The Gathering CBFNC Newsletter - September–October 2019

Gathering

The

of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina

September/October 2019

Vol. 24 Issue 5

Anna & LaCount Anderson

Cecelia Beck

Laura & Carson Foushee

Rick Burnette

Karen

Lesley-Ann Tommey

Matt & Michelle Norman

Marc & Kim Wyatt

e r e h hey

Ware t cted? e n n co

Raleigh Statesville Winston-Salem

Hickory Durham Franklinton

Greensboro Wilson County Macon County

Field personnel with North Carolina Connections Hear from twelve field personnel with roots in our state. (pages 3–10)

Missionaries vs. Mission Trips: Not Either/Or

by Larry Hovis | CBFNC Executive Coordinator

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s a child, I was taught to study missions, to pray for missionaries, and to give generously to missions (especially at Christmas and Easter). Yet, other than possibly becoming a vocational missionary someday, being involved in missions was not emphasized.

In college, I took my first mission trip - to New York City.

It was transformative. In that brief week, I grew in faith and in my relationship with other students like no other time in my life, except maybe summer youth camp.

In the decades to follow, the short-term mission movement grew exponentially. It became a part of almost every church’s culture for both youth and adults to participate in mission trips for a few days or weeks every year.

Eventually, the emphasis in many churches began to shift from financially supporting vocational missionaries to supporting mission volunteers. An unintended consequence of this shift, not only for CBF Global Missions but for many other mission sending agencies, was a reduction in force of vocational missionaries. Many Christians and churches elevated shortterm volunteer mission engagement while devaluing long-term missions personnel presence.

Over the last fifteen years, I’ve been privileged to participate in short-term mission trips with CBF Global Missions field personnel, including the Wyatts (Marc and Kim) in Canada, the Samples (Rick and Lita) in Northern California, and the Normans (Matt and Michelle) in Spain. In each of these experiences, I found my faith renewed, my desire to cross cultural boundaries for the sake of the Gospel strengthened, and my appreciation for incarnational long-term missions personnel deepened.

The separation of short-term and long-term mission engagement is short-sighted. Both are essential for the successful pursuit of God’s mission.

The Gospel is incarnational. There is no substitute for longterm missions presence. God’s mission can’t be accomplished by “parachuting in” for a week in the summer. As we’ve learned from books like When Helping Hurts and Toxic Charity, without a grounding in healthy missiology accompanied by the perspective that only a full-time presence can bring, even our well-intentioned efforts can do more harm than good.

At the same time, the global mission field benefits from the full participation of God’s people. Field personnel and local populations can receive tremendous encouragement from visitors. Modern technology makes it much easier today to extend relationships that are first established on a short-term trip. Also, even churches in the U.S. are now located in a global mission field.

The world has come to us. Participation in short- term mission engagement in another country or cultural context provides training for you and me to serve as “home missionaries” in our own communities.

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Recognizing that it’s not “Either/Or” - that is, either longterm presence or short term trips - the leaders of CBF Global Missions made a re-commitment to long-term missions field personnel presence while also encouraging short-term missional engagement. Now all field personnel have their basic needs met.

There is still a need for them to raise funding for local ministries, but none of them must worry about whether they can pay for housing, food, healthcare, children’s education, and other basic needs.

WHAT SHOULD A CHURCH DO TODAY TO EMBRACE THIS “BOTH/AND” APPROACH? ENGAGE IN YEAR-ROUND MISSIONS EDUCATION Use CBF missions education curriculum, the Offering for Global Missions materials, and other resources to teach your people about CBF Global Missions - principles, people involved, and places served. Invite field personnel to speak at your church.

ESTABLISH RELATIONSHIPS WITH FIELD PERSONNEL CBF field personnel are some of the most dedicated and talented people in our fellowship. They have much to teach local churches.

Consider becoming an Encourager Church by cultivating a close, intentional relationship with one or more field personnel.

ENCOURAGE MEMBER INVOLVEMENT IN SHORT-TERM MISSION ENGAGEMENT Continue to send youth and adults on mission trips, but be more intentional in how you go about it. Use the CBF Global resource, Pivot, to guide pre-trip training.

