averaging 150 in worship, with both men and women in leadership positions. When we began our CBFNC coaching journey in September 2013, most of the people of Neill’s Creek Baptist Church would have enthusiastically said that we were “a good church with good people.”

We soon came to discover that more importantly we needed to be God’s people and functioning as God’s church. Through a process of prayer, community interviews, and discerning next steps, we had our eyes opened. We learned that not many people knew our church even existed, and those that did know of Neill’s Creek didn’t always have positive things to say. More importantly, we heard the voice of our community and how so many people were hurting, alone, and feeling helpless. It became apparent that we needed to establish Neill’s Creek Baptist as a church on mission and doing ministry within our community—not just on our church campus. We needed to turn “come” structures into “go” structures. As a result, we have seen our congregation grow in terms of racial diversity, numbers of people engaged in ministry, and the level of compassion with which we serve.

fully into the life of the church, and exploring multiple services on Sunday mornings. Truly, we have been blessed to transition from surviving to thriving.

We know there so many smaller churches who face great struggles trying to find a path ahead. We are excited to share our story, and the lessons we’ve learned along the way so that you too can rise from the ashes.

Wake Forest, a historic congregation located on the campus of

Southeastern Seminary in Wake Forest, is today a dynamic, diverse community of faith that now finds itself experiencing rapid growth in a changing, expanding community. With a revised leadership structure, it has released its members to be more engaged in missions, both locally and globally, while celebrating its commitment to traditional worship. A new building being constructed will accommodate needed education and fellowship space along with a state-of-the-art youth center. Plans that include a move to Dual Sunday School, doubling the size of a community garden, as well as Bible studies in non-traditional settings reflect its desire to grow deeper as it grows outward. As one person said, it is the alternative church in a community full of contemporary models.

At Grace Crossing in Charlotte, we jokingly like to refer to ourselves as a church plant with 100 years of history.

We are a congregation that has been through almost every crisis that can be faced – demographic changes, controversial relocation and name change, church split, internal strife, financial difficulties, and an attack from Godzilla.

Ok, that last one may not be true, but other than enormous fire-breathing monsters from the deep, we have faced about every challenge a church can face.

We have learned a lot of lessons along the way, and we’ve made some brave decisions. Having come through the fire, we have been refined into a church that is both rooted in our deep and proud history while being agile and flexible enough to continually be adapting for our future. Today, we find ourselves with new challenges – trying to figure out where to park people when the spots are full, integrating new people The Gathering – March/April 2015

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mining the

by Ka’thy Gore Chappell, CBFNC Leadership Development Coordinator

learnings

One of my favorite expressions used by Eddie Hammett, CBFNC Church and Clergy Coach, is “mining the learnings.”

In a recent conversation, I asked Eddie to tell me more about his meaning behind this expression.

His response to my question was a coaching, transformational question, “What are the prompts from your learnings and how will your learnings re-shape who you are?”

Allow me to ask you a question. When experiencing mission trips, how do you and your church “mine your learnings?” Whether local or global, construction or Bible clubs, going or hosting, how have mission trips re-shaped values, relationships and practices for you personally and your church?

An example of personal and church re-shaping of values, relationships and practices through mission trips is Millbrook Baptist Church in Raleigh. Even their mission statement reflects their desire to be a community of faith that “serves the world through mission and ministry.” Most recently, their expression of service was hosting a seven-member college mission team from Miami University of Ohio.

Miami of Ohio students ON MISSION with Habitat for Humanity, Raleigh.

For 12 years, Millbrook Baptist Church has volunteered with Habitat for Humanity to host college students on mission.

These missional values are also demonstrated in ministry

with other community service partners like Inter-Faith Food Shuttle and BackPack Buddies.

The common denominator between Millbrook and Miami University of Ohio was Habitat for Humanity, Raleigh. For twelve years, Millbrook has volunteered with Habitat for Humanity to host college students on mission. During the previous fall semester, the Miami University Office of Community Engagement communicated a desire for one of their college mission groups to spend their January term break working for Habitat for Humanity; they were invited to come to Raleigh.

