CEE Story From The Mission Field
Send them out: Putting motion to its motto leads Chicago church to CEE
February 15, 2008
The congregation at Broadview Missionary Baptist Church (BMBC) near Chicago, Ill., is living out its vision statement like never before. “Bring them in, build them up, send them out,” has become the foundation for a new evangelism focus that is set to impact people groups in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).
“Our priorities are changing; we are becoming a different church,” said Eric Arnall, BMBC’s recently hired missions pastor. “The world is becoming smaller—and reachable, too.”
Future CEE stops include Kiev, Ukraine, and Athens, Greece, among other Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and ends of the earth locations. Within the next two years BMBC plans to send out approximately 300 volunteers, while aiming to tithe 10 percent of their membership—which translates into 230 short-term missionaries—inside three years.
All this from a church that sent out its first mission team in August.
An Awakening
An awakening
Eric joined BMBC in 2004 after working with the North American Mission Board (NAMB) as a church planter and U.S. Army Reserves chaplain. His background proved a catalyst for the church’s increased awareness and interest in missions.
Eric and two other ministers became the Missions Team and began leading the congregation to pray for missionaries, gathering names from Internet resources, personal contacts and Baptist associations. Through research of other churches’ missions programs, they discovered how to approach missions with prayer, match a church’s heartbeat with that of evangelical agencies and plan toward long-term volunteer commitments.
Eric said BMBC’s staff members are learning about missions as they “test the waters” and develop their own program, which they are presenting in three forms. One way is by providing a “Missions Moment” for their pastor to present to the congregation every Sunday morning.
They also require individuals interested in projects to participate in an eight-week class introducing short-term trips and the doctrine of salvation. Students partake in local projects and attend a mission church to experience worshipping with a different people group.
In addition, periodic Sunday evening services introduce cross-cultural elements through listening to international preachers, singing in foreign languages and viewing videos downloaded from namb.net and imb.org.
They also plan to officially launch their mission program in January.
Transformations
BMBC’s first project in Albany, N.Y., was pivotal to the beginning of its Acts 1:8 makeover.
“All of us were changed,” Eric said. “(We) brought back a zeal—a fire—that none of us expected. That fire is beginning to spread.”
One BMBC family is in the process of becoming the congregation’s first missionaries supported by the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). The church is also considering virtual strategy coordination by adopting the Caribbean island of Dominica.
“We are beginning to pray about things we never prayed about before … go places we never thought about going … (and) sacrifice things that we worked hard to get,” Eric said. “God is moving. God is working in our midst.”
BMBC is one SBC church among many that are sending out missionaries, but countless others lack such involvement. Eric said a Bible-based denomination has nothing on which to stand if its members choose to disobey the Word.
“Biblical accuracy is no substitute for obedience,” he said. “Missions isn’t an option … (but) is the natural response to being in love with the King of the nations.”
Eric said all churches, regardless of size, can adopt the Acts 1:8 strategy and apply it to their ministry fields. He believes telling the world about the Savior boils down to one thing—loving God first.
“When a church falls passionately in love with Jesus Christ,” he said, “that church will find some how, some way to share that love with her Jerusalem, her Judea, her Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth.”