Don’t tell John Tracy there aren’t enough resources to do a task God has laid on your heart. He will tell you real quick that God has all the resources you will ever need.
John knows. He has seen it in his own ministry.
John is a native Vermonter who became pastor of Barre Baptist Fellowship in Barre, Vermont, almost by accident. He was a member of Washington Baptist Church, a few miles when asked to supply the pulpit for Barre Fellowship, which had recently lost its pastor. Later he was called as interim and a year later as full-time pastor.
Full time in Vermont does not mean one earns a salary from the church. In 14 years of being pastor, John has not received a salary from the church. He and his wife, Joanne, live off of their Social Security checks. His training has been through seminary extension courses and personal study.
Today Barre Baptist Fellowship has 12 members. It averages 12 in Sunday School and 20 in worship. The church owns a small two-story building with one room on each floor. It meets on the bottom floor and rents the top floor to a barber to help pay expenses. Even with its small meeting space, the church touches hundreds of lives every month and thousands of lives every year.
The church’s major ministry tool is a soup kitchen called Open Door Fellowship. It started in the Tracys’ one-bedroom apartment in 1997 with $10 in the food fund and borrowed pots and pans. The ministry later moved to the space where the church meets. Last year, from its one room, the church served 4,905 meals and sent out to shut-ins 634 more meals. In addition the church gave out 8,450 pounds of uncooked food to people in need.
In addition, members of Barre Baptist Fellowship handed out blankets, sweaters and socks that had been donated to the church for needy individuals.
More importantly, the church led nine people to faith in Jesus Christ through the soup kitchen and baptized them into church membership last year.
God’s resources through volunteers and outside support made it possible. Volunteer groups work at Vermont’s food bank. Their efforts earn credit for the soup kitchen. When food is needed, Joanne picks it up and the cost of 10 cents on the dollar is charged against credit earned for the ministry by volunteers. She estimated the wholesale price of food prepared last year was more than $40,000.
The Tracys say their ministry is nothing short of a miracle. But after all, God has more than enough resources for His people.
At Washington Church, one sees another miracle. It is called the Calef House and Retreat Center. It used to be a Roman Catholic convent. When it was put up for sale, local Baptists publicized the need for help over the Internet. Then the pastor, director of missions and another leader fasted and prayed for three days. By the end of that time, the $72,000 needed to buy the facility had been pledged.
That was only the beginning. The house had to be renovated and made suitable for one area to become the parsonage for the Washington pastor. Another part of the huge house was made into an apartment for missions volunteers. The stables — in New England many old homes had barns attached to the house like this one — were cleaned out and converted into dormitory rooms that sleep 27. The next project is converting the old hayloft into a kitchen and dining room.
More than 40 groups are already scheduled to use the retreat center this summer and fall. Washington’s central location makes it possible for groups to stay at the Calef House and still get to many mission sites quickly. Once again Baptist leaders are praying for God to do another miracle and provide the resources necessary for the renovation.
Baptists in Chelsea like to tell you about the miracle God is doing there. The church is the newest Baptist work in Vermont, a little less than one year old. Already the church has a kids’ club and a ministry to the local care home and nursing home.
Three months ago the church wanted to move from the local fire station but did not have the money from what was provided by the North American Mission Board (NAMB). Again a time of publicity. Again a time of prayer and fasting. The result was a sponsor who promised to give the church a $1,000 gift each month for two months.
A carpenter’s shop was rented, cleaned and renovated. It is a one-room building on the main street running through town. This summer, 45 Baptist groups are scheduled to work in Chelsea. The 74-year-old church planter, a retired Texas pastor, said he is excited about what will happen this summer because “things happen when God’s people pray.”
During Feb. 9–13, I was among a group of state Baptist paper editors who was able to visit these places and talk with these people. It was made possible by the cooperative efforts of NAMB, the New England Baptist Convention and Vermont’s Green Mountain Baptist Association.
The editors were in Vermont for the annual meeting of the Association of State Baptist Papers. It was the first time the association met in that state.
We saw evidences of other miracles and needs for miracles yet to come. The Baptist churches of Vermont are small. The combined membership of all 25 churches and mission points is only about 1,000. The combined average Sunday School attendance was 574 last year. Yet God is blessing. In 2003, Vermont Baptists baptized 104 new believers. That is a ratio of one baptism to every 10 members. Across the Southern Baptist Convention, the ratio is one baptism to every 42 members.
Many churches have more people in worship than they have members. The work is slow and hard and growing. God does have the resources to help His people reach the 90–95 percent of Vermonters who say they are not born-again believers in Jesus Christ.
I am indebted to all of those who helped me and the other state Baptist paper editors experience firsthand the work and needs of Vermont. I am indebted to John Tracy and other faithful servants like him for demonstrating to us all that God has all the resources necessary to do the work He lays on our hearts.
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