Growing population centers force focus on church planting Florida associations

May 18, 2009
CAROLYN NICHOLS
Newswriter

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Baptist associations in the United States celebrated their 300th anniversary in 2007. The Florida Baptist Witness has honored Florida’s 49 associations in a series of articles that showcased each association and its ministries. This is the eleventh and final installment.

LAKE COUNTY BAPTIST ASSOCIATION

The 50 churches and missions of once-rural Lake County are working to keep up with a population that has grown to more than 200,000. With growth spilling over from Orange County on the east and the development of The Villages on the county’s western side, Lake County Baptist Association has made church planting its focus, according to Director of Missions Don Miller.

“With only 50 churches, we are behind the ball all the time,” he said. “Church planting has to be a high priority for us.”

LAKE COUNTY Lake County Director of Missions Don Miller and his wife, Yvonne, former church planters in Malaysia, led a group from Lake County to minister in Banda Aceh, Thailand, following the 2004 tsunami. Courtesy photo

Since The Villages, a senior adult community of thousands of residents, spreads into three counties—Lake, Marion and Sumter—the three county Baptist associations have “tremendous cooperation” in starting churches there, Miller said. The focus cannot be solely on ministry among senior adults since a host of younger people are moving in to work in retail and service industries around The Villages, Miller said.

Miller and his wife, Yvonne, served as church planters in Malaysia through the International Mission Board. Their ten years’ experience in starting new churches in Asia is an advantage, he said, but starting churches overseas is aimed at fully supporting a church then “getting out of it” as quickly as possible.

In this country, the process is more difficult because people bring the “baggage“ from their churches of origin, or “arrive with notions of what a church ought to be,” Miller said.

“Church planting is a calling,” Miller said. “It is difficult, and in difficult times you have to go back to your calling. You have to remember what God called you to do.”

LAKE COUNTY Micki Miller (center), a member of First Baptist Church in Umatilla, was on the Lake County association team ministering as part of relief efforts in Thailand after the tsunami. Courtesy photo

Apart from planting new churches, Lake County Baptists are involved in a myriad of ministries to local residents. After several hurricanes blew through the area in 2004, interest and participation in disaster relief increased dramatically, Miller said.

The association now maintains a clean up and recovery trailer, and has a cadre of trained volunteers who stand ready to be called when a disaster occurs. Their work is made easier, Miller said, because they live near Lake Yale Baptist Conference Center, a hub of disaster relief operations. Miller is the state’s disaster relief communications director and is “at Fritz Wilson’s disposal—not always a good place to be,” Miller quipped. His responsibilities include calling out volunteers and maintaining communication through amateur radio operators, and satellite and cell phones. He often is among the first DR responders in a calamity.

Closer to home, Lake County church volunteers man a booth at a local weekly flea market. Every Thursday hundreds of visitors to the local fairgrounds have their blood pressures checked by retired nurse Doris Jones and her team. Also, Women’s Mission and Ministries groups care for the carnival workers who visit the area annually. They prepare home cooked meals for the workers, and give them care packages of personal care items, a Bible and Gospel tract.

Pastors of the Lake County association meet monthly, and Miller said he made a commitment to pastors that he would plan no more meetings than “absolutely” necessary.

“We need to know, ‘How can the association add value to all the churches of the association?’” he said. “We need input from those involved and those not involved. We need to ask, ‘What is most important to you?’”

A September meeting of Southern Baptist directors of mission at Ridgecrest Baptist Conference Center in North Carolina will most likely be the site of similar discussions.

“I am excited about it,” Miller said. “We’ll be looking at the next few years of associational work and what the shape of associational work will be in the future.”

NATURE COAST BAPTIST ASSOCIATION

NATURE COAST Student pastors of Nature Coast Baptist Association gather weekly to study together. They are led by Jeff Hessinger, director of the Personal Evangelism Department of the Florida Baptist Convention. Courtesy photo

In 2004, Nature Coast Baptist Association “got serious” about making sweeping changes in the 145-year-old association, Director of Missions Joe Maddox said. Members of the association’s 39 churches eventually voted to not only revamp the entity’s working structure, but to change its name as well.

Formerly the Alachua Baptist Association, Nature Coast association now “more identifies with our community,” Maddox said.

“Most people identify Alachua as the county where Gainesville is. People would ask me what it was like to minister where there is a big university,” he said.

Maddox said he began talking about making needed changes when he became DOM 16 years ago, and when a vote was taken two years ago, it was “totally 100 percent unanimous,” he said. The changes were an effort in “streamlining”—Maddox’s favorite word.

NATURE COAST The Nature Coast maintains a Disaster Recovery clean up and recovery trailer and a trained crew of volunteers. Courtesy photo

Multiple non-functioning committees that “bogged us down” became five teams that work in church leadership, pastoral support, mission education and service, evangelism and new work. It is all done with the aim of doing a “better job of quickly meeting the needs of the churches,” Maddox said.

