One church planter described the Boston area as post-Christian — a place where people think they have considered Jesus and rejected Him. The problem, the church planter said, is that most have never heard the gospel so they have never really considered Jesus at all.
Another Boston church planter said there is far less animosity toward Christianity in Boston than most people think. The problem is that most people have never met a dedicated evangelical Christian — not one.
Most of the church planters currently working in Boston agree that New Englanders are like M&M candy. They have a hard shell on the outside. But the shell is thin and once one gets through the shell, the people are friendly and accepting.
The Greater Boston area (inside the I-495 corridor) is home to about 4.9 million people. Evangelical Christians make up less than 3 percent of that population, according to information provided by the North American Mission Board (NAMB) during a recent briefing for editors of state Baptist papers.
Gallup called Boston one of the least Bible-minded cities in the nation and Massachusetts one of the least religious states with only 27 percent of residents considered very religious. Roman Catholics make up the largest religious group followed by atheists and agnostics, according to various studies.
Boston is a diverse area. According to the United States Census Bureau, the median household annual income is $66,658, which is far above the U.S. average of $51,849. Alabama’s median household annual income is $42,738.
Poverty is below the national average. Only 11 percent of people in the area live below the national poverty level compared to the U.S. average of 15 percent. In Alabama the percentage living in poverty is 16.2 percent.
It is estimated that more than 150 languages are spoken in the area. The Baptist Convention of New England (BCNE), which includes Boston, ministers in about 20 different languages through its churches. For example Southern Baptists have a church plant among the 10,000 Nepalese who live in the area. Another church plant focuses on the large Russian-speaking population. Still another focuses on Koreans and other international college students studying at some of the nation’s most prestigious universities.
Nine percent of the population is Hispanic, 8 percent is African-American and 7 percent is Asian.
Since Harvard University’s founding in 1636 Boston has been associated with higher education. Today about a quarter of a million college students from around the world study in the Boston area. One church planter reported that within a three-mile radius of his church, 46 percent of the 400,000 people who lived there hold graduate degrees.
A church planting emphasis of BCNE to start 25 new churches each year has been augmented by Send North America: Boston, a NAMB program to reach underserved areas of the United States with the gospel of Jesus Christ through church planting.
Using a relatively new strategy, many of the church plants are taking root.
Curtis Cook, who until recently coordinated the Send North America: Boston effort, told state paper editors that Baptists did not have a good history of planting new churches in major cities. He cited many reasons — church planters not familiar with their new cultures, lack of a supporting community, loneliness, expense of church planting, lack of good coaching and poor strategies.
Now church plants begin with the recognition that it may take five to seven years for a church plant to become self-sustaining. A church planter may take a year or more working with a local group of Christians to determine where a church plant is needed, what kind of church it should be, learning the local culture and language before actually planting a church.
“It only takes a few mistakes to blow up the whole thing,” Cook said.
Another change is putting a team around a church planter rather than having individuals work alone. Three or four families ban together to plant a new church. Speakers explained that lay members of churches are increasingly deciding to be on mission for the Lord. One example shared was of a FedEx pilot who decided to relocate his family in order to help plant a church.
New church plants in the Boston area seldom start with a church service. No matter how much one may want to start with a presentation of the gospel, that direct approach does not get a hearing, speakers explained. Instead leaders emphasize the new churches are there to serve their communities. “It is better to do little acts of love that nudge people toward the Kingdom,” one church planter observed.
Linking to partner churches from more established areas of Baptist work is another part of the new strategy. These churches frequently provide financial support, speakers said. More importantly they provide manpower to do things the few gathered believers could never accomplish alone. Often these are community service projects.
Partner churches must be committed for the length of the church planting cycle. That means multiple trips over multiple years so volunteers and the partnering church begin to know and understand the demands of the church planting experience.
Church planters not only report to NAMB on a monthly basis, they meet with each other and with coaches and mentors who help them strategize and problem solve. New churches also are required to give to the Cooperative Program and be Southern Baptist churches.
The results are impressive. A church planting culture seems to be emerging as one of the first things a new congregation does is help with another church plant.
This was my third time to see Baptist missions work in the Boston area. Each experience has been impressive. One church, for example, has offered its building as home for other churches for years. Now six other Baptist groups, most of them ethnic congregations, meet there. The concentration on student work to reach collegians in Boston and the more than 1 million college students in New England is astounding.
And now to see the explosion in church plants is exciting. Currently there are 34 church plants in the area, 20 of them started in the last four years, and more on the way.
NAMB officials were honest enough to say that not every target city in the nation shows the positive results witnessed in Boston. Still thank God for what is happening there and may it happen in other major cities of New England and across the nation.
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