GIVE GENEROUSLY TO THE CBF OFFERING FOR GLOBAL MISSIONS (OGM) Let’s be honest. As a Fellowship, in recent years we have neglected our historic Baptist commitment to provide financial support for missionaries. We can do better. I challenge every North Carolina Cooperative Baptist church and individual to renew financial support for the Offering for Global Missions by matching every dollar spent on short-term mission volunteers with a dollar for the OGM, 100% of which provides for the long-term presence of our field personnel. Whether you fund OGM through a special offering or the church budget (why not both?), make this funding a priority.

The world is changing. Our commitment to sharing the gospel with the world has not changed. God’s mission requires long-term vocational missionaries and short-term volunteers working alongside them. Let’s be faithful to both.

Field personnel with Rick Jordan CBFNC Church Resources Coordinator

NORTH CAROLINA CONNECTIONS CBF Field personnel who have roots or significant ministry in North Carolina were interviewed for this issue.

Pages 3–10 HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN SERVING AS FIELD PERSONNEL? 16 years total.

WHAT IS YOUR CONNECTION TO NC? ’m from Macon County in the far west of the state. I grew up in a small Baptist church and was exposed to missions as far back as I can remember. I attended the University of Tennessee where I was engaged in the Baptist Student Union and became involved with spring break and summer missions opportunities.

Following college, I served with the Journeyman Program of the Foreign Mission Board in the Philippines before returning to UT to work on a master’s degree.

After grad school, Ellen and I moved to Lincolnton, NC where I taught high school agriculture for one year and were members of First Baptist, Lincolnton.

Rick Burnette

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WHAT IS YOUR CONNECTION TO CBFNC? Ellen and I were originally appointed as CBF Global Missions field personnel to Thailand at the 1994 General Assembly in Greensboro. During home assignment, we participated in CBFNC functions in Greensboro and Charlotte and occasionally spoke in CBF churches until we shifted out of CBF Global Missions for several years in 2009.

WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR PATH FROM NC TO WHERE/ HOW YOU ARE NOW SERVING? After having been away from CBF Global Missions for several years, in 2016 I was invited to serve on the CBF Global Missions Council. In 2018, Global Missions invited me to return to field personnel status in a position that includes our ministry with farmworkers along with managing CBF domestic disaster response. It was only a few months after being recommissioned that Hurricane Florence impacted the Carolina coast. Since September 2018, I have had the privilege of working closely with CBFNC in mobilizing resources to assist recovering communities in New Bern, Jones County, and Columbus County, particularly with the involvement of Daynette Snead (First, New Bern), Todd Padgett, and FBC Whiteville.

HOW CAN CBFNC CHURCHES HELP YOU IN YOUR MINISTRY? The Hurricane Florence recovery effort has provided a wonderful opportunity for me to reconnect with CBF of North Carolina.

We are going to launch the Disaster-Prepared Congregation initiative in 2020. This toolkit will enable CBF churches to be better prepared to care for their own congregations in the wake of an emergency. Additionally, participating churches will be ready to minister within their own disaster-impacted communities as well as to serve more effectively further afield. With regard to the farmworker ministry, Ellen and I would welcome CBFNC church teams to volunteer with our partners and clientele in Immokalee, Florida. Additionally, we would welcome the chance to encourage CBFNC congregations related to their own church/ community gardening efforts as well as ministry and advocacy for farmworkers in North Carolina.

Read more about our field personnel on the following pages.

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nna was born in Raleigh and grew up in Wilson county.

She went to Baptist schools and camps, Mars Hill University, and Southeastern Seminary. “I thought my career would be church music, so I prepared for that and worked Anna & LaCount Anderson in that until 2010 when I was commissioned as field personnel with CBF. We were members at First, Washington and went with them to Swaziland several times. There, we saw global poverty.

Those volunteer mission trips inspired us to think about how to see poverty and how to get involved.” Anna changed churches in 2010 where she was asked, “What ministry would you like to do besides music? What are your passions and interests?” She said “music and missions” and worked there until 2016 when she went with CBF full-time. “Working as a field personnel has a different kind of schedule from church work! It is very rewarding and compelling as we are always exploring new ideas and opportunities.”