One of the missional benefits of hosting students on mission is

the development of enriching relationships among church members and with college students. – Jane Pearce, Millbrook, Raleigh

During a college mission trip, the development of relationships among the students, service partners and church hosts are HUGE! – Jen Van Ewyk, Graduate Resident Director, Miami of Ohio

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While Habitat for Humanity asks that churches only provide housing, Millbrook chooses to provide housing, meals and opportunities for interaction with students. Different Sunday school classes provide meals, which develops enriching relationships among church members and with the college students in a small-group setting — a missional benefit!

The practice of offering housing, meals and fellowship between church people and college students frees the students to focus on mission work and also involves the church in the mission experience.

Church members report that the visits are “fun and enlightening.” Instead of concern for basic needs including finances and social interaction, these offerings free the college students to focus on mission work.

Jane Pearce, coordinator with college mission projects at Millbrook, reports, “Hosting the college students requires many volunteers, thereby involving the church in a small way with the ministry of Habitat for Humanity. The opportunity to serve and work with others brings to our attention the needs of those who do not have and cannot afford adequate housing.”

What about you and your church? How have mission trips enhanced the values, relationships and practices of you personally and/or for your church? Check out the “learnings” from mission trips of others. What have you learned?

Our family learned that love transcends differences and opens our eyes to the inequities of our world. – Alicia Davis Porterfield I learned that the best way to love God is to love my neighbor.

– Sally Queen I learned team work and skills like teaching and carpentry.

– Dana Gay I learned about God’s mercy and grace to others. – Kimbra Ewbank I learned what true love and compassion for others looks like.

I learned to appreciate the blessings in my life.

– Tempe Harrington Chapman I learned about real community and flexibility with my brothers and sisters in Christ. I learned leadership skills and experienced spiritual growth. – Dee Edwards Belvin I learned that I look at the world through different eyes because of my mission experiences. – Lyla Kloos I learned that mission trips establish a world view and a notion that God is bigger than you think.

– Steve Bissette I learned that the best projects are not done for others but with them.

– Sue Nutt Smith I learned that God stretches people when they reach out to others!

– Horace Robertson I learned that mission trips allow me to gain glimpses of the kingdom of God on earth.

– Emily Swartz I learned that people won’t hear the words of your mouth until they feel the touch of your hands.

– Murdena Simmons I learned through time and mission experiences that every time I leave my driveway I am on a mission trip.

– Rebecca Huffstetler

church life-change

by Rick Jordan, CBFNC Church Resources Coordinator

You’ve heard it, maybe even said it – “That was a life-changing trip.” Mission trips can be life-changing. When pressed, “How was it life-changing for you?” we may answer that our perspectives were challenged and our stereotypes were proven false. But, if pressed even further, “Did it really change your life? How did it transform the way you live day-to-day?”, we may have a little more difficulty pointing to something that really was life-changing.

Terry Smith, Director of International Partnerships for the Canadian Baptist Ministries, met recently with the CBFNC staff to share information he gleaned from a year-long research project with Canadian churches that had gone on mission trips. He wondered if the trips were really transformative for the short-term missionaries, or if they were merely fodder for feeling good about the situations back home (“when I saw their living conditions, I knew I was blessed”), feeling good about being a short-term helper (“they were blessed by our team’s work”), or feeling overwhelmed in the wake of a super calamity (“we mudded out four houses, but there were hundreds we left untouched”).

As Terry interviewed churches, he gained hope that mission trips could be transformative. Some churches are intentional in listening to shared stories of their returned missionaries and using those reflections to change the way they “do church” at home. There were three aspects of a church’s life that demonstrated life-change for a church: values, practices, and relationships.

Values – Some churches had been very inward focused. The mission trip helped them view the local community and the larger world differently. They have a deeper burden for local and global needs. This burden led to action. New ministries began. Those who went on the mission trip are asked to hold the church accountable for changes the church pledged. There is a new or revived sense of justice, as well as awareness that the church can be an instrument of justice.

