Month: August 2024

The 3 Cs of casting a compelling vision

Does your ministry vision rob you of sleep? Quicken your pulse? Change your community and world? Why is vision so important for a pastor and a church?

Vision determines your direction and prioritizes your limited time and resources. Let’s explore what can make a vision so compelling that it will inspire and mobilize your church members.

It must be a CONVICTION

Your vision will only burn as bright as you do. When this passion comes from deep within you, people will sense it and follow it. A vision is something you not only see in your mind, but also burns in your heart.

Will Mancini once said, “An opinion is something you’ll argue about; a conviction is something you’ll die for.” People will not be more dedicated than you are to the vision. The outcome is a willingness to sacrifice. This sacrifice can be seen in time, energy, and financial resources. If this is not something you are willing to personally risk your reputation and resources on, it’s not worth pursuing. It’s merely an idea, not a vision.

Does your vision inspire you to the point of personal commitment? Southern Baptist pastors may use different vision statements, but they should all be variations of the Great Commission and Great Commandment.

"Vision serves as a ministry road map, giving both direction and efficiency."

Mark Dance Tweet

It must be COURAGEOUS

You will draw courage from the convictions from which a compelling vision is born—especially when others try to steal your dream, or worse, ignore it.

My last church relocated to a 50-acre campus next to a university with 13,000 students while repurposing our former downtown five-acre campus into a regional ministry center. Most of our members immediately embraced that vision. Some only understood it after it had become a reality. The toughest ones were those who never saw the vision and either ignored or opposed it. Those are the ones I asked Jesus to give me extra courage and patience for.

1 Chronicles 28:20 says, “Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Don’t be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He won’t leave you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the Lord’s house is finished.”

It must be CLEAR

Vision serves as a ministry road map, giving both direction and efficiency. I don’t know how many times I have started driving in the general direction of my destination before consulting a GPS. In ministry, it is best to get good ministry directions before you lead people somewhere new.

People can’t follow a vision they can’t clearly see. “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18). Vance Havner once said, “If there is a mist in the pulpit, there is a fog in the pew.”

I have learned so much over the years about vision from Thom Rainer, Eric Geiger, and Mancini when I served with them at Lifeway. Much of what I write about here I learned from them, as well as from field testing these ideas for 30 years as a lead pastor.

My prayer is that you and your church will benefit from the collective experience of those of us who came before you so you can cast a compelling vision and fulfill it for the glory of God and the advancement of the gospel.

Caring for your staff well

One of the greatest elements of pastoral ministry is the opportunity to care for people. The word “pastor” possesses a deep connotation of love, care, and leadership.

However, caring for people is not always easy, and caring for your ministry team can be even more challenging when considering the unique confluence of church members who happen to earn a living working underneath their pastor. This reality underscores the necessity to care for your team well.

Hopefully, what follows will be both principled and practical—but there is one thing worth mentioning before jumping in. It is healthy to remember that caring for your staff is a journey. It is a path I hope we learn to walk more faithfully and intentionally. It is also a path where all of us have undoubtedly caused hurt. We need to own that. Leadership is challenging and good leadership demands that we keep learning and getting better at truly caring for others well.

Now, let’s look at a few areas we can grow and better care for our ministry teams.

1. Is your leadership postured to link arms with your team?

Beginning with the big picture in mind is important. I’ve heard it communicated more than once that a staff serving under the lead pastor is there to make his ministry successful. I couldn’t disagree more. While the lead pastor is responsible as the primary under-shepherd, his goal should foster mission success, not personal platform. Men and women serving in vocational ministry positions are first called by God, secondarily called by the church, and then work alongside one another to accomplish the mission.

There are certainly healthy reporting structures necessary for organizations, but our posture should be one of linking arms to accomplish God’s great purposes for His local church and His great kingdom.

Is your leadership postured to labor alongside your team for the sake of the gospel?

2. Remember, communication = value.

You’ve probably heard it stated before: “Communicate early and often.” This is especially important with our ministry teams. When we communicate with our teams, they feel included, important, and valued. It also prepares them to field the questions and concerns they’ll inevitably hear concerning whatever is happening.

