Bill Agee, Church Planting Director for First Baptist Woodstock, Georgia teaching the attenders made up of church planters and pastors from across the MWBC

From May 20-22 church planters and pastors from across the Minnesota-Wisconsin Baptist  Convention gathered together at Transformation Church in Sun Prairie to learn about putting together a plan for church planting.    The theme of the three day training was taken from Luke 14:28 when Jesus talked about the importance of counting the cost before building a tower.    The teaching emphasized the importance of making plans and counting the costs before starting a church.

Bill Agee is the Director of Church Planting for First Baptist Woodstock, Georgia and he is the author of the material that was presented.   Two other leaders joined Agee for the training who have successfully planted churches.   Jeremy Westbrook of Living Hope Church in the Columbus, Ohio  and Monty Patton of Mountain Ridge Church in Phoenix, Arizona were the other presenters.   All three presents have planted churches and they shared out of their own experiences the value of putting a plan together.

Twenty church planters and pastors  from Duluth to Madison came together for this event.   Participants included Hmong, Kenyan, Nigerian, African American, and Anglo pastors.  The diversity gave a lot of rich flavor for the training.  Agee shared that vision is crucial for church planters.   Planters must see into the future and know the action steps they need to take to get there.   For more information on this training you can find out more at www.markivchurchsolutions.com.

Bill Agee, Director of Church Planting at First Baptist Woodstock

From May 20-22 we are going to have a top flight Church Planting School with Bill Agee, Director of Church Planting at First Baptist Woodstock.   Bill has planted a church in South Dakota and is very experienced in equipping churches.   The conference will be held at Transformation Church in Sun Prairie.   Register online at the following link:

http://churchplantingschool101.eventbrite.com

A practical, hands-on workshop covering the following topics:

The Call, Character, and Passion
An examination of the leadership of the church planter as Pastor Johnny Hunt teaches one of his most powerful studies

The Underserved
Places designated as the “underserved areas” will be highlighted and the need for churches in this area will be emphasized

The Future Picture
Elements of an all-inclusive Business and Ministry Plan will be shared and each attendee will utilize their unique contextual data to design their own plan that allows them to start in strength and see the journey they are on to its conclusion

The Importance of Partnerships
A discussion of how to identify, enlist, engage, and utilize partnerships

Lodging Information:
There is a block of rooms at Quality Inn and Suites, 105 Business Park Dr, Sun Prairie, WI. Please call 608.834.9889 or 1.800.434.5800 to make your reservation under Southern Wisconsin Baptist Association before May 10, 2013.

Crystal Person, Moises Rodriguez, Steve Melvin discuss the work of the Hispanic Baptist Mission at a meeting at First Baptist Whitehall

God has been sending leaders to us in the Southern Wisconsin Baptist Association.   One of these leaders God has sent our way is Pastor Moises Rodriguez.   Moises is the pastor of the newly formed Hispanic Baptist Mission meeting in Whitehall, Wisconsin.     The members of his church primarily live in the villages of Arcadia and Independence.

There is a group of about 30 Hispanic people meeting every Sunday since June 2012.   This work came about when some members of Moises’ church in Austin, Minnesota moved to the Arcadia area.    A major reason people are moving to Arcadia is the world headquarters for Ashley Furniture is located there.

Moises invests a lot of his time equipping leaders.   Right now there are three mid week bible studies taking place in homes.    These groups are reaching out to those who do not have a relationship with the Savior.   Sunday School and worship services take place in the afternoon at First Baptist Whitehall, a Conservative Baptist church who has kindly opened their doors to this new church plant.

In the picture above a recent meeting took place with Moises.  Crystal Persons of the Minnesota-Wisconsin Baptist Convention served as the interpreter.      Both Steve Melvin and Mark Millman also were part of the meeting talking about how there can be a beneficial relationship between Hispanic Baptist Mission and the SWBA.  Please be in prayer for this body of believes as they share the gospel with the increasing number of Hispanics coming to Wisconsin.

Dr. Rich Johnstone, City Coordinator for San Francisco for the North American Mission Board

This Saturday we have a great opportunity to participate in some valuable training provided to us through the North American Mission Board.  Dr. Rich Johnstone, who serves as the City Coordinator for San Francisco, will be with us leading in a workshop titled Facilitative Training.    Over the past few weeks some people have asked me, “What is facilitative leadership?”

Facilitative leadership is enabling, empowering, and mobilizing the team around you to accomplish the mission of the team.  Facilitative leadership can also be described as formulating a vision and executing the mission of the team.   This topic is one that provides great value for anyone involved in church leadership.

The day of the dictator is now over.  A great leader must work through a group of people in cooperation to build trust and high morale.   This training has been of great value to many people who have taken the time to participate.   I pray that we will see many people in the SWBA be a part of the training this weekend.     See you on Saturday!!!!

The schedule for the day will be as follows:

• 8:00 a.m. – Refreshments and Registration
• 9:00 a.m. – SWBA Executive Team Quarterly Meeting
• 10:30 a.m. – Break
• 11:00  a.m.- Facilitative Leadership Workshop Training
• 12:00 p.m. – Lunch
• 1:00 p.m. - Facilitative Leadership Workshop Training
• 4:00 p.m. – Dismiss

 Our meeting will take place this Saturday, April 13, at Midvale Baptist located at 821 S. Midvale Blvd. in Madison.   Please let us know if you are coming by e-mailing us at info@madisonbaptist.org or calling the office at 608-244-5928.

Ken Holland from the Baptist Convention of North Carolina was the leader for Operation Reach that took place in Madison and La Crosse.

In late February an event was conducted in Madison and La Crosse called Operation Reach.  The purpose of Operation Reach was to identify new places to plant churches.    Training was conducted and then the participants went out into the communities.   Places and people groups were identified where new churches should be planted.

We are thankful to Ken Holland and Keith Dixon who came from North Carolina to lend us their expertise.    Both of them have seen God use these events to stir the hearts of pastors and leaders to start new churches.    Our prayer is the Lord will do the same here in Wisconsin.

In Madison and La Crosse numerous places were identified in the suburbs all around the city of Madison.  Population growth has exceeded church growth by leaps and bounds over a number of years.   The vast majority of the population for both La Crosse and Madison is unchurched.

Our prayer as we move forward is to pray for new laborers to come into the harvest.    Please pray the prayer of our Lord Jesus that the Lord of the harvest will raise up laborers for the harvest is great and the laborers are few.   We are trusting God will do great things in the days to come by drawing new church planters to Wisconsin.   If you are interested in planting a church in Wisconsin please do call us at 608-244-5928 or e-mail us at info@wisconsinbaptist.org.  If you would like to pray for this cause please let us know that as well.

Thank you in advance for joining us in this movement to see new churches started throughout southern Wisconsin!!!

Special guests this weekend included Pastor Don Downs of West End Baptist Church in Valley, Alabama.   Phillip Green, youth pastor, was also with Don as they are looking to enter into a multi year partnership with several of our churches in the Southern Wisconsin Baptist Association.    Much thanks goes to River of Life Church and their many volunteers who made the weekend possible.

We pray this weekend will be a tool that will help all who came to have enriched prayer lives and a stronger desire to spend time with the Lord in prayer and time in the Scriptures.