Practice – Mission trips re-shaped the practices of a church’s ministry. The compassion for those in need (locally and globally) has led to more generous gifts. Churches that had not had missions education added this content to their Christian Education and worship services. One church began a partnership with a church in Bolivia. They covered their communion table with the colors of the Bolivian flag and now regularly celebrate communion with their sister church by Skype.

Relationships – Mission trips can lead to long-lasting friendships between team members. Friendships have developed with persons on the mission field. These new or deeper bonds transform the faith communities involved. One group of ministers whose churches had taken mission trips to a common location formed a peer learning group.

Sometimes, all three of these aspects happen. A group of five pastors from Canada went on a mission trip to Kenya, and then invited a group of pastors from Kenya to join them for an extended time in Vancouver. They became the hosts for a Kenyan mission trip. The pastors also got a taste of Vancouver –attending the symphony together and going deepsea fishing. After trusted relationships were built, in a final time of reflection, the Canadian pastors asked the Kenyan pastors what they could say to help the Canadian church. After some encouragement to be honest and to speak up, the Kenyan pastors said, “You don’t love your elders enough.” They discussed together that insight. Then, the Kenyans added, “and you love your children too much.” More discussion followed. The transformation that can happen because of a mission trip can go both ways.

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Donate to CBFNC today! www.cbfnc.org/give

Choose a particular ministry, our Mission & Ministry Offering or undesignated

Your gifts to a CBFNC endowment fund can plant seeds of blessing, hope, and help.

Designate a gift for scholarships, new church starts, or where it is most needed.

Contact Jim Hylton at jhylton@cbfnc.org or (336) 759-3456 for more information.

Coordinator Visits December 2014 - January 2015

First, Albemarle First, Kannapolis First, Lenoir First, Marion First, Mebane First, Mocksville First, Mount Olive First, Statesville Iglesia Baptista Misionera Roca Fuerte, Pittsboro Macedonia, Raleigh Providence, Charlotte The Fountain of Raleigh Fellowship, Raleigh Westside, Winston-Salem CBFNC ministry coordinators are available to visit your church to speak, preach, teach, consult, lead and minister in ways appropriate to your context. Contact the CBFNC office for more information.

CBFNC Financial Report:

December 2014 Contributions Undesignated - $158,867 Designated - $278,953 January 2015 Contributions Undesignated - $133,665 Designated - $388,781 April 2014 - March 2015 Monthly Undesignated Goal: $123,657

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CBFNC Honorary and Memorial Gifts Jim and Jan Hylton, Winston-Salem; in memory of Doris Yates in memory of Ann Kight Barry Howard, Pensacola, FL; Center for Healthy Churches in honor of Dr. Bill Wilson Karen Burnette, Sylva in memory of Lottie Moon Kenneth and Lisa Rust, Lumberton; Mission & Ministry Offering in honor of the CBFNC staff Sherry Hayes, Zebulon; Mission & Ministry Offering in honor of Don Horton Kim and Robby Ray, Charlotte; Ministers in Transition in honor of Jack and Mary Lib Causey

Ministers on the Move

Compiled by Jack Causey, Ministerial Resources Coordinator

Our encouragement and support go to the following ministers who have recently moved: First Baptist Church of Canton has called Kevin McDaniel as Minister to Students Blackwell Memorial Baptist Church of Elizabeth City has called Donald Morris as Pastor John Bridges has been called as the pastor of both Round Hill Baptist Church and Green Hill Baptist Church, which are both in Rutherford County Kenny Byrd has been called as Pastor of Nashville Baptist Church in Nashville Marisa Fraley has been called to Union Cross Baptist Church in Kernersville as Minister to Youth and Children First Baptist Church in High Point has called Joel Campbell as Pastor When you make a move or know of someone who has changed places of ministry, let us know at cbfnc@cbfnc.org. For assistance to search committees and ministers seeking vocational discernment, visit our reference and referral page on our website at www.cbfnc.org or call 336-759-3456 or 888-822-1944.

Visit our website, www.cbfnc.org to find a listing of our staff and leadership

Lester Zeager attended the first college ministry workshop I led at a CBFNC Assembly. As a layperson from Immanuel Baptist Church in Greenville, he and his wife Eunice, wanted to know how his church could best connect with East Carolina University students.