LaCount is from Savannah GA, a product of church and church music. He joined the Navy. “I learned discipline and life skills not learned earlier that I still use every day.” LaCount then went to Gardner-Webb University and earned a church music degree. He graduated from Southeastern Seminary in 1980 and married Anna in 1980. “I worked for 30 years in local churches, including planting First, Smithton in Belhaven. For ten years, I became the leader of the Union Rescue Mission in Roanoke Rapids, ministering with homeless men who needed shelter, clothing, and food.” In 2009, LaCount was commissioned by CBF. In 2017, LaCount retired. He continues working in the Conetoe community and in Edgecomb, Nash, and Hertford counties as a missions engagement partner with Anna, leading in food distribution, consulting with homeless shelters, after-school

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tutoring, and agricultural missions. “Developing relationships is the most important thing we do; we do not ignore persons because they look different and have needs. That’s where evangelism comes in.”

CONNECTIONS TO CBFNC “We’ve enjoyed being a part of CBFNC’s Children’s Mission Days.

Last year’s event was especially great as we met at Conetoe. We were able to show the mission field to the children,” Anna said.

LaCount was on the CBFNC Wealth and Poverty Committee for six years, leading it for some of those years.

HOW CHURCHES CAN HELP “We have developed a partnership with the United Methodist Church in eastern North Carolina, so CBFNC churches can use their facilities in Tarboro to bring mission teams to help us. We need help in light construction work in Conetoe, as we renovate homes from hurricane damage. We want to build gardens so people will have fresh food. Recently, a mobile home was donated that needs to be rehabbed and fitted for overnight guests – for example, for interns, or people on extended stays. Some work is very short term – just a day trip to help in the harvest season.

Some of this food is given away and some is sold to hospitals for their cafeteria. There is senior adult food distribution once a month. A small group could come help us on a weekday for many of these needs. Financially, our salary and housing benefits are paid. All of our other financial support, with the exception of two churches, comes from churches and individuals in North Carolina, from Weaverville to Ahoskie. We need financial gifts to do the programs and to pay our ministry budget which is $13,000 a year.

This covers things like travel, renting trucks, and even sheet music.

(Anna offers free piano lessons for children in Conetoe.)”

grew up in North Carolina and as the daughter of a Methodist pastor, lived in many towns of Piedmont, and western NC. I have lived in other states but always returned to North Carolina where both of my daughters were born. North Carolina is home.

When I was commissioned by CBF in 2001 to serve as a Global Service Corp Personnel in Toronto, Canada, I attended my first CBFNC General Assembly in Raleigh and became part of CBFNC. After returning to North Carolina, I served on the CBFNC Missions Council. I have attended every CBFNC General Assembly since 2004 when I returned from Canada.

There is always a nurturing feeling of family at CBFNC and I have been supported in numerous ways Cecelia Beck throughout my years as field personnel. In addition to the years I served in Canada, I have served as field personnel in Shelby since 2009. While serving in Canada, I constantly heard God leading me to divinity school. When I returned to North Carolina, I attended Gardner-Webb Divinity School.

While at GWU, I learned of the neighborhood in Shelby where I now live. God opened the doors for me to live among and minister to people in my own backyard. The ministry is primarily about “being with” as opposed to “doing for.”

My primary need from CBFNC churches is prayer for our neighbors and for wisdom as I seek to be the presence of Christ. I also need financial partners as I depend on partners 100% for financial support of the ministry. Due to the nature of the work, there are limited opportunities to come and serve alongside but I welcome all inquiries.

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e serve as CBF field personnel in Barcelona, Spain. Our local ministry focuses on church leadership development and on ministry among secular people. Regionally, we manage the CBF European Team and represent CBF to European Baptists and other groups. Although we have only been serving with CBF in Spain for a little over six years, we have been with CBF for 16 years in various capacities. We were originally commissioned as field personnel in 2003 and served in Toronto, Canada.

Afterwards, we moved to Atlanta where Matt served as Global Missions Missiologist and managed the field personnel candidate selection and training processes. Michelle held several contracts for CBF Global Missions and Church Ministries.

Michelle is from Raleigh, where she Currently, we connect with several churches went to Apex High School and then to related to CBFNC as Encourager Churches.