Good communication, however, is more than merely information—it also contains vision and builds culture. How we communicate matters. Here are three areas which are particularly important:

Communicate change: Before change happens, take the necessary time to communicate to your team. Provide opportunities for your team to ask hard questions and take time to build consensus. And don’t forget to communicate the “why.” If we’re all going to row the boat in the same direction, your team needs to know why the change took place.
Communicate public appreciation: As you’ve probably heard it stated, “Correct privately, celebrate publicly.” Our churches need to be reminded often that it takes a ministry team to truly accomplish the mission. It is a great privilege that we get to deflect credit and celebrate others.
Communicate how things are really going: Valuing your team also means telling them hard things. When the job isn’t getting done, we need to communicate even more early and often with the intent of coaching them to success. Ultimately, if it’s not going to work out, caring for a person means loving them through that process, as well.

Where does your communication need to get stronger?

3. Love your staff by loving their families.

We have a staff value we revisit fairly often: “We love our families as our primary ministry, and they know it.” It’s not enough to say it—they need to know it because we live it. At times, this may simply mean flexility regarding a work schedule. Other times, it may mean walking a family through a season of incredible difficulty.

Additionally, care for your team by knowing the families of your staff. Know the names of spouses and kids. Ask about them and shepherd them well. Caring for families adds exponentially more joy and commitment as you work together for the mission.

How well are you loving the families of your ministry team?

4. Celebrate.

Caring for your ministry team will always include celebrating the amazing and gifted individuals God has called to your church. Here are three practical ways to celebrate:

Celebrate regularly: Every month, we pull our entire staff together. Included in our time is a devotional, communication, housekeeping things, and celebration. It’s usually fairly simple. We have a meal, acknowledge wedding and work anniversaries, and point out birthdays that will happen that month. We laugh together, sing together, and share a small part of our lives. On a less regular rhythm, we’ll bowl, play laser tag, hit golf balls, and engage in other team-building fun. Regularly celebrating reminds team members they are important and valued.
Celebrate wins: Take time to highlight wins. These wins might include an event that was incredibly successful or a project completed despite significant setbacks. Other wins might be small moments you caught someone doing something above and beyond the call of duty. We’ll even celebrate the ones who get all their ministry receipts in on time (I rarely receive that honor).
Celebrate authentically. However you choose to celebrate, mean it.

How are you caring for your team through celebration?

5. Disciple your team intentionally.

For ministry leaders, this is an easy one to miss. We often see our teams as fully developed followers of Jesus. However, discipleship is a lifelong process for everyone. Investment in their spiritual journey is so important. Practically, caring for your team can include reading developmental books together, reading articles, listening to podcasts, and then discussing with the intention of personal or ministry growth. Also, choose to spend time in God’s Word together. They probably don’t need another sermon but would relish scriptural encouragement and direction through devotion.

Finally, pray often and intentionally—for your team and with your team. Model dependence on Jesus and care for them through their spiritual journey.

Do you take seriously the intentional discipleship of your team?

When Paul wrote to the Corinthian church (1 Corinthians 13), he made the underlying motivation of spiritual investment really clear. It is love. To sum it all up, may we care for our staffs by loving them well.

The old adage is true: “People don’t care how much you know until they know much you care.” Our leadership abilities, preaching abilities, and administrative gifts are unimpressive and often frustrating if love is absent. Let me encourage you to take a few minutes to read through 1 Corinthians 13:1-8, thinking about your ministry team. Ask God to give you the sacrificial love needed to care for these unique sheep particularly well.

New school year, same mission

DALLAS—For many students and ministries, the start of a new school year feels the same as New Year’s resolutions for many adults. Most students see returning to school as offering more new opportunities and better chances to start over compared to the beginning of a new calendar year.

As leaders, we tend to feel the pressure of overthinking what we will do differently in our ministries each school year. We want to be innovative, creative, and think outside the box or even crash the box to build a whole new one.

However, I’ve found that after being in ministry for over 20 years, if it’s never been done before, there is probably a reason. Now, don’t get me wrong. Be creative, innovative and think outside the box, but don’t feel pressured to overthink it so much that you forget the basics of what has been true for 2,000 years.

