Great Michigan outdoors a natural for NAMB missionaries

Feb 28, 2007

Looking over Scriptures before preaching during a recent Sunday morning service, associational missionary Ken Wilson reviews a verse as his family and other church members worship in song at the Thunder Bay Baptist Church in Alpena, Mich. The Week of Prayer for the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions is March 4-11. The offering goals is $57 million—100 percent of which is used for missionaries like the Wilsons. NAMB photo by Michael Shead

MESICK, MICH. (NAMB)—Evangelistic deer hunts. Christian fish fries. Wild game dinners at church. North American missionary Ken Wilson has a lot of tools in his Gospel-sharing tool box to win people to Christ amid the thick woods and crystal-clear lakes of northern Michigan.

For related coverage, click image.

"Well, our motto is whatever it takes, we get 'em anyway we can," says Wilson. While he actually was referring to deer as he stealthily walked through the woods with his bow-dressed head-to-toe in camouflage gear—he uses the same strategy for winning souls for Jesus.

As an associational missionary for the Northwest Baptist Association also supported by the North American Mission Board, Ken Wilson—the fanatical outdoorsman—knows he lives in a hunting and fishing paradise.

"I don't think God could have called me to a better place than northern Michigan," he says, "because outdoor sports are huge up here. We have hunting ministries. The opening day of deer season is a local holiday."

Wilson said he loves to hunt and fish with locals and the many tourists who visit the area because it gives him an opportunity to talk to them in their own language and then minister to them.

"We'll have dozens of fish fries going on throughout the summer and fall, with several hundred people attending," Wilson said. "We take these and make them evangelistic events. We have wild game dinners with speakers—myself or outsiders—sharing the Gospel with hundreds more.

"We even do evangelistic deer hunts. But we invite at least one lost person to go on every hunt and every evening during the hunt, we have devotions, share the Gospel and pray that lost hunters come to know Jesus."

But even a hunting and fishing paradise has its dark side, according to Wilson, who came to Mesick from southern Illinois in 2003. Less than half of one percent of the northern Michigan population are Southern Baptists. Fifty towns of 3,000 or more in the region are without a single Southern Baptist church. Many northern Michigan towns have a staggering "lost" population of 70-80 percent, according to Wilson.

Within the Northwest Baptist Association Wilson leads, there are only 15 churches and missions, and these congregations have an average weekly attendance of only 30-something people each Sunday.

Wilson and his wife, Cindy, are only two of more than 5,300 missionaries in the United States, Canada and their territories supported by the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions. He's one of only eight Southern Baptist missionaries highlighted as part of the annual Week of Prayer, March 4-11. The 2007 Annie Armstrong Easter Offering's goal is $57 million, 100 percent of which is used for missionaries like the Wilsons.

With the Northwest Baptist Association based in Mesick, Wilson today serves 10 counties in northern Michigan. Traditionally rural, the 10-county area is growing by 15 percent annually. Leelanau County and Leelanau Peninsula are growing at a rate of 35 percent each year—the fastest growing area of the association. There are some counties, however, Wilson said, with no Southern Baptist churches.

Wilson said Mackinac (pronounced "Mackinaw") City—where tourism thrives in the summer—needs a church plant badly. In the summer, Mackinac grows to 10,000 people or more but during the winter, it reverts to a ghost town.

"If we could plant a church in Mackinac, we would have a world-impacting church, because many of the tourists who come to Mackinac Island and Mackinac City are from foreign countries," Wilson said.

Wilson believes it's important to recruit "locals" as pastors and church workers because they know the local culture better than anyone else, and know how to relate to the people in the area.

"It gets really lonely up here and really cold by February 15, when the snow's 36 inches deep, and you're looking for someplace to go and there's no place to go. It can get lonely and depressing. So it's a calling to be here. The indigenous people are here—although they may complain about it—because they love northern Michigan."

With so few Southern Baptists in northern Michigan, Wilson needs all the help he can muster. He gets that assistance from the many Baptist mission teams who come to north Michigan from locations around the United States.

"When the teams come in, we really utilize them," Wilson said. "They help us in so many ways—with sports camps, block parties, door-to-door surveys and Vacation Bible Schools. They even do construction projects from time to time."

In return, the members of the mission teams get to enjoy the outdoor sports and scenery of northern Michigan—plus the reward of knowing their efforts make a real difference.

How important is the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering to Wilson's ministry?

"We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the Cooperative Program and the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering," says Wilson. "For every dollar we give to the Annie Armstrong offering, we receive back 195 percent. We couldn't do missions in northern Michigan if it wasn't for the Annie Armstrong offering."

Email this Article Print this page

Login ID:
Password:	Forgot password?