Gardner-Webb University. Matt was born While preparing to transition overseas, in Shelby before moving to Franklinton we approached CBFNC with the idea and then Oxford while his father attended Matt & Michelle Norman that became the Pivot resource. Pivot is seminary. Matt’s parents (Rob and Mickie a leadership development resource that Norman) were commissioned by the Foreign Mission Board in challenges our traditional thoughts and beliefs about God’s mission 1983 and the family moved to Kampala, Uganda for several years, in the world and our role in that mission. CBFNC partnered with followed by Thessaloniki and Athens, Greece. Matt moved back us to develop this study and sent several short-term teams to from Greece and attended Gardner-Webb University.

Spain to test and adjust the study as it was being written. Now, It was during university, that we began to connect with CBF the study is being used in multiple locations around the world and and CBFNC. We led several CBFNC youth retreats and spoke in has been translated into Spanish. We invite you to consider using multiple churches about missions and growing up as a missioary kid. Upon graduation, Michelle was a summer missionary in the Czech Republic with CBF field personnel. After moving to Cary in 1999, we joined new friends to form a church plant team supported by CBFNC in the triangle area. While living in Cary, we were members of Woodhaven Baptist Church and Michelle was on staff at the NC WMU. During these years, we felt called to serve on mission and entered the Pivot as you think about your next short-term mission team. candidate process with CBF CBFNC churches can continue to support the ministry in Global Missions.

Barcelona in three ways. The first is to give to the Offering for CBFNC has supported Global Missions which supports the salaries, benefits, housing us in many ways. It and MK schooling so that field personnel can live and do the encouraged ministry by ministry to which they are called. Second, churches can pray for offering opportunities the ministry. Third, we update our Facebook page (Partnership to lead at youth retreats, Catalunya) www.facebook.com/partnershipcatalunya regularly supported innovative church planting before “missional” and and we invite you to connect with us. “postmodern” were buzzwords, and gave a CBFNC scholarship to Matt while he studied for his MA at Fuller Theological Seminary.

Read more about our field personnel on the following pages.

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Field personnel with NORTH CAROLINA CONNECTIONS

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ix years ago, we were commissioned at the CBF General Assembly in Greensboro to serve as CBF Field personnel to Japan. A commissioning service has always been among our favorite moments of CBF gatherings, but was made even more sacred as we had hands laid upon us in prayer by family and friends who have encouraged and challenged us throughout our faith journeys.

Laura was raised in the faith at Ridge Road Baptist Church, Raleigh. Her passion for congregational ministry came through the mentorship of wonderful pastors and lay leaders. Her experiences as a Passport Camps staff member further helped her discern a call to ministry and enter seminary.

Carson & Laura Carson grew up at First Baptist Church, Foushee Statesville. Through mission education and youth mission trips, he began to develop a passion for mission service.

He was welcomed wholeheartedly by First Baptist, Elon, while attending Elon University, and experienced a call to international mission service during his senior year. A Student.Go experience in China after graduation led him to pursue theological studies.

Kanazawa Baptist Church Building Dedication Worship: We celebrated alongside friends at Kanazawa Baptist Church, whom we partnered with for three years, as the church dedicated a new building in 2018.

We met in seminary at Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology while working together on the Admissions staff, often attending CBFNC Annual Gatherings. While in seminary, we were introduced to a congregational ministry position in Japan with CBF Global Missions and thought a church-based position in an international location sounded like something we would be interested in someday, but knew that it was several years away. God eventually led us back to this after several years of service in Macon, Georgia, where Laura served as the Associate Coordinator of CBF/GA and we co-led a collegiate ministry at Mercer.

(Continued at the bottom of page 8.)

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Collegiate engagement is a mission, not just a ministry

by Wanda Kidd CBFNC Collegiate Engagement Coordinator

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he connotation of “campus ministry” is that we are on the campus as an extension of the programs we engage in through our congregations. Campus ministers as ministers are present to greet churched students and to continue the religious education that they have been part of in our churches. Campus ministers are to help young Christians develop as strong church leaders and to help them see themselves as people who serve and do good things in the name of Jesus. While all of that is important, it is only a part of what we do.

The problem with this “job description” is that it limits the possibilities of reaching out beyond our denominational walls and dispelling preconceptions of what that type of outreach encompasses.

Campus ministers as missionaries meet students - all students - where they are and help to present a living and engaging Christ as someone who sees their brokenness and loves them anyway. Campus missionaries act as representatives of Christ who are equipped to engage in complicated conversations and help students make sense of the chaos all around them.