Here are some strategies that have been solid and reliable for a very long time and remain trustworthy today for a new school year:

Be led by the Holy Spirit

Jesus said, “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you” (John 14:26, CSB). This a good reminder that if you have been bought by the blood of Jesus and have the Holy Spirit of God living inside of you, then rest assured that the Spirit inside of you desires to reach young people even more than you do. No matter how long you’ve been in ministry, the Holy Spirit knows how to disciple students more effectively than you do. So, trust Him. Be led by Him.

Even more than seeking to be a numerically growing ministry this school year, seek to be a Spirit-led ministry. If you desire to be Spirit-led, everything else will fall into place. Leonard Ravenhill said, “Gifts and talents can build a crowd, but only the Holy Spirit can build the church.”

Preach the Bible

If you want to be a relevant ministry this school year, then preach the Bible. The Word of God is always relevant. The writer of Hebrews said, “For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12, CSB).

Notice that every descriptor word he uses to describe the Bible uses present tense language: living, effective, sharper, and penetrating are all given in present tense. It’s not past tense because the Bible is not an old book; it’s an eternal book. It’s not a history book; it’s a living book. If you want to be a relevant ministry this school year, stick to the book!

Share the gospel

Often, people will be open to the gospel during changes in their lives. There is something about entering a new grade, going from middle school to high school, and going from high school to college that causes people to desire community, stability, and support. Students going through ever-changing seasons of life desperately need a never-changing God that provides eternal life.

Plus, we should enter this school year encouraged by the truth that the same gospel that has saved young people for 2,000 years still works today. Students are looking for hope, answers, and truth, especially in today’s world with many cultural shifts. Ultimately, whether they realize it or not, we, the church, know they are looking for someone. Hope has a name, the answer has a name, truth has a name, and that name is Jesus! Share that good news, and train students to share that good news.

Stay on mission

The last great promise and call that Jesus gave His disciples before ascending to Heaven was, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8, CSB). The Spirit in us will empower and propel us to stay on mission by being His witnesses. The primary purpose of our ministries is to know Jesus and to make Jesus known. God’s Plan A of getting the gospel onto school campuses and into the ears of students is the church, and there is no backup plan. That’s the plan. The Spirit empowers the church to take the gospel to “their Jerusalem” and beyond.

So, if we want to approach things differently this school year, then let’s return to the basics of what has always been true. What would it look like this school year if we were so laser-focused on the mission that we refused to be distracted or discouraged by ineffective busyness and unnecessary drama? What would this school year look like if we set goals for challenging students to have gospel conversations? What would this school year look like if students were intentionally and regularly trained on how to articulate the gospel? What would this school year look like if we equipped the saints for ministry work according to Ephesians 4:12? What would this school year look like if we discipled students to understand that they’re not the church’s future, but the church right now?

Wouldn’t that make for an amazing school year for the glory of our great God?

This article originally appeared on Baptist Press.

The top two priorities of every pastor

Sheep will let you lead them if you first love and feed them. This lesson is crucial for task-oriented pastors like me. This was Peter’s blind spot also, which is why his post-resurrection restoration was such a pivotal moment in his life and ministry.

In Jesus’ third and last interaction with His disciples after the resurrection, they grilled out for breakfast. Then Jesus took Peter on a life-changing walk on the beach (John 21:15-17):

Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?”

“Yes, Lord,” he said to Him, “You know that I love You.”

“Feed My lambs,” He told him.

A second time He asked him, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?”

“Yes, Lord,” he said to Him, “You know that I love You.”

“Shepherd My sheep,” He told him.

He asked him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?”

Peter was grieved that He asked him the third time, “Do you love Me?” He said, “Lord, You know everything! You know that I love You.”

“Feed My sheep,” Jesus said.

Peter was like most action-biased leaders I know: “Charge!”

Jesus leveraged Peter’s latest failure not only to restore him, but to also reset his ministry trajectory with these two simple directives.

"If you try to lead or feed them without loving them first, you may get bit—or worse—ignored."

Mark Dance Tweet

‘Feed My lambs’

Hungry sheep are never happy sheep, so make sure their souls are full from your preaching.

Soon after his restoration, Peter and his friends would face the challenge of prioritizing their prayer and preaching ministry (Acts 6:4). Immediate ministry demands distracted them from their preparations, which led to the spiritual and numerical stagnation of Christianity’s first church in Jerusalem.

