A former Blue River-Kansas City pastor was honored as the 2015/16 Alumnus of the Year for Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. On June 20th, Dr. Jason Allen, president of MBTS, honored Mark Clifton, senior director of church replanting at the North American Mission Board, as this year’s honoree and recipient of the award. Clifton received a Master of Divinity degree from Midwestern in 1985. Before undertaking his role at NAMB, he served as pastor of Wornall Road Baptist Church in Kansas City for 10 years, revitalizing the once dwindling and dying neighborhood church. But Clifton’s history with BR-KC goes back much further than his pastorate. Mark is the son the late Harry Clifton who formerly pastored Immanuel Baptist Church in Independence for 25 years. Clifton works full time with NAMB now, but he and his wife Jill reside in the Kansas City Metro area. Though Mark travels extensively across the nation each year speaking on the subject of church revitalization, he still makes time to consult with and mentor our BR-KC pastors, helping them learn how to bring life and vitality back to their churches. Clifton helps BR-KC host a monthly fellowship that is open to any pastor or staff person called the Legacy Cohort for the purpose of encouraging and equipping pastors of declining and revitalizing churches. The next Legacy Cohort will meet on August 9th from 10 a.m. to noon at Coventry Estates Baptist in Independence.
How would Clifton encourage a pastor who is frustrated by the indifferent mission field he encounters and entrenched opposition within the church to the kind of change that is necessary to lead the church to reach its community? “Don’t give up! Don’t lose hope! You are not alone and we would love to consult with you. God gains no glory when a church is declining and dying. The Lord desperately needs your church to bring the gospel to that neighborhood in a way that they will embrace and believe. There are steps you can take to begin the process of revitalizing your church and seeing people come to Christ again.
Love the remaining members and seek to warm their hearts and stir their affections toward the gospel. Preach the word consistently. Pray without ceasing and pray with radical dependence on the power of God to revive His church. And stay. Paul encouraged Timothy to remain at Ephesus. Replanting is a long process with a very long on-ramp. Lastly you must be called to this work. If you are not called by God to replant this church then work to prepare the way for the replanter. Our team at NAMB stands ready to help. Email us [email protected] and visit churchreplanters.com.