The work on a campus is a mission. It is pro-active and intentional. It is seeing the students on the campus as people who have longings and dreams. Some may be adrift and may be in crisis. These young adults do not even know what is missing in their very busy lives. We need to be accessible to each and every one of them, not just the people of our tribe, whatever that tribe is.

Today’s campuses are radically different from the campuses I attended as a student and they are profoundly different from the campuses where I served. Because of those changes, I believe faith-based groups are more needed today than ever before. But it must be different, because the people who we want to reach are different.

WHAT IS YOUR CONNECTION TO NC? Kim grew up in her home town of Durham, NC. Marc lived in a half a dozen places before age 18. But he fondly calls Hickory, NC his home town. They Marc & Kim Wyatt met while attending Wingate University. After graduation and marriage, they moved to Wake Forest where Marc received his Master of Divinity at Southeastern Seminary. Later, Kim earned her Master of Education from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. The Wyatts have been married for 33 years and have two adult children.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN SERVING AS FIELD PERSONNEL? We began our work as Cooperative Baptist Fellowship field personnel in 1996, serving in Thailand and Canada. Learning and applying a posture of hospitality, we assisted with the start-up of Matthew House, a refugee resettlement ministry based in the heart of downtown Toronto. What followed was nothing short of a movement as other similar ministries emerged across Ontario and Quebec.

WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR PATH FROM NC TO WHERE/HOW YOU ARE NOW SERVING? In the fall of 2014, our missional journey brought us back to our home state of North Carolina. In consultation with and at the request of CBFNC Coordinator, Larry Hovis, and Missions Coordinator, Linda Jones, CBF Global Missions posted us in the Research Triangle, an eight county region that wraps the capital city of Raleigh. Since then, we have faithfully consulted the CBFNC Mission Council. In 2018, we were asked to join CBFNC as Adjunct Staff.

Many students do not know anything about organized religion, faith language, or biblical literacy. Some have a very negative impression or experience with church or people who call themselves Christian.

We delude ourselves into thinking that because most people in America identify as Christian that they are committed to serving or even attending a church on a regular basis. In an article in Outreach Magazine, Rebecca Barnes and Lindy Lowry say that while polls read that 40% of people attend church regularly, only 17% are in any church on any given Sunday.

Therefore, even the nominally Christian students on our campuses have not been steeped in Bible stories, sermons of how to deal with life as a Christian, or how to be in relationship with multi-generational believers.

Within months of arrival, we established Welcome House Raleigh, a temporary housing ministry for arriving refugee families thanks to partnerships with St. John’s, Raleigh and First, Hillsborough, modeled after our previous efforts in Canada.

Since the first ministry launch, we have witnessed the births of like ministries every year. There are Welcome Houses in Wilmington (Winter Park) , Fayetteville (Snyder Memorial), Raleigh (Crabtree Valley), Durham (Hope Valley), Chapel Hill (Community Church), Winston-Salem (College Park) and Knoxville, Tennessee (CBF Tennessee). Each ministry follows a pattern based on the original house in Toronto - Christian hospitality and collaboration between refugee and immigrant agencies and local churches. It is quite simple actually. We help churches meet their neighbors. We ask churches with houses to share them with those in need. We ask those who don’t have houses to share their time with our new international guests. It’s a “good neighbor” way of life at a time unprecedented among displaced peoples around the world which also corresponds with an intentional unwelcome policy of the current American administration.

HOW CAN CBFNC CHURCHES HELP YOU IN YOUR MINISTRY? We steward our gifts and experience to help connect resources and mobilize churches to welcome and love their international neighbors. It is our prayer that together with local CBFNC congregations we will fully take grasp of the many opportunities to share the Gospel in culturally relevant ways with refugees, immigrants and trafficking victims. We pray for the day when every church will have a ministry among their international neighbors. We believe many more churches will join the growing Welcome House Community. What needs to happen for there to be a Welcome House in your town? We believe Christ has called us to bless the nations of the earth. We invite you, your local church, and community associations to get in on the blessing.

College is a time of change, stress, and life-altering decisions and the students come with few tools to handle those issues and little knowledge or access of where to get help. Add to that the often fragileness of American student’s faith and you have a full-blown mission field—a mission field that requires our very best resources and people equipped to address the issues with knowledge, passion, and a desire to serve this unique population.