The most effective way to prioritize preaching is to consistently start preparing your sermons early in the week. Unless you are preaching on Sunday nights, this ideally could begin on Sunday afternoon (after your nap). If you balk at studying on the sabbath, you should relax and enjoy the sabbath on another day, because Sunday is probably the worst time to rest for a pastor.

‘Shepherd my sheep’

Good preaching won’t make up for bad pastoring. How we treat people offstage is more important than how you teach them onstage. Yes, even those members who are resisting all of your initiatives. Most church conflict is the result of slow, relational erosion, not any one issue.

“We cared so much for you that we were pleased to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us (1 Thessalonians 2:8).

That doesn’t sound very professional, does it? Almost sappy in fact. It took a while to learn that my sheep needed me to be personal more than they needed me to be professional. Pastor, your people are longing to be genuinely loved by you.

I believe gradual relationship erosion sneaks up on a lot of pastors, which is why so many are surprised when their sheep dig in their hooves in response to their vision and initiatives. Perhaps they are not so much opposed to advancing the gospel as they are opposed being pushed or shoved.

If you try to lead or feed them without loving them first, you may get bit—or worse—ignored.

God has given me a new focus and a new mission

Igave my life to Christ 24 years ago. That Sunday I gave my heart to Christ, I was in Dorm 4 at the Bossier Parish Penal Farm in a little town called Plain Dealing, La., serving a three-year sentence. I was literally broken. I was at the point where I was like, “Look, I can’t do this no more.” I told my mom, “I can’t do three years.” She said, “Baby, you have no choice.” But when she said that … I was done. I wasn’t raised to do crime. I took my last step with the world and I took my first step with God, and I’ve never looked back. I got saved and from that moment on I started doing Bible study in prison and stayed close to the Lord, got out, and got right into the church and got baptized. I was 29 years old then.

After getting out of prison, my whole life changed—my wardrobe, everything. I worked as an electrician in Bossier City/Shreveport for about 33 years and got to a point where the Lord started blessing me in the trade. I also started a ministry called A Way of Escape Ministries, from 1 Corinthians 10:13. God gives a person a way of escape through Jesus Christ. Christ was my way of escape from the world and from repeating the negativity and the toxicity in my life. I was preaching on two radio stations in that area, sometimes preaching for local churches, and my wife, Patricia, and I spoke on building a strong marriage. All this while raising eight kids.

I was tired—we were tired—every day trying to work and take care of the ministry. My wife was working night and day, taking two or three shifts in local nursing homes. I was just working night and day, sometimes doing videos online, because we’re on Facebook. I’d work on the videos and fall asleep while I was doing that. I’m sitting at work eight, 10 hours a day doing electrical work.

“My heart’s desire is that those who don’t know God will know the God I know and serve.”

—André Blaze Tweet

Well, God sometimes just speaks out of nowhere—this is the highlight of my testimony. He spoke to my wife one day back in Louisiana and she said to me, “We got to go.” And I was like, “Go where?” She said, “We need to go to Texas. God said go to Texas—God is saying we need to move.” And I said, “Well, I need to go in prayer.” So after 90 days in prayer, we picked up everything. We started for Greenville but ended up finding a house for us in Sherman instead.

I’m building my business here, but it’s not been crazy busy yet. I have some good contacts, and many of the people of my church [First Baptist Sherman] have given me work. I couldn’t have dreamed of this. I can’t tell you [all that] God has done in the year we’ve been here. It’s been a blessing. It’s been a journey. Sherman is great for us. Our family and children are happy. God has allowed me to make enough on the jobs I get so that our needs are met. My wife works, but she just works regular hours. She’s not tired. I’m not tired, and He has blessed us. He’s just so good.

I’ve been changed, refreshed in my relationship with God—the same God who told Abraham to get up and leave the Ur of the Chaldeans, leave what you are familiar with and go to a land that I will show you. That’s the challenge, to really see where your faith is. It’s one thing to teach truth and to teach faith, but it’s another thing to live it. The Word of God is more than just ink on paper. This move has strengthened my faith. I’m refocused. I’m better than I was.

It’s changed my children’s lives. We tell them, “We’re not here to make money, but we make money. You’re not here just to go to school, but you do go to school. We are here on assignment. We are here because of God’s kingdom.”

