Missions education rebounds at Texas church

FORESTBURG?It used to be called “Missions Night”?a staple of many Southern Baptist churches’ foreign missions emphasizes. But it is a new concept to the members of Forestburg Baptist Church and they are literally eating up the information presented to them each month.

Pastor Stewart Holloway said in 2005 his congregation committed to being an “Acts 1:8 church” but had no idea how to enact that challenge. Located north of Fort Worth, the community doesn’t have a large multi-national population, Holloway said, so their emphasis on foreign missions was needed.

A brainstorming session resulted in the creation of a church-wide fellowship held each month to spotlight a different region of the world and its people. The facts about the region would feed mind, body, and soul.

The result: Each month a meal is prepared featuring courses from a specific people group. The

first meal, Holloway said, was Chinese in recognition of the summer mission work one of their college students had done in China. Church volunteers have cooked up samples of Greek, Native American, Mexican, Italian, Irish, Jewish and even All-American (hamburgers) meals. Holloway joked that if they were to feature fares from the local community the main dish would be barbecue.

Members are charged for the meals, with the money initially going to reimburse the cooks for their costs. But one volunteer, instead of submitting receipts, asked that the ticket money be given directly to the church’s missions offering. And that, Holloway said, has become the standard.

On average, 40-50 people attend the dinner meetings. Following the meal, Holloway speaks on the mission work in that particular region and distributes a prayer guide informing members on how they can continually pray for the mission work there.

The pastor and his wife, both from Louisiana, will prepare the September meal, Cajun food. Funds raised will go to the Southern Baptist Convention’s Adopt-A-Church initiative in Louisiana. The October meal, he added, will feature a New England flavor as a mission team from the church reports on their trip to Vermont.

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