When Mel Johnson receives a flurry of text messages and phone calls it usually means that trouble has struck and it’s time to mobilize Alabama Baptist disaster relief volunteers.
That’s exactly what he thought on a recent Sunday when his phone suddenly began filling up with texts. Instead of requests for help, however, Johnson was receiving texts of encouragement from supporters in Cahaba Baptist Association who knew he was headed to a preaching engagement that morning.
“When I pulled over to check my text messages, I was so surprised and blessed to see that the members of those churches were all sending messages offering prayer support. I’ve never had anything like that happen before,” Johnson said.
Johnson, disaster relief strategist for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM), was one of the first state missionaries “adopted” by a local association in a new initiative led by Alabama Baptist directors of missions. The goal of the initiative is to engage local churches in providing encouragement and support for state missionaries, according to Ken May, director of missions for Montgomery Baptist Association and president of the Alabama Baptist Conference of Directors of Associational Missions.
The hope is that each of Alabama’s 75 associations will select at least one state missionary and find ways in the coming year to support that person professionally, spiritually and personally, May said.
Despite cuts in staff and funding in recent years, SBOM personnel continue to provide outstanding ministry and missions support, said John Nicholson, pastor of Siloam Baptist Church, Marion, in Cahaba Baptist Association, who is helping coordinate the support effort.
‘We’re the beneficiaries’
“Any time we need advisement of some type of equipping, the SBOM is our resource and they always tell us how glad they are to be doing what they do,” Nicholson said. “Whether it’s Vacation Bible School or evangelism training, we’re the beneficiaries of their care and service.”
Alabama’s full-time staff of 48 state missionaries — 32 associates housed in the SBOM office in Montgomery and 16 campus ministers serving on public college campuses across the state — keep a busy schedule, according to Bobby DuBois, SBOM associate executive director. State missionaries lead an average of 3,000 conferences and travel 700,000 miles annually, in addition to consulting by telephone and email and preaching across the state. Nicholson said it is only fitting that churches and associations show their appreciation for that service.
So far 10 state missionaries have been chosen by associations and Nicholson hopes to have everyone on the initial list covered by the end of the year. Once all the missionaries are selected Nicholson hopes there will be enough associational participation to provide support for SBOM administrative staff as well.
At its annual meeting Clarke Baptist Association voted to “adopt” state missionary Scotty Goldman, an associate in the SBOM office of global missions. In its December newsletter the association recognized Goldman, his work through SBOM and a little about his years of service in other Baptist work so those in the association could begin to get to know him.
Donnie Payne, pastor of Forest Lake Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa, and moderator of the Tuscaloosa Baptist Association, said response to the initiative in his association has been extremely positive. It has been so positive, in fact, that Tuscaloosa Association chose to adopt two associates with “deep roots in the Tuscaloosa area” — Rick Lance, SBOM executive director, who served as pastor of First Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa, and Jim Swedenburg, director of the office of Cooperative Program (CP) and stewardship development for SBOM, who grew up in Tuscaloosa.
Payne said he asked Lance and Swedenburg for information to help guide churches in their contacts including each man’s birthday, anniversary, SBOM employment anniversary, favorite restaurants and preferred method of receiving communication.
“So on those dates we will encourage our people to use their creativity and respond in some way throughout the year,” Payne said.
Payne hopes that the effort will not only make local church members more aware of the value of state missionaries but also of the significance of CP giving statewide.
“Money given to missions on a weekly basis through the Cooperative Program stays in Alabama and funds our state missionaries,” Payne said. “I hope this will help people connect the dots between the Cooperative Program and missions fulfillment in Alabama as well as on the national and international level.”
Nicholson said the effort is a simple yet important way to express appreciation for the ministry of state missionaries.
“We need to love our state convention. They are doing so much more with so much less and this is a way to encourage them in the work they do for all of us,” Nicholson said.
For more information about the adopt-a-state-missionary initiative, contact John Nicholson at jwnicholsonjr@hotmail.com.
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