Here are some highlights of their ministry to students: Music majors at ECU need recital space. Immanuel has a sanctuary with good acoustics. When they employed Campbell and ECU alum David Archer as minister of music, he introduced a student orchestra in worship. Later, Krista Melcher came as accompanist and encouraged the church to offer a monthly recital venue for students. The church not only supported the idea, its grandmothers provided food for a reception after each event.

Those events now have more than 100 in regular attendance.

The relationship Immanuel has developed with the students has shaped its worship and its appreciation for a variety of musical styles. n

Immanuel has been tethered to students over their century of ministry.

The church began n When the new ministry on one women’s basketball side of the campus coach came to ECU, in 1915, and chose Pastor Scott Conner another property called to welcome near the campus and invite her to when they relocated church. Scott said, in 1967. Like all “I like sports, so traditional campus it was just natural churches, they have for me to call her.” had an ebb and flow She began to come of success with to church. Church student ministry, members, who were but they believe already ECU fans, that ministry is in unofficially adopted their DNA. the girl’s basketball In 2010, CBFNC team. They hosted by Wanda Kidd, CBFNC College Ministry Coordinator began to work with them in their homes Oakmont Baptist and showed up at Church in Greenville games. Later they to create a unified campus ministry position for one person to encouraged the basketball players to partner with them on their work both for CBFNC on campus and with students attending InAsMuch weekend. The players offered a basketball clinic to Oakmont. Our hope was that other CBFNC churches in the low-income girls who could not afford attendance at a basketball area would work with the CBFNC campus minister, Lawrence camp. A note written by a girl from the clinic thanked them for Powers, to provide a broad-based campus ministry. From the very giving her courage to try out for basketball. beginning Immanuel worked to make this a true partnership. n Further integration of international ministry into their Five years, later Immanuel’s relationship to college students congregation is another area of growth. While internationals has taken amazing turns with unexpected opportunities in have long been a part of Immanuel’s ministry, the involvement ministry for both the church and the students. When I asked of a young Chinese professor, who became a Christian Lester what brought about the changes, he said the changes in graduate school, brought a new capacity to relate to required time, attention to what God was doing around them, internationals, and the congregation has embraced them. and a readiness to respond to the doors that God opened. The Through that expanded ministry, the church has baptized an missional results have been fascinating. The ministry touches Iranian and a Nigerian student. the lives of 30-40 students. An interesting variety of ministries Scott Conner says, “College students have brought youthful have emerged involving multiple generations of people. It is energy, creativity and a unifying focus for ministry in our transforming the church in the process. congregation.”

give and take

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Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina Bringing Baptists of North Carolina Together for Christ-Centered Ministry 8025 North Point Blvd., Suite 205 Winston-Salem, NC 27106

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Upcoming Events ~ MARCH/APRIL EDITION Youth Choir Festival March 6-7, 2015 Knollwood, Winston-Salem

Coaching Change, Transition and Transformation (503) April 28-29, 2015 CBFNC offices, Winston-Salem

Children’s Choir Festival March 14, 2015 First, Lumberton

Youth Whitewater Rafting Retreat May 23-25, 2015 Blue Ridge Assembly, Black Mountain

CBFNC General Assembly Thursday and Friday, March 19-20, 2015 New date and schedule!

Providence, Charlotte

Youth Beach Retreat October 2-4, 2015 Caswell

Establishing a Dynamic Coaching Relationship (502) March 30-31, 2015 CBFNC offices, Winston-Salem Recovering Hope for Your Church - seminar April 3-4, 2015 Christmount Conference Center, Black Mountain Retreat for Adults April 24-26, 2015 Caraway Conference Center, Sophia

Congregational Coach Certification October 19-20, 2015 Christmount Conference Center, Black Mountain

Regional Impacting Tomorrow May 2, 2015, at Neill’s Creek, Angier October 10, 2015, at Oakmont, Greenville February 6, 2016, at First, Mocksville April 16, 2016, at First, Waynesville