CBFNC collegiate engagement is a powerful tool to help young adults to thrive and grow as beloved children of God. We are blessed to have bright, compassionate, and equipped people who serve in this capacity through CBFNC. Pray for them as this season of mission and ministry on the NC campuses starts anew.

Read more about our field personnel on the following pages.

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was born and grew up in Greensboro where my mother was a minister of music most of my young life, and our family spent most of my growing-up years at College Park Church. That was also the home church for Ralph and Tammy Stocks and Amy, my best friend in first grade, so I witnessed a family become CBF field personnel and move half way around the world, and then heard their stories when they would return every few years.

In the youth group at College Park, we went on missions trips every summer, and I first felt pulled to ministry through those cross-cultural experiences. College Park also opened up their pulpit to me from a young age, and I preached there for the first time.

Lesley-Ann Hix As junior in high school, we moved to First Baptist, Greensboro. There, I served as summer youth intern for two years and was active in the college ministry. In college, at both Meredith and UNC-Chapel Hill, I was actively involved in the college ministry at First Baptist, Raleigh, and at Carolina I met with the Co-Op (CBF’s Collegiate Student Ministry) weekly. Until I moved to the McAfee School of

Theology in Atlanta, I always lived in North Carolina. While at McAfee I received the CBFNC scholarship.

My mom had a hard time in ministry, which I witnessed, so, listening to the warnings, I followed a passion for photography and story-telling to journalism school. In my senior year of college, First Baptist, Greensboro took a youth missions trip to Romania, and I helped them blog their experience from my Chapel Hill apartment. It was in that experience that I realized my passion for journalism is the same that pushes me to ministry – telling the stories of community. The difference is, for ministry you don’t leave once you tell the story.

And I wanted to stay. Because of all of the cross-cultural experiences of my life—whether through those youth group missions trips with Tommey College Park, or the immersive trips with First Baptist, Raleigh—where I do lots of listening and learning and growing outside of my comfort zone, I am able to serve better and I crave to be in places where not everybody looks and thinks likes me.

For the way those trips helped me discern my calling, I am so grateful for short-term missions. We definitely have to be careful

Carson & Laura Foushee, continued from page 6 Our ministry in Japan started in September 2013 in the cities of Kanazawa and Toyama where we led English ministries within church and kindergarten settings. As our initial three-year commitment was coming to an end, we felt that God was not done with us in Japan, so we entered full-time Japanese language school. This spring, we completed a twoyear program and since have entered a new period as ministerial learners and practitioners.

During the next two years, we will preach and teach at Tokiwadai Baptist Church as we continue to learn Japanese Christian language and culture more deeply alongside this church and others within the Japan Baptist Convention (JBC) and as we discern long-term ministry with the JBC. Though most of our professional ministry has been outside of North Carolina, CBFNC has been an important part of our work. From our commissioning, CBFNC has partnered with us prayerfully and financially, allowing us to be present in Japan first through English ministries and now through our language learning process which will allow us to deepen ministry opportunities.

We are grateful for this partnership and look forward to the ways we can grow our connections with CBFNC and its partner churches as well as create opportunities for CBF and JBC congregations to learn from each other.

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(Above) This was our first Japanese sermon in November 2018 at Tokiwadai Baptist Church in Tokyo where we are members.

(Left) We enjoyed spending time with friends from Toyama Baptist Church, whom we served alongside for three years, during a trip back to the region for a building dedication in Kanazawa.

with how we go about our short-term missions trips, but they changed my life and showed me broad possibilities.

After graduating from McAfee, I did a residency with QC Family Tree in Charlotte, with Greg and Helms Jerrell. I spent almost a year there and worked through spiritual disciplines and neighborhood development. My time there showed me beauty in communities that others consider unworthy and the power of attaching one’s life with those in a place that has been disinvested.

I was commissioned to serve as a CBF field personnel in the summer of 2017. I began my ministry in October in New York City as field personnel, working in partnership with Rauschenbusch Metro Ministries.

