By Brian Grout, Associate Director of Missions A Word to Pastors of the Blue River–Kansas City Baptist Association Everyone loves telling a great story about their life. Especially one where the Lord did something in your life and ministry. It is also just as encouraging to tell others about how God is working in our [...]
By Gregg Boll, Director of Missions I’m not going to make it to this year’s annual meeting, and I regret that. It’s always a time when we hear what the larger SBC family is doing, we celebrate the highlights of our cooperative mission’s ventures through the IMB, NAMB, and our other great S.B.C. entities. It [...]
Written by Mary Wood Over 20 years ago, leaders at First Baptist Church of Grandview recognized that their community had many residents who spoke languages other than English. But they didn’t know where it would lead when they started English as a Second Language classes. Friendships developed between the teachers and the Hispanic students who [...]
By Gregg Boll, Executive Director of Missions In last month’s article, I listed five factors (below), that we routinely find to be true of most plateaued or declining churches. In this final article, I want to offer some concrete recommendations about how you can address any of the areas below in which you believe your [...]
By Gregg Boll, Executive Director of Missions In part 1 of this article, I laid out the reality and challenges facing our churches in a post-Covid, post-Christian world. We said that: 1. Membership among our SBC Churches has been on an 18-year decline. 2. While baptisms have been declining since 1999/2000 for our SBC Churches, [...]
By Gregg Boll, Director of Missions I am always keenly aware that my mission as your Director of Missions is to help our pastors start well, pastor well, and finish well. Equally important is to help our churches accomplish their God-given mission and to bring our BR-KC churches together in partnership to plant new churches [...]
By Brian Grout, Associate Director of Missions Every December, I feel the tension you probably feel too—the beauty of Christmas mixed with the busyness of ministry. The calendar fills, expectations rise, services multiply. Add family to the mix and suddenly the season that promises “peace” can feel anything but peaceful. But in the midst of [...]
By Gregg Boll, Director of Missions In part 1 of this article, I will take an honest look at the health and troubling trends of membership and giving in the SBC and among our churches. In part 2, I will further describe some of the societal and spiritual reasons for the decline of our faith [...]
By Brian Grout, Associate Director of Missions Every church goes through different seasons. Some seasons bring growth, energy, and fresh vision; others bring challenges such as plateau, decline, or fatigue in ministry. In those times, church leaders often ask: How do we renew our congregation’s health and vitality? We recently relaunched our Pastor’s Huddles, and [...]
By Gregg Boll, Executive Director of Missions Early in my ministry, I attended the annual Missouri Baptist Evangelism Conference. One of the featured speakers was a pastor from South County, St. Louis named Phillip Hunter. Phillip’s church had experienced more than 200 baptisms in the prior year, and the majority of those baptisms were new [...]
