MINNESOTA BAPTIST ASSOCIATION

Plant Now!

by Dave Barba of Press On! Ministries

Who Has Re-Seeded Lately? - Raleigh, NC

It Happened in Raleigh

Matt and Becky Walker invited us to join them in 2003 to assist in starting College Park Baptist Church in Cary, NC, a suburb of Raleigh. Matt spent the previous year training wider Dr. Bud Calvert at Fairfax Baptist Temple in Fairfax, VA. God has used Dr. Calvert and his church to plant at least 28 churches in America. They provide training, generous financial support, and assistance in literature distribution for the new church.

Claudia and I were there when 70 people came from Virginia to hang over 20,000 packets of information on doors. Following that effort, we geared up to man the phones program before the first official service on Easter Sunday.

Dr. Mike Yarborough, of Bethany Hills Baptist in Raleigh, let Claudia and I park our fifth wheel in his church parking lot. We installed extra phone lines in his church and trained his folks, especially the teens, to use the phone. It is rare for one Baptist pastor to help another one start a church within 2000 miles, but it happened in Raleigh. (And while he helped a start a new church, his own church enjoyed a growth spurt!).

We made 33,000 calls and sent four weeks of mail to 1200 addresses. The week before the service, we started the call-backs. After a few calls, we got nervous. A plethora of folks said they received the mail, but were either going out of town for the holiday weekend or attending the Easter service in the church that their grandfather built with his own two hands out of mud bricks right after the Civil War.

Easter Sunday came, and only a few people showed up from the phones effort (maybe 50). All that work. All that money for printing, and postage, and coffee, and those little white cookies that get powder all over your navy blue suit. It was s tough day to smile and say, "Praise the Lord, anyway." Apparently it is not wise to start a church on Easter Sunday. We learned the hard way. Not to happen again.

Did this stop Pastor Walker, a former Marine? No. Semper Fi. Press On. Do Right! He kept doing the will of God.

Some of the Easter no-shows attended church later. Pastor Walker and I started visiting the mail-list folks. When we knocked on their doors, many recognized the church and invited us in. God blessed and the church grew at a steady pace.

After a few months, Pastor Walker was contacted by a man who had tried to start a church in Cay, but failed. College Park was able to lease their lovely meeting place, purchase all their church equipment, including comfortable chairs, and use that facility 24/7. When Claudia and 1 left to move on to assist another church, College Park (www.collegeparkministries.org) was a healthy, vibrant church, looking forward to supporting missionaries and starting a Christian school.

College Park Baptist is now two years old, averaging 70-80 folks on Sunday mornings, and running out of room, with a goal to add one church family a month. Souls are being saved, and God has called one 35-year old church member to preach. They support 16 missionaries. Part of their vision is to plant more churches in their area.

Think about this. In 1974, veteran church planter Grant Rice encouraged us as we planted in Menomonee Falls, WI. Brother Rice had told me how he had helped Bud Calvert start Fairfax Baptist Temple. Over the years, Fairfax Baptist Temple has helped start over 28 churches; they now support over 250 missionaries. In 2003, they helped start College Park Baptist Church, which now supports 16 missionaries and plans to plant more churches.

This sounds like the book of Acts, when believers after Pentecost multiplied, churches were started, and churches were planted out of those churches. We can do this in America. We need to re-seed and multiply.