Each month, your state missionaries gather for a time of missional sharing about what’s happening with Great Commission ministries that are undergirded by Alabama Baptist gifts through the Cooperative Program.

In a recent such meeting, I was especially blessed by the prolific and positive testimonies given by my colleagues at the State Board of Missions.

Please know that your Cooperative Program gifts make a difference in a world that needs the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Here are just a few of the stories that your state missionaries have shared with me:

ROB JACKSON, director, Evangelism and Church Revitalization Office:

Our office has been busy this summer with a few encouraging things to mention:

• Empower Church Revitalization is consulting with seven new churches this summer.
• Empower and Intentional Leader have held three trainings at the Alabama State Board of Missions. On July 23, we trained 28 leaders in Leading Like Jesus and the DISC profile. We had more than 70 pastors in attendance for Mark Clifton and Ray Jones for Empowering Revitalization.
• Fifty pastors were signed up for shepherding and were well led by David Eldridge and Eric Hankins.
• We had numerous training events around the state with more than 350 leaders trained in evangelism.
• Churches we are working with in revitalization are seeing more salvations than any time in recent history. For example, Bower Memorial Baptist Church baptized five people in 2023. After helping them with a church-wide evangelism strategy, they have baptized 19 in the past four months with three awaiting baptism.
• Baptists in Ukraine and Romania invited us to represent Alabama Baptists and speak about church revitalization.
• We held regional prayer summits with Bill Elliff.
• Beyond the above mentioned items, we have communicated with numerous church leaders, conducted weekend retreats, met with NAMB leaders and spoken in multiple churches.

JOSH MEADOWS, student ministry strategist, Collegiate & Student Ministries Office:

• This summer YM Link sent 150 students on mission. We served various areas in the city of Huntsville by roofing, putting up new vinyl siding and other home repairs.
• In Indiana as a part of Crossover, we knocked on more than 2,000 doors for various churches and saw 41 decisions for Christ as a result of our efforts.
• The best story is we had a student from Alabama sense that she needed to share the Gospel with a friend from back home. She called her friend who gave her life to Christ over the phone.
• Super Summer Alabama had 330 in attendance. We had more than 30 students in our “Called to Ministry” breakout session.
• Super Summer Alabama is the first ever state convention camp to officially partner with the IMB to adopt a region of the world to take the Gospel. Our missions offering total was $4,100 going towards the work we will do next summer in Senegal.

CHRIS MILLS, student missions mobilizer, Collegiate & Student Missions Office:

• One Mission Students served across the globe this summer in 17 countries and 11 states and Washington D.C. Students have reported 158 professions of faith and are continuing to share stories of how their experiences have impacted their lives since they’ve returned from service.
• Recently, I had the privilege of celebrating five former One Mission Student missionaries commissioned for long-term service through IMB.

BELINDA STROUD, children’s specialist, Sunday School & Discipleship Office:

• More than 200 children and preschool ministers and church leaders attended the Reaching and Teaching the Next Generation conference at Westwood Baptist Church in Alabaster during August.
• Jana Magruder, from Lifeway NextGen along with Alabama Baptist state missionaries Belinda Stroud, Larry Hyche, Joshua Meadows, Karen Gosselin and Alabama WMU NextGen consultant Trish Jackson all led in the event.
• What we have done in the past to reach children worked, but Generation Alpha presents a new challenge. Conferences were taught sharing research and specific ways church leaders can best reach this generation.
• During September, I have been facilitating five Children’s Ministers Roundtable lunches around the state with more than 100 registered to attend!

PATTY BURNS, Preschool Ministry Specialist and VBS Promoter, Sunday School & Discipleship Office:

Here are VBS stats and figures that come from Alabama churches:

• Total Churches Reporting: 671
• Total VBS Enrollment: 82,895
• Total Salvation Decision: 1,843
• Total Vocational Ministry Decisions: 12
• Total Mission Offering: 402,064

FRANK JONES, senior adult ministry strategist, Sunday School & Discipleship Office:

• SALT conferences (Senior Adult Leadership Training) were held in Cullman and Evergreen in August. Attending were 235 senior adult ministers, leaders and team members from 40 associations including 76 churches.
• Scotty Goldman and Robert Mullins challenged those gathered to lead their senior adults to be more effective and involved in missions through giving, participation, providing quality care to their members as well as those outside the walls of the church.
• Senior adult leaders are wanting their ministries to be more than “potluck and a program.”
• Thanks be to God for His blessings upon these gatherings as we seek to encourage senior adults that they can still be effective in reaching the world for Christ.

