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Find It Here Drives Nelson Baptists to Start New Churches
02/15/2011
NEW HAVEN—Members of Nelson Baptist Association were aware that the New Haven area was spiritually underserved, but it wasn’t until last spring that they realized just how great the need was.
While mapping their evangelistic outreach during the Kentucky Baptist Convention’s Find it Here campaign last year, the group discovered the community in southeastern Nelson County had only two active KBC churches, and that the combined membership of those churches totaled just over 100 members, according to Matthew Spandler-Davison, pastor of Bardstown Christian Fellowship.
“Find it Here highlighted that this was an area that needed our help, and it opened our eyes to the opportunity for churches to cooperate,” Spandler-Davison said. “The area is larger than the two churches have the capacity to reach.”
Nearly one year after the campaign, churches in Nelson Baptist Association are still enjoying the fruit of partnerships created during Find it Here and now are working together to carry out an intense church-planting strategy, according to Stan Lowery, the association's director of missions.
Lowery said the association has set a goal to plant 10 churches in five years. The plan currently includes the New Haven area, two other communities in the association, and two outside Kentucky.
"The association was already moving toward a church-planting strategy, but Find it Here helped speed up our process,” said Lowery. “Both our leadership and lay people saw the need for more churches.”
“Another blessing from Find it Here was the cooperative spirit between churches that developed. It’s been exciting to watch our churches see the benefits of working together. There’s a true Kingdom focus,” he said.
As the planting pastor for Bardstown Christian Fellowship, Spandler-Davison is familiar with the challenges facing a new church, as well as the need for partnerships. Now, as leader of Nelson’s Church Planting and Evangelism Team, Spandler-Davison is guiding his congregation and other local churches in their partnership with the existing New Haven churches—New Haven First Baptist Church and Rolling Fork Baptist Church.
“Find it Here ignited a vision for this. We are getting a view of the bigger picture, and we’re drawing on that spirit to reach New Haven,” he said. “We want to come alongside the evangelistic efforts of the existing churches. Our goal is the gospel.”
Currently, there are six churches planning to participate in Crossover New Haven, an outreach leading up to Easter, he said. The efforts will include a raccoon hunt, prayerwalking, car show, revival services, gospel distribution and promotion of Easter services.
Spandler-Davison is hopeful that in the next three years, the association will have a core team and a church planter preparing to start the church.
In addition to the New Haven effort, churches in the association are supporting two local church plants, and two others outside Kentucky. All of the efforts are in keeping with the spirit of partnership, said Lowery.
Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Shepherdsville is sponsoring Maranatha Community Fellowship, a new work in Shepherdsville that began meeting in January and now has 26 people involved.
“We’re a church to the unchurched, that’s our theme,” said Ron Lasley, missions pastor at Pleasant Grove. “We want to reach those who have been turned off by church, and those who have never been to a church.”
Bardstown Baptist Church is sponsoring a Hispanic work, along with financial partners Parkway Baptist Church and Bardstown Christian Fellowship. Averaging a dozen participants, Iglesia Bautista Bardstown currently meets Tuesday nights at Bardstown Baptist Church’s facility, said Dylan Mays, senior pastor of the host church.
Outside Kentucky, Bardstown Christian Fellowship recently commissioned its youth minister, Geoff Kujawa, to plant a church in Toldeo, Ohio.
Additionally, through KBC's Go Metro USA, Nelson Baptists will assist a church planter in Pittsburgh, Pa. Go Metro USA is a church-planting initiative that matches partnering Kentucky Baptist associations with church planters in metropolitan areas of states outside the Bible Belt. Nelson Baptist Association volunteers will work to support the plant in Pittsburgh through prayerwalking, backyard Bible clubs and vacation Bible schools, ministry evangelism, gospel distribution and more.
Details on Go Metro USA can be found at www.kybaptist.org/gometro.
Even as excitement grows for their church-planting efforts, congregations in the Nelson Baptist Association are still seeking to reach their own communities with the gospel. Many are planning to participate in the KBC’s 2011 Find it Here campaign, Lowery said.
“They had such a good experience last year and were really moved by what they saw happen,” he said. “The feedback from last year’s campaign has been very positive, and it has helped our people to get outside of the church.”
This year’s Find it Here campaign challenges Kentucky Baptists to a 21-day period of prayer and fasting for three lost friends or family members, followed by delivery of a copy of selected scriptures to them, along with an invitation to attend church.
Kentucky Baptists will also be delivering the “marked” scripture portions to communities not reached by the original effort in 2010, including nursing homes, assisted living facilities, prisons and college campuses.
To learn more about Find it Here, visit www.kybaptist.org/findithere or call (502) 489-3528 or (866) 489-3528 (toll-free in Kentucky).
The Kentucky Baptist Convention is a cooperative missions and ministry organization made up of nearly 2.400 autonomous Baptist churches in Kentucky. A variety of state and worldwide ministries are coordinated through its administrative offices in Louisville, including: missions work, disaster relief, ministry training and support, church development, evangelism and more. For more, find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
Kristie Randolph, KBC Communications