Although the processes changed, Maddox’s concentration on building relationships with the pastors of Nature Coast did not. Those friendships are “the heartbeat of the association,” he said. Aside from pastors’ gatherings and executive committee meetings on alternating months, Maddox spends time visiting with pastors.

“It is one thing to see [pastors] at a meeting, but a different thing to see them at their offices,” he said. “I spend a lot of time at lunch.”

Maddox has facilitated groups of four ministers studying Adrian Rogers’ What Every Pastor Ought to Know during five hours on three consecutive Thursdays. With the help of Jeff Hessinger, director of the Personal Evangelism Department of the Florida Baptist Convention, groups of student pastors also study together. Maddox hopes to soon include ministers of music and ministers of education.

“These men are good pastors and good leaders who are very open to tweaking things to make them work better,” he said.

Also, in an effort to cultivate ministers and see to their spiritual and emotional health, associational leaders host a Weekend of Oneness for pastors and their wives. It is a time in which they “can get by themselves and get away,” where “major breakthroughs” have occurred in relationships, he said.

Maddox, a veteran of church and community ministries in south Florida, said community ministries are “only a sliver” of what he now does, although Nature Coast association is involved in a varied list of ministries. The association maintains a Disaster Recovery clean up and recovery wagon and a trained crew of workers who were last called to Louisiana to work after Hurricane Ike in 2008. Maddox himself serves in the Citrus County Emergency Operations Center.

NATURE COAST The Life Choice Care Center in Inverness is manned by a team of volunteers from Nature Coast Baptist Association. Courtesy photo

The nine-year-old Life Choice Care Center in Inverness is sponsored by the association, and a team of 10-15 volunteers help in day-to day operations. In Brooksville, the Covenant House Bridge to Independence, in the former location of Covenant Baptist Church, provides a “place for guys coming out of prison,” Maddox said. It was first established by New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, an African-American congregation headed by Pastor Fred Hinson.

“It is not a lock-up, but intensive training, job placement, marriage counseling and parenting classes,” Maddox said. “It is court-mandated, but they know from the beginning that it is a Christian ministry.”

Although both the Life Choice center and Covenant House have independent trustees, Nature Coast association is heavily involved in their ministries, Maddox said.

PASCO BAPTIST ASSOCIATION

In 1885, Baptist churches in Pasco County formed an association which still bears the County name. Those who led in forming the 15th association in the state could not have imagined the area’s burgeoning growth 124 years later.

According to Pasco Baptist Association Director of Missions John Kuespert, a recent study showed the county to be the fifth fastest growing in the nation, and one of its cities—Wesley Chapel—the fourth fastest growing city in the nation. In 2003, the North American Mission Board said Pasco County was “the most under-churched county east of the Mississippi River,” Kuespert said.

Less than 20 years ago, Wesley Chapel, located where State Road 54 crosses Interstate 75, was home to about 4,000 homes, an orange stand and two gas stations. Today the area is home to families in 65,000 houses, and just recently opened four new shopping malls and a 300-bed hospital. New elementary schools are built every year.

PASCO More than 200 teenagers gathered for a youth rally sponsored by Pasco Baptist Association. Several made decisions and were counseled following the event. Courtesy photo

“A lot of pioneers in Pasco are selling pasture land to land developers, and the area is becoming a suburb of Tampa,” Kuespert said.

The 44 churches of Pasco association, whose offices are in Land O’ Lakes, long ago placed church planting atop the association’s to-do list. Five new church starts are currently meeting in the area. The task is not easy the veteran DOM said, because of the area’s nomadic home owners, and their “very diverse cultural base.”

“This is not your Bible Belt,” he said.

The area’s growth and affluence make it a popular target of church planters. Kuespert said he is careful to weed out those who “are driven by demographics more than God’s call.” He calls on his 25 years of church planting experience in New Hampshire and in Pasco association to advise novice planters to find “those whom God has put before you, the ‘persons of peace’” mentioned in Luke 10.

“Church planting is not marketing, but relationships,” he said. “You cannot ‘cookie-cut’ a church because no two are alike. You have to be flexible.”

Planting new churches is one of the many “issues common to working in Pasco” that Pasco pastors discuss in their monthly Pastors’ Roundtable and in lunch meetings on the east and west sides of the association. International missionaries have visited the meetings, and a recent gathering focused on financial responsibility.

The “relatively small” churches of Pasco, north Hillsborough and south Hernando counties work together to coordinate large events in the association. An annual Men’s Wild Game Dinner this year attracted 300, 23 of whom made decisions for Christ. St. Leo College recently hosted an associational youth rally where 200 teenagers worshipped together. Fifteen youth completed decision cards at its conclusion. In both events, “we put the focus on evangelism,” Kuespert told the Witness.

Kuespert hopes to encourage churches in Pasco association to even more cooperation. He said he wants to help churches “understand healthy leadership” and to help churches “move to something bigger than they are.”

SHILOH BAPTIST ASSOCIATION

The office of Shiloh Baptist Association in Plant City is known as a “church resource center,” according to Director of Missions Danny Morris, and he hopes that his personal relationships with pastors make him a resource for them and their churches.