For many reasons, I was drawn to New York City, including the inspiring ministry of Walter Rauschenbusch and Dorothy Day. I love the diversity here. I love the exciting work being done to address the homelessness crisis. Every night, more than 60,000 people in NYC sleep homeless – including 23,000 children. It is a massive problem, but a lot of good work is being done. I partner with Rauschenbusch Metro Ministries’ 12 social programs, including mercy ministries as well as deep transformational development ministries. There is a rooftop garden that the whole community works on.

There is a summer camp that our partner churches help us put on every summer. There are life skills empowerment programs, where people who have experienced homelessness meet together for 14 weeks, twice a week, working through experiences of trauma and life-skills training.

Through our Living Well Life Skills Empowerment Program, for women who have experienced both domestic violence and homelessness, I work hard to create a hospitable space for people who don’t feel

safe many other places. Building trust in relationships takes a lot of time. When we get together, we share a meal, work through a trauma-informed curriculum—learning about what happens to our brains when we experience trauma and developing healthy coping skills when we experience flashbacks or triggers. We bring in local experts to lead life skills workshops, including job skills, cooking, yoga, mindfulness, and public speaking. And all of our participants work one-on-one with a mentor to tell the story of their trauma and set goals, looking to the future with hope. I’ve heard women who were devastated by Christian pastors and scared to reenter even a church building come to an appreciate and be grateful for a Christian community of faith, claiming, “Now I see that there are good Christians.” I’ve held brand-new babies, and I’ve seen women who have always dropped out of every other group they have been placed in commit and finish the semester with us, saying, “This is the best home.” God is tearing down boundaries, and I get to witness those miracles!

Pray for our faithfulness and our discernment for how to be the best presence of love, grace, and hospitality in our neighborhood.

Follow my Facebook page. Become an encourager church. Come visit us and then return to share the stories. First Baptist, Elkin comes every year to help prepare our Thanksgiving meal for 300 persons. We give out snack bags and toiletry kits all day long at the door. Join us in our Operation Hope for Hell’s Kitchen: pack filling snacks (like granola bars, juice boxes, peanut butter crackers) and basic new clothing items (like winter hats, gloves, underwear, socks), and send us your carefullypacked care packages, and we will share them with those who are searching for an expression of hope and love this season.

Read more about our field personnel on page 10.

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y name is Karen, and I’m serving as CBF field personnel in the North Africa region. I’m a brand-new field personnel, commissioned at CBF’s General Assembly last year in Dallas. I arrived in my new home in November 2018. I’m so grateful for the support of CBFNC in my childhood education, ministry formation, and current ministry placement.

I grew up all over the Tar Heel State. With both parents in Baptist ministry, we lived everywhere from Shelby to Mebane. I attended Salem College in Winston-Salem and taught elementary school music for a few years in Thomasville. Baptist churches all over the state have taught me what I know about God, church, and missions. You’ve formed me, loved me, and trained me, and I’m so grateful.

In 2012, I received a scholarship from CBFNC to begin my theological training. I attended McAfee School of Theology in Atlanta and began serving on staff at a church there. I graduated in 2015 with an M.Div. and a M.S. in Nonprofit Organizational Leadership and continued serving in my congregation for 3 more years.

My field placement in North Africa combines two of my biggest vocational passions: ministry to refugees and local church ministry. I’m serving in the role of pastor in the National Protestant Church, but my main responsibility will be to focus on our outreach and aid efforts in service to sub-Saharan migrants and refugees.

This population is incredibly vulnerable here in North Africa, and our church is providing amazing ministry with limited resources. I’m honored to partner with the leadership of this church, to learn from them, and to serve among them.

Since I’m still new, I’m currently in a two-year introductory period of learning and cultural transition.

I’m enrolled in French school and attend classes every day. Soon, I’ll add Arabic classes to that mix, which sounds exciting to me! I’m also investing my time in learning more about our church systems, international partnerships, and unique ministry contexts. I’m so grateful for this intentional time of preparation.

It’s so important for my long-term success and effectiveness.

CBFNC churches are already making a difference for me and many other field personnel. Thank you for supporting us with your prayers, your money, your time, and your love. One of the best ways to ensure our success is through your church’s support of CBF’s Offering for Global Mission. This offering provides salary, benefits, housing, and children’s education for all CBF field personnel in the USA and around the world. Without this offering, we simply could not stay in our ministry contexts, so your support of this collaborative giving program is essential.

Thank you for helping us remain in our areas of ministry!