LARRY HYCHE, men’s ministry strategist, Global Missions Office:

• For the Called Conference, we had 160 in attendance with 27 churches represented. A leader from Cross Point Church said, “It was very well done, very practical and Biblical. It is a great opportunity for young people considering the ministry to know more.”
• For the Fortify Conference, we had 215 in attendance with 27 churches represented. This year, the conference grew significantly from last year where in 2023 we had 151 with 22 churches represented.
• This year, the student pastor from Waterstone Church said he had brought his group to Fortify the past three years and said this year he thought was the best Fortify yet! He said the students were listening, engaging  and participating more this year.
• Last year, a leader from First Baptist Church Boaz said of the conference, “Convicting and just in awe of how God used this conference to bring His message!

KRISTY KENNEDY, Associational Missions & Church Planting Office:

• Hunger needs continue to grow across the state. Through the Alabama Hunger Offering, we are meeting the needs of those who are struggling with hunger. From January to September, we fed 105,000 people through our 50 hunger ministries that receive funding from our hunger offering.
• As a result of our ministries, 319 people have come to know Christ as Savior this year. Glory to God! That’s what it’s all about!
• And 31 of our ministries offer job skills training classes which help people to possibly move out of their situation to where they no longer need assistance with food. That is the ultimate goal.
• And a new thing that is starting to appear more often is nutrition classes. We want to help meet people’s hunger needs, but we also want them to be healthy so we are trying to help them learn about proper nutrition. Be a part of this ministry by giving to the Alabama Hunger Offering!
• Steve Dye, the Deaf ministry catalyst for the State Board of Missions, and his wife moved to north Alabama in May 2023.
  • North Alabama has approximately 4,000 Deaf people and no church access to them through an SBC church.
  • In January 2024, The Grove Church in Madison, Alabama opened its doors to start its first Deaf ministry. Now, an average of 40 Deaf people attend church weekly through Bible studies taught by Deaf and interpreted services. This is the largest Deaf ministry in the state right now.
  • For the first time ever, Jesus Deaf Missions Film, a Christian movie for the Deaf directed and written by Deaf and completely in sign language, was shown in Huntsville, Alabama at a local movie theater this past summer with 117 Deaf people attending the showing.
  • This September, Steve and his teaching team will be teaching a curriculum designed around the movie to teach lessons using movie clips from the Jesus Deaf Missions Film. More than 50 people have signed up for the Bible study! Praise God!

KAREN GOSSELIN, coordinator, Worship Resources:

• This summer was a fantastic time for campers to attend MIX Worship Arts Camp in July. Among our 350+ people in attendance, teaching the “now” generation how to worship and lead in worship was life-changing! More than 20 salvations and 15 sensing a call to ministry plus numerous recommitments to living for Christ – priceless!
• We had 138 in attendance for our Children’s Music Summit Leadership Conference. They left the building refreshed, knowing that the time they spent in this one-day conference equipped them to lead the children of their churches to a greater knowledge of Scripture and discipleship through music.
• It’s been a good summer!!

MARK WAKEFIELD, disaster relief strategist, Global Missions Office:

• Our Alabama Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers served in recent months in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas and South Carolina. They engaged more than 300 families and had the opportunity to see 23 people pray to receive Christ, including a 90-year-old gentleman.

BRIAN HARPER, lead church planting strategist, Associational Missions & Church Planting Office:

• We celebrate what the Lord is doing throughout Alabama. Among those church plants that are reporting, 250-plus conversions and 150 baptisms were reported throughout the state. Twenty-two new Hispanic plants are in process of being planted with two bivocational planters covering two new works each.
• Sixty-eight church planters are involved in our network, participating in assessment, training, coaching or resourcing.
• Eleven re-planters have been assessed, trained and resourced in our network.
• God is planting the Gospel through all church plants in Alabama.

Source: RickLance.com