Now I own a radio station, a gospel station, and it’s called Blaze. God blessed me with that. We’re on 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I’ve got some contemporary Christian music on there, and then my messages. And then we’ve got messages with our children, Bible studies for the entire family. In other words, God has really blessed. I’m also continuing my prison ministry, preaching a few times a month in different facilities.

My heart’s desire is that those who don’t know God will know the God I know and serve. To those who know Him, I’d say be refreshed and know that God is good. Don’t become complacent with God, but know that He is going to take you higher and ask bigger things of you. Give Him what He wants and enjoy the ride.

Want to share a story of what God is doing in your life or your church?

Share your story here

Short-term trips meet long-term strategies during Olympics outreach

“We can’t control the results, but we can measure our faithfulness,” said Jason Harris, team leader for the International Mission Board’s Paris team, explaining its strategy for gospel outreach during the 2024 Summer Olympic Games.

Part of that strategy includes facilitating and mobilizing more than 300 short-term volunteers to hit the streets of Paris sharing the gospel.

The team Harris leads in Paris is young and growing. No team members have been there longer than a few years. They are united around a common vision to make Christ known among Europeans and a long-term goal to plant five churches in Paris over the next five years.

Harris explained that short-term volunteers are vital to sharing the gospel broadly and making connections that will catalyze their local church-planting strategy and lead to longevity.

Each week of Olympics outreach, volunteers are focused on sharing the gospel within specific geographical and cultural segments of Paris. They are using a number of creative strategies as entry points for evangelism and have invited local French churches to work alongside them.

“My prayer has been that the outreach for the Olympics would be a launching point for church planting in the city,” Harris said.

Ultimately, the harvest is in God’s hands. They have already witnessed God drawing people to Himself through volunteer efforts this summer.

Zach Beasley, campus minister at Alabama State University and Tuskegee University—two historically black colleges in Alabama—led a team of six students to join a week of pre-Olympic outreach to Paris in May.

One thing the students didn’t expect was the spiritual darkness they felt almost immediately on arrival in the “City of Light.” Beasley said more than anything this trip has motivated them to pray for missionaries and their long-term presence on the mission field.

“We realized to really make a lasting impact, you have to be there for years,” Beasley said. “It takes years for boundaries to be broken down and relationships built.”

The team from Alabama spent eight days passing out water bottles, prayer walking, distributing flyers and doing spiritual surveys.

“The work we did with the local church was very familiar to our students. It’s the same thing we do on campus, going out and sharing the gospel,” Beasley said. “We collaborate and build the local church, and I loved seeing that reiterated here for our students.”

At the end of the week, Beasley and his team were excited to see many people they had given flyers to show up for an outreach event at a local church.

“We were praying they would come, and they actually did,” Beasley said.

IMB missionary Diane In came to Paris from a nearby country where she lives to help with the Olympic outreach. She joined a group of 90 volunteers partnering with local Chinese-French churches. On their first day, they handed out more than 1,000 portions of Scripture in French, had 300 gospel conversations, and saw several professions of faith.

The missionary shared how she has seen God provide divine appointments for the gospel. At the end of one day, In and one volunteer—a Chinese pastor from the U.S.—sat next to some members of the Chinese press on their way back to the hotel. The pastor gave one of the men a custom-designed pin and shared the gospel with him. On their way out of the station, they ran into two more members of the Chinese press—a man and a woman—who were lost and asked for directions. As the pastor gave directions to the woman, In pulled out another pin and shared the gospel with the man.

Brant Bauman, a digital engagement strategist for the IMB, gave an exciting update on the first round of virtual volunteers and their strategy to extend on-the-ground evangelism. Bauman said digital responders around the world are getting exactly the kind of interaction they have been hoping and praying for. Volunteers are serving on a week-long virtual mission trip where they’ll be on call to answer chat requests.

“It’s a strange thing to say, but the volume on my computer is turned up and there is a little chime that goes off roughly every 30 seconds,” Bauman said. “Normally that would drive anyone mad, but not tonight, because that is the sound of new people responding to our online ads and reaching out to us. Better yet, it’s the sound of doors being opened and the gospel being proclaimed by so many digital responders scattered all over the world.”

Bauman added that despite challenging discussions, team members are excited and bold in their interactions. “We have already seen countless prayers responded to, quite a few spiritual conversations and gospel shares, and some that have expressed a desire to meet up face-to-face and find a church.”

