FORREST CITY, Ark. – Ministry leaders recently gathered for a weekend of encouragement and equipping for church revitalization at Beck Spur Baptist Church in Forrest City.
The conference featured Mark Clifton, executive director of church replanting and rural ministry at the North American Mission Board (NAMB), and JimBo Stewart, associate director of revitalization and replanting at NAMB.
The seed for the gathering was planted about a year ago a small group of pastors read Clifton’s book, Reclaiming Glory: Revitalizing Dying Churches, said Clint Haynes, associational missionary for the Tri-County Baptist Association.
When they heard Clifton was to be a guest speaker at the Arkansas Baptist State Convention Evangelism Conference (ECON) earlier this year, they were excited. Haynes said he thought, “Man, we need this in the Delta. My guys need this.”
Haynes connected with Clifton at ECON and invited him to the Delta. Six months later, Clifton and Stewart were in Forrest City.
Haynes said they had roughly 85 people from more than 25 churches in attendance who were encouraged and equipped.
“We’ve already had a couple of churches come to us and say, ‘Hey, we need this. We’re serious about this. What help can you give us in revitalization?’” Haynes said.
They plan to have a roundtable on Sept. 23 to meet with churches that are interested and have more questions.
“We are so thankful. I think it’s easy for small churches and rural churches to feel forgotten and I don’t think it’s anybody’s fault,” Haynes said. “But for years I think they felt kind of forgotten and this movement that is being championed by NAMB and the state convention has been such an encouragement just so these guys know “we care about you and we care about your church and we want to see you make disciples for the glory of God because every church matters.’”
This post first appeared in the Arkansas Baptist News.
Published August 28, 2024
