A birthday celebration in Daytona Beach, Fla., may not hold much significance for Alabamians, but it should.
When the evangelism training plan FAITH celebrates five years with a LifeWay-sponsored National FAITH Institute Jan. 27–31 at First Baptist Church, Daytona Beach, Alabamians have cause to celebrate.
FAITH was born at First Baptist, Daytona Beach, in January 1985 as pastor Bobby Welch of Fort Payne and then-First, Daytona, staff member Doug Williams, now of Oneonta, began the FAITH Sunday School evangelism strategy there.
They started the program to help bolster the church’s Sunday School enrollment and reconnect Sunday School and evangelism.
In January 1998 LifeWay partnered with the church in developing materials and launching a national training plan.
Other Alabama Baptists soon discovered FAITH as well as a role with it.
Shelby Smith Jr. of Hueytown is the director of FAITH at LifeWay. He is the son of retired International Mission Board missionary Shelby Smith Sr., who served in Brazil and the Caribbean.
Also, Laurence Phipps, pastor of Vaughn Forest Baptist Church, Montgomery, in recent years wrote a discipleship program for FAITH, titled “Praying in Faith.”
With so many Alabamians involved in the program’s development, it is no surprise that the state leads the nation in the number of FAITH-trained churches, with about 700 having been trained so far, out of 6,851 churches nationwide.
And while numbers don’t always show the scope of the ministry that occurs, other statistics for FAITH since 1998 are indicative of the strategy’s success:
-Total FAITH clinic-trained people nationwide: 28,868; Alabama: 3,322.
-Total clinics completed nationwide: 351; Alabama: 30.
-2002–2003 clinics planned nationwide: 78; Alabama: three for 2003.
-Professions of faith at the clinics nationwide: 4,181; Alabama: 783.
Daniel Edmonds, director of the office of Sunday School for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM), said that as well as leading in the number of trained churches, Alabama also has the distinction of being home to the first church to hold two training clinics.
Auburn’s Lakeview Baptist Church and Vaughn Forest Baptist Church were two of the 27 churches that were invited to attend the inaugural FAITH clinic at First, Daytona.
Vaughn Forest members then returned home and within a year held two clinics of their own. Lakeview was not far behind, being the second or third church to do so.
While evangelism is at its core, “FAITH is far broader than just evangelism,” Welch said.
“It is a strategy and process wherein a local church can crystallize the ministry task.”
Suggesting the visualization of a box holding many items, he said the FAITH strategy is like a box holding the varied components of evangelism, assimilation, discipleship and ministry.
Edmonds agreed, adding that FAITH also has something to offer the individual Christian.
“It really targets building the individual and helping develop the basic disciplines of a Great Commission Christian,” he said. “We have a number of churches that are excited about what’s going on in the church because of FAITH.”
FAITH team members work in groups of three to share their faith and present the plan of salvation to people. When people are won to Christ, new believers are enrolled in a Sunday School appropriate for their age and invited to attend church with the team.
FAITH teams also make visits to minister to members of the same Sunday School class that they attend.
At the national institute in Daytona Beach, participants will be offered three tracks from which to choose, including one in Spanish.
Churches who wish to start new FAITH programs will be offered the FAITH basic track, qualifying them to begin FAITH training in their churches.
FAITH basic track participants will have opportunities to interact with churches that are currently using FAITH.
Senior pastors must attend this track if they have not previously attended a FAITH training clinic.
The FAITH veterans track is for those who have attended a FAITH training clinic or have completed their first semester of FAITH. It offers:
-Skill-development workshops to help FAITH veterans improve their effectiveness in the FAITH strategy.
-Intentional efforts to build a national network of FAITH practitioners.
-Testimonies of success experienced through FAITH.
-Messages pointing FAITH leaders to an expanded mission through FAITH.
-Discussion times for sharing ideas and strategies with other FAITH churches.
The veterans track will help those involved in FAITH to deepen their understanding of the strategy.
Through a variety of conferences and discussion groups, they will learn how to strengthen the Sunday School foundation that makes FAITH work. FAITH churches may choose to bring participants to both the FAITH basic track and the FAITH veterans track.
Training in FAITH is a prerequisite for all participants in the veterans track.
A Spanish FAITH
FAITH is now available in Spanish and a “Por Fe” track will be running simultaneously with the FAITH basic and FAITH veterans tracks. This track will include complete training in the Por Fe materials.
Three other national FAITH institutes will be held this year: First Baptist Church, Jonesboro, Ga., May 19–22; First Baptist Church, Carrollton, Texas, Aug. 4–7; and Immanuel Baptist Church, Highland, Calif., Sept. 22–25.
Edmonds said there are two more FAITH conferences set in Alabama this year.
One will be at First Baptist Church, Center Star, in Killen, May 15–17 and another at Vaughn Forest Baptist Church, Montgomery, July 21–24.
To register for any of the conferences, call LifeWay at 1-800-254-2022.
“In my own life, own church, community and state, it’s had quite an impact,” Edmonds said. “I thank the Lord for what He’s done through people willing to share in FAITH.”
For more information about FAITH, call Edmonds at 1-800-264-1225, Ext. 285, or visit www.lifeway.com/faith.
For a list of some of the Alabama churches participating in FAITH, visitwww.alsbom.org/faith.
(TAB, BP)
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