Harris asked for prayer as their team begins to follow up with new contacts in Paris.

“The number of connections made could be really challenging to follow up with effectively,” he said. “Pray that, ultimately, people become disciples of Jesus and don’t just hear the gospel once.”

Western Swing

South Texas church becomes first to put boots on the ground as part of the SBTC’s Reach Nevada initiative

RENO, NEV.

“Ma’am, would you like a water? Coffee?”

It’s a little after 10 a.m. at Idlewild Park, and members of First Baptist Church of Woodsboro, Texas, are hard at work offering refreshments to passers-by. The park is pretty busy considering it’s a weekday, peppered with people sneaking in a walk or a jog before temperatures climb into the low 90s later in the day.

A few feet away from the table where the Woodsboro members are offering drinks, Scott Lamberth, pastor of Reno’s Pathfinder Church, is engaged in conversation with a woman pushing a stroller. He hands her a business card inviting her to church, and, with the Truckee River whooshing behind them, they have a conversation about spiritual things.

“If I come to your church, are you really going to ask me to believe that Jesus is the only way?” the woman asks.

“Look, we do believe Jesus is the only way,” Lamberth replies, “but we will give you the space to come and explore that at your own pace. … Come and check it out and just see what God does.”

Ministry is happening, and the partnership between FBC Woodsboro and Pathfinder Church is playing out as planned—with the Texas team working the drink giveaway table so Lamberth is free to break off to the side and have more in-depth spiritual conversations with local residents.

“More spiritual conversations, more invitations to church, more bridges built— the work that the Woodsboro team has been doing here has just led to such a good result.”

—Scott Lamberth Tweet

The previous evening, the Woodsboro team was at another park with Lamberth, running an arts and crafts outreach. With children and adults from the nearby neighborhood participating, Lamberth—and even several members of the Woodsboro team—went table to table, striking up conversations and inviting people to church.

“The amount of spiritual conversations I’ve been able to have this week is the most I’ve had in any single week in the year we’ve been here,” Lamberth said. “More spiritual conversations, more invitations to church, more bridges built—the work that the Woodsboro team has been doing here has just led to such a good result.”

In July 2022, the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention entered a partnership with the Nevada Baptist Convention to strengthen its existing churches and plant new ones. As part of that partnership, the SBTC committed to not only provide financial resources, but also connect its affiliated churches with those of the NBC.

Since then, the NBC has hosted an Equip Conference similar to the one put on by the SBTC each summer. In 2023, NBC’s Equip Conference held in the Vegas area attracted 300 attendees. This year, it hosted two Equip Conferences in different parts of the state and saw more than 500 attend total.

And in June, FBC Woodsboro became the first SBTC church to travel to Nevada to serve side by side with an NBC church.

An exciting mission field

The SBTC has partnered with the Nevada Baptist Convention to plant churches and strengthen existing churches. Here’s a glimpse at the opportunities this mission field offers:

3.1 million

Population

2.3 million

Las Vegas population including 700,000 Hispanic/Latino residents and 250,000 Asian/Pacific Islander residents)

500,000

Reno/Sparks/Carson metro area population

by 2060

Nevada is expected to double in population

10

Number of Send Network endorsed church planters in Nevada

177

NBC affiliated churches

An open frontier, a great gospel need

Reno is home to roughly 265,000 people, comparable in population to the Texas cities of Irving, Laredo, and Lubbock. That population swells to about a half-million when considering all the residents of nearby Sparks and Carson.

Much of Reno’s booming population is attributed to an influx of Californians trying to escape soaring home prices, high taxes, and even higher crime. Though Reno is 450 miles northwest of sister city Las Vegas, it’s just 12 miles from the California border—making it a natural landing spot for many fleeing east.

Lamberth said the people of Reno are friendly and open to conversation, which is why he commits time most weeks to set up a table at a local park offering free drinks to those passing by. Many people Lamberth talks to describe themselves as spiritual, though pinning down exactly what that means can be difficult. One thing usually becomes clear in those conversations—a great number of those he speaks with do not agree Jesus is the only way to be reconciled to God.