I appreciate your prayers for many things. Please pray that my language training would go smoothly and that I would increase my ability to communicate in both French and Arabic. Pray for our church as we continually make difficult decisions about funding. Pray for the migrants and refugees we serve who are often very vulnerable and desperate. And finally, pray for a robust Offering for Global Missions so that all of CBF’s field personnel may continue in the good work God has called us to do!

I’m so proud to be from North Carolina. Thank you for being my people!

If you’d like to get monthly newsletter updates from me, shoot me a message at Karen@cbf.net.

10 • The Gathering

September/October 2019

YOUR GIFTS TO A CBFNC ENDOWMENT FUND CAN PLANT SEEDS OF BLESSING, OF HOPE, AND OF HELP.

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

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

CBFNC HONORARY AND MEMORIAL GIFTS Given by . . . in Honor /Memory of Linda Denney in honor of Jack Causey Faye Edwards in memory of Mary Elizabeth Causey Bob & Delores Shepherd in memory of Dr. Roy Smith

PLEASE REMEMBER CBFNC IN YOUR WILL OR ESTATE PLAN. Contact Jim Hylton at 336.759.3456 for more information.

Gifts from individual supporters established this endowment fund to supplement the CBFNC annual operating budget. Gifts to this fund assist all areas of CBFNC ministry as we strive to join the work of God in the world.

MINISTERS ON THE MOVE

Our encouragement and support go to the following ministers who have recently moved: Patrick Cardwell to Lindley Park, Greensboro as Pastor Kyle Caudle to Piney Grove, Mt. Airy as Pastor Heather Folliard to Jubilee, Chapel Hill as Co-Pastor of Community and Hospitality Kevin Georgas to Jubilee, Chapel Hill as Co-Pastor of Worship and Teaching Kaylee Godfrey to First, Clemmons as Minister of Youth and Outreach

COORDINATORS’ VISITS June – July 2019

Ardmore, Winston Salem CBF General Assembly, Birmingham, AL Chadbourn, Chadbourn First, Albemarle First, Elon First, Huntersville First, Kannapolis First, Statesville Mars Hill, Mars Hill Providence, Charlotte Westwood, Cary

Jack Randall Lee to First, Rockingham as Pastor Gavin Spell to First, Wilmington as Minister to Students Tyler Tankersley to Ardmore, Winston-Salem as Pastor John Thorton to Jubilee, Chapel Hill as Co-Pastor of Missions and Outreach When you make a move or know of someone who has changed places of ministry, please let us know (cbfnc@cbfnc.org).

For assistance to search committees and ministers seeking vocational discernment, visit the Career and Calling page on our website at www.cbfnc.org or call (336) 759-3456 or (888) 822-1944.

September/October 2019

The Gathering • 11

NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION U.S. POSTAGE PAID WINSTON-SALEM PERMIT NO. 162

Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina Bringing Baptists of North Carolina Together for Christ-Centered Ministry 2640 Reynolda Road Winston-Salem, NC 27106

888-822-1944 www.cbfnc.org

Return Service Requested

Upcoming Events SEPTEMBER Growing Young Cohort Summit #2 September 5–6

CBFNC Webinar:

The Sun is Up — One Minister’s Awakening to Racial Reconciliation September 10 11:00 a.m. to noon

Elevating Preaching September 16 Duke Divinity School

Youth Beach Retreat September 20–22 Fort Caswell

Where is Church Going From Here?

September 21 Providence, Charlotte

CBFNC Webinar:

Preaching Punchlines: The Ten Commandments of Comedy September 24 11:00 a.m. to noon

OCTOBER CBFNC Webinar:

Understanding and Ministering to Blended Families October 8 11:00 a.m. to noon

Using Assessments in Coaching October 21 Peace Haven, Winston-Salem

CBFNC Webinar:

Let Go and Live Free: Loosening the Bondage of Shame October 29 11:00 a.m. to noon

NOVEMBER Children’s Mission Days November 2 Greystone, Raleigh

November 9 Oakmont, Greenville November 16 First, Morganton

CBFNC Webinar:

Teaching the Four Senses of the Text: Combining Devotional and Critical Approaches to the Bible November 4 11:00 a.m. to noon

DECEMBER CBFNC Webinar:

Encourager Churches December 10 11:00 a.m. to noon