God is always on the move too! He is working, changing, growing, stretching, reaching this World for His Kingdom purposes! I love to watch the eyes of little ones as they look in wonder at a butterfly, or flower, or small animal, or even an airplane going across the sky! They get SO excited and so thrilled about the movement and the change...Oh if WE would only get that excited about what God is doing all around us, if we would look in awe and wonder, and be amazed that He is moving, He is working and He has invited us - His prized creation - to join Him in His work!!!
We believe that God is moving within North America and He is calling out believers to be involved! When we think of missions or God moving we are quick to think Africa, Asia, or even South America...but NORTH AMERICA??? No way! Yet, reality is that in North America alone there are 195 MILLION un-churched, unreached people. This makes North America the FOURTH largest unreached country in the world! WOW!
The problem? While our population is growing, our churches are declining at a rapid rate. On average 3500 churches close their doors each year in North America, while only approximately 1,500 are started each year. The need is HUGE! The call is upon us to reach out to this lost people group that could very well be in your own backyard.
The argument has been made that if there are existing churches, shouldn't THEY be reaching out more? The simple answer - YES! The realistic answer - even if every church were to be actively reaching out to their communities (and many are not) we would still not even be touching the surface of the need for outreach and evangelism in North America!
It is because of this growing need that the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention has made it a top priority to equip leaders to plant NEW and MISSIONAL churches all across America! They work closely with existing churches to research and explore the need for churches in every community and then from there, recruit and equip church planters that will in many cases relocate and begin building a church in a lost community.
For the past several years, Joel and I have been actively interested in and praying about our part in church planting. We did not know what that would be - would it be to partner with a new church plant? Would it be to be involved as a Sending Church? Would it be to go and plant a church? This past fall God answered us - we were invited to join the effort of reaching the lost in North America by being church planters with the North American Mission Board.
Our family will be relocating to the community of Delta, Colorado in July of this year. This was a hard decision, a decision that was bathed in MUCH prayer and much discussion. Our kids are settled here in Levelland, they have friends, have put some roots. Joel and I are settled here - we are in ministries that we LOVE dearly, have seen grow and develop - we have loved it! Yet - our policy has always been to pray over every opportunity with an open mind and heart...God has FLUNG this door open! In future blog posts I will be sharing with you our complete journey up to this point but for now - we are excited, nervous, saddened, joyful, expectant, and so many other emotions all at once!
God is on the move! We are determining to join Him in the work He has called us to do!
2 comments:
Do what you know you need to do, Ronnie. God has got this.
We are praying for your family as you take this big leap. More than ever before, I understand what you and your kids go through each time you move as my own move is still pretty raw. Praying that you will be able to settle, connect, grow, and thrive in Delta. <3
Post a Comment