Tall buildings glisten like jewels along the coastline, while lush hills and mountains stretch inland for hundreds of miles.
It is the northeastern portion of the United States, and it is home to millions of unchurched people and relatively few Baptists.
Baptists in the South have cast their eyes in that direction by entering a multistate partnership that is seeking to bring more spiritual light into the region.
“Impact Northeast” has united six “support conventions” in the South — Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia — with five “impact conventions” in the Northeast — the District of Columbia, Maryland/Delaware, New England, New York and Pennsylvania/South Jersey.
Together, they are making a concerted effort to expand Baptist witness in the Northeast with plans to recruit short-term teams of volunteers to assist in all areas of Christian growth and leadership such as teachers, choirs, preachers, youth leaders, construction workers, prayer and witness advocates.
“There is a dire need for church planting in the northeastern part of the United States,” said Reggie Quimby, director of global partnerships/volunteers in missions with the Alabama State Board of Missions.
To emphasize his point he pointed out that, “Impact Northeast is comprised of five northeastern conventions covering 11 states with a total of 1,300 Baptist churches. In contrast there are 3,200 Baptist churches in Alabama alone,” he said.
Only 1 percent of the population in the Northeast is Baptist, according to Charles Barnes, coordinator of Impact Northeast in Annapolis, Md. “We still have not impacted the tremendous population centers of America,” said Barnes, who recently retired as executive director of the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware.
Barnes was referring to cities such as Philadelphia, New York City, Boston, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Washington and the many other cities of the region.
These areas make up the most unchurched 25 percent of the American population.
Individual partnerships in the past with state conventions in the South and Northeast are now serving as prototypes for Impact Northeast.
The Impact Northeast partnership was the “brainchild of four state executives: Bill Pinson of Texas, Reggie McDonough of Virginia, Bill Causey of Mississippi and Ken Lyle of New England.” (Pinson and Lyle have since retired.)
The 11-convention partnership started in 2000 and lasts through 2007.
Quimby envisions Impact Northeast as having association-to-association linkups as well as church-to-church linkups under the umbrella of the Alabama Baptist State Convention’s role in the Northeast partnership.
“We have had a number of Alabama Baptist churches who have already been sending teams into this area before the partnership was established,” Quimby said.
“We want to help facilitate, encourage and affirm their efforts to continue their work as well as encourage other churches to get involved,” he said.
Quimby referred to plans of Chilton Association to repeat a youth summer missions trip to Boston.
“Eighty-five youth participated last summer under the leadership of Myrtle Littleton. It was a great success,” he said.
Quimby says that other Alabama churches have plans under way to participate in Impact Northeast.
For example, planning a trip to the New England area in September is the senior adult choir from Lakewood Baptist Church, Phenix City. Under the direction of minister of music Charles Keown, the group will present concerts throughout New England.
Also making plans for a possible church planting in Massachusetts is First Baptist Church, Hayden. The Friendship Association church is consulting with church planting strategists for direction with their future church planting goals.
Calhoun Association has plans under way to link up with a mission in the township of Egg Harbor, Penn., according to Quimby.
David Waltz, executive director of Pennsylvania/South Jersey Baptist Convention, said there is excitement among Baptists in the Northeast just knowing there are people in the South who care.
“It’s sometimes overwhelming to see the great need in the region, and it can be discouraging,” he said. “We need lots more churches (in the Northeast),” Waltz said.
“There are entire counties with no Southern Baptist work” in Pennsylvania/South Jersey, including one such county with a population of 100,000 people,” he explained.
“We have the strategies in place,” Waltz said. “We just need the resources, the people.” (ABP, TAB)
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