According to the latest numbers available, nearly two out of every three Reno residents are unchurched. In 2017, Lifeway Research declared Reno the second most unchurched city in the U.S., trailing only San Francisco, Lamberth said.

The Reno metro area offers contrasting extremes. Tesla’s Gigafactory Nevada, which claims to be “one of the world’s highest volume plants” for the production of electric motors, energy storage products, vehicle powertrains, and batteries, is located about a 30-minute drive east on I-80. Gigafactory has grown into one of the state’s largest employers, offering high-paying jobs that can provide life-changing financial stability.

But just outside the Sparks city limits sits the state’s largest legal brothel which—along with the area’s gaggle of casinos and an out-of-control substance abuse problem—is tearing lives apart with increasing efficiency. In 2020, Nevada experienced a more than 300% jump in the number of people who admitted using marijuana, according to the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services. Alcohol and drug-related deaths have spiked in recent years, with fentanyl overdose deaths rising more than 200%.

Reno, once known as the “biggest little city in the world,” sadly is now referred to by many as the “Sodom of the Sierras,” Lamberth said.

“But one of the positives is, people here are open and hungry,” Lamberth said. “People who are needy are ripe, and there are a lot of needs here.”

That makes the call to not only plant churches in Reno, but strengthen existing Southern Baptist churches like Pathfinder, all the more urgent.

“It’s our God-given responsibility to support churches like this. We’re just a small church ourselves, but that don’t matter. Church size don’t matter when it comes to the Great Commission.”

—Carroll Borden Tweet

A call to get involved

So how can churches of the SBTC partner with NBC churches?

First and foremost, NBC churches need prayer, said Damian Cirincione, NBC’s executive director. Some churches need help putting on events such as vacation Bible schools, while others have buildings in disrepair that need to be remodeled or rebuilt. Ideally, longterm relationships would form between SBTC and NBC churches that would allow them to work together for years to come.

“[Our churches] need people to come alongside them, love on them, love on their pastors, and encourage them to continue to reach their community,” Cirincione said. “The most important thing is sharing the love of Jesus and making His name known in these small communities.”

The Reach Nevada initiative is one of several partnerships the SBTC is building using an Acts 1:8 model, developing statewide, nationwide, and global ministry partnerships to accomplish the Great Commission. In addition to Nevada, the SBTC has a similar relationship with Southern Baptist churches in Puerto Rico, and it is considering other such partnerships in Europe and Asia.

SBTC missions mobilization associate Colin Rayburn said local churches often lack the connections to engage in missions opportunities with other churches. In other words, they have a heart to do cooperative gospel work on multiple levels, but they just don’t know where to start. By using the SBTC’s connections with Southern Baptist churches on the state, national, and international levels, churches will be able to find partners more easily, he said.

“We realized we have this unique opportunity born out of this desire to amplify what the Lord is doing in other places to help mobilize our churches to find the partnerships that they need,” Rayburn said. “There’s no reason a small, local church would naturally have connections with other small churches all over the world, but when we all come together, we get to create something profound.”

Carroll Borden, an FBC Woodsboro elder who came on the Nevada trip, said the call to work with other churches outside one’s own context is not only a desire, but a command from the Lord.

“It’s our God-given responsibility to support churches like this,” he said. “We’re just a small church ourselves, but that don’t matter. Church size don’t matter when it comes to the Great Commission. You just have to have a passion for spreading the Word of God.”

‘We know the way’

When the Woodsboro team arrived in Reno, Lamberth asked members to begin not by prepping supplies or even knocking on doors, but by praying over some of the areas where they would spend hours over the coming week meeting people and building relationships.

At the first stop, in a park, Newberry said he was walking and praying when he came across a bench. Someone had used a marker to scrawl a message into the wood: “Make Life Beautiful—Smile.” For reasons he still doesn’t understand, the words gave Newberry pause. His mind swirled as he considered them, and he soon found himself recalling a conversation he’d had earlier with some people who believe there are many ways—aside from Jesus—to be right with God.

“There are a lot of good people here, but they are good people who are lost,” Newberry said later. “When I read that written in Sharpie, about making life beautiful, I thought, ‘Someone here is searching. They’re searching for the point, for the purpose, looking for something good, and they just don’t know where to find it.’

“But we know the way—it’s the gospel. … The gospel is the key to everything they’re searching for.”