“I want to be a coach, a consultant and to personally encourage these men,” he told the Witness.

Some of the pastors of Shiloh association’s 39 churches “just need a friend,” he said, and Morris drops in for visits as often as possible. He sees the personal touch of associational ministry as part of a trend away from “boiler plate” meetings.

The association’s annual meetings are planned after asking, “What do you need and how can we help?” This year’s October meeting focused on financial planning, while past meetings have dealt with faith and politics, and Scientology. Scientologists have moved into Plant City in force, buying “a big spread right downtown,” Morris said.

The eastern Hillsborough County area has “grown and populated well,” he said, making church planting a high priority in the association. Several churches have missions of their own and the association sponsors missions in Plant City and Valrico. One mission, meeting in a house, has “just a handful since they are just getting started,” he said.

Morris has worked to help revitalize two churches in the association. Bethany Baptist, after 18 months of conflict management “has doubled in size,” he said.

He helped with preaching duties at Berea Baptist until the church called a new pastor in April, whom Morris expects to be “a support for.” Berea Baptist was “just about to close its doors” 20 months ago, and now with a new pastor and is “rarin’ to go.” Both Berea Baptist and Bethany Baptist also received help from the Church Revitalization Department of the Florida Baptist Convention.

“Most of the Bethany congregation went to Lake Yale together for strategic planning,” Morris said.

The churches of Shiloh association, ranging in size from 1,600 to “a handful,” cooperate for ministries including a trained Disaster Relief team, and individual churches maintain missions in Central America and other locations.

The annual Strawberry Festival, which annually draws thousands to Plant City, provides opportunities for ministry to residents and visitors. Most of the churches of Shiloh association provide volunteers who distribute glasses of water, tracts and Bibles from a booth. Five years ago, associational leadership began praying that God would make the association “a better witness,” Morris said.

Tom and Carolyn Curtis, veteran personal evangelists, stepped forward to head up the evangelism efforts at the festival. Their “unique and effective” way of witnessing in the setting has resulted in about 250 professions of faith at the booth during the 10-day event.

With four volunteers hourly being mentored in soul-winning, “we have 30 new evangelists every year,” Morris said.

Campers on Mission move into Plant City for the festival and volunteer in ministries to the fair workers. They work under the leadership of Wayne Roberts, pastor of Northside Baptist Church in Plant City.

Morris, who first served as pastor of a church in Kentucky at 19, has served as DOM nine years. He said several things during his tenure as DOM have required “adjustments.”

“Long ago, I recognized that in order to minister, you have to transition, whether you want to or not,” he said.

SUMTER BAPTIST ASSOCIATION

The 15 churches of Sumter Baptist Association work together—but not in the way others would expect, said Nevi Townsend, who has served nine years as advisor—but not director of missions—of the north central Florida association.

“Most of the time we expect some kind of common organization, but Sumter does not conform to anybody’s pattern,” he told the Witness. “But you can’t criticize it if it works.”

Townsend said the pastors gather faithfully every month for fellowship, and hundreds of local Baptists attend annual and semi-annual meetings and training events. Last year, the churches and dozens of volunteers carried out one of the rural region’s largest events, an Outdoor Expo that attracted 3,000 to the Sumter County Fairgrounds in Bushnell.

“”This is a healthy association —not a dying situation,” Townsend said. “They are strong and sweet, and they do what they need to do. Really, it is the New Testament way—not program driven, but relationship and ministry driven.”

Townsend, who has been employed as a church planter in the Church Planting Department of the Florida Baptist Convention almost ten years, served 35 years as pastor in Kentucky and in Lantana Baptist Church and Parkview Baptist Church in Fort Pierce. After retiring, he was volunteer director of the partnership between the Florida Baptist Convention and North and South Dakota before returning to Florida to plant churches.

Townsend said Sumter association, not long after it became an entity, was looking for a part-time or interim director of missions. They asked Townsend to take the position, but he refused.

“They called me anyway in an associational vote, and said to work something out,” he said.

Townsend said he agreed to his role of “advisor” only if it entailed no office hours and no committee meetings.

“And I resign every year,” he quipped.

The veteran church planter, who has special permission from the Convention to work with the association, said he advises them “on what I know.” He also was quick to say, “I like what I do.”

As in his work with the Florida Baptist Convention, church planting is also a focus in Sumter association as the formerly rural area is vastly influenced by the influx of 50,000 residents of The Villages. Churches in the association range from 15 members to about 600, Townsend said.

“The churches here are very open to ministry there, and we are working to plant new churches around the Villages,” he said.

Even though Townsend describes Sumter association as “too big to be little and too little to be big,” some things about working with Baptist associations is the same whatever their sizes. “I have worked with 15 or 16 associations, and I know that I am always standing in a pastoral role with the pastors,” he said. “I can recognize when men need counsel, and when I leave them I can say, ‘I’m glad I could be here today.’”

Regardless of the “meetings you attend or the projects you administer, if you don’t have relationships, you don’t have much,” he said.

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