Boomerangs and beyond borders
Love’s story isn’t an outlier.
“We’re seeing quite a bit of that,” Ramsey said. “It’s a wave right now.”
Danny Rumple, a Send West Virginia Church Planting catalyst called this group “boomerang church planters.”
“Guys that grew up in West Virginia and left the state for different reasons,” Rumple said. “As they’ve finished school or begun to work God has begun a work on their heart and tugged on their heart and called them back to West Virginia to start new churches in this area.”
In 1998 Ramsey was media strategist for the North American Mission Board tasked with marketing the concept of church planting. That included enlisting not only those to plant churches but also existing churches to provide support.
Much of what he wrote became the Acts 1:8 Challenge, with Ramsey serving as a liaison between NAMB and the International Mission Board.
That experience led to establishing a partnership with the Peru Baptist Theological Seminary. An exploratory trip and inaugural visit with nine WVCSB pastors have already occurred.
In addition to the state convention’s work in Peru, several WVCSB churches are currently involved in international mission partnerships, including ones in Asia and Europe.
The inaugural Peru trip, taken in April, included Roger and Janet Brafford, lay leaders at First Baptist in Burlington who had never dreamed of such an experience. In their mid-50s, it was Roger’s first flight in 30 years. It was Janet’s first, ever.
“It was so stinkin’ cool,” Ramsey said of the Braffords’ experience. “They sat in a living room and shared their testimony, shared the Gospel. They led people to faith in Christ in four different homes.”
Addressing statewide ministry needs
Known for its outdoors, intentional Gospel-sharing is also taking place on hunting and fishing trips. The long-held retreat for men and boys had a higher attendance than in recent years.
In addition, WVCSB Disaster Relief leadership has trained more than 150 new volunteers this year while responding to flooding and other disasters in West Virginia, Kentucky and Florida.
Churches are also active in addressing the state’s ongoing drug epidemic. Instead of making it a separate ministry of the church, Persinger said, those in recovery are invited to join the church and experience both fellowship and accountability.
It goes together with a stronger desire for evangelism among churches, Ramsey said. The state convention’s role is to effectively channel that desire.
“We’re to mobilize our churches to make disciples among all people groups,” he said. “We’re really seeing a rallying around that. Our state leaders have been active in answering questions about what is going on in the SBC, but we try and redirect everything to our cooperative mission to take the Gospel to our neighbors and the nations.”
This article originally appeared at Baptist Press.
