Would you ask the police to send drug addicts to your church before sending them to jail? That is exactly what Roscoe Belton, pastor of Middlebelt Baptist Church, Inkster, Mich., did.
“Our church developed a passion for these people,” he explained. “They need the Lord. They need to be saved.”
The church also had two professional Christian counselors who wanted to break the cycle of drug use, jail, release and more use.
Local officials thought the church was “crazy” but began offering offenders a choice, Belton noted. They could go to jail, or they could participate in the Addiction Recovery Ministry at Middlebelt Baptist.
“It has been amazing to see the transformation. The first time people come, they are resentful. They are sour-faced and withdrawn. But then you see them begin to engage. They bring their Bibles and then they come to church. Some of them get saved. It is a wonderful thing to behold,” Belton said. “The Lord is good.”
Middlebelt is a predominately black congregation. But in 1975, when the church called its first black pastor, C.E. Martin, the church was predominately white. As the community changed, so did the congregation. Today blacks, whites, Hispanics, Haitians and others worship together each week.
And the church is growing. During Belton’s 12 years as pastor, the church has grown from about 200 members to more than 600 with average attendance of about 400. In the past three years, the church budget has tripled despite the economic downturn.
Middlebelt is a missions-minded church. The church gives about 11.5 percent of its undesignated offerings through the Cooperative Program and to associational missions. The church also supports two new church starts in Michigan as well as participates in an international partnership with Baptists in Kenya.
“You have to understand that foreign missions is not a part of the black mind-set,” Belton explained. “Our people do local missions all the time but when you talk about needs overseas, they say, ‘We’ve got our own problems right here.’”
Belton said by getting a few people to minister in Kenya, the enthusiasm for overseas missions has mushroomed as they told their family and friends about the work. Nineteen people participated in the last Kenyan missions trip.
In addition to starting churches and doing international missions, Middlebelt attempts to reach people locally.
The church sponsors sports camps, block parties and other community activities to reach people for the Lord.
An Alabama Baptist team helped the church do a sports camp in 2008. “We set up several basketball goals in our parking lot and taught basketball skills and played basketball. It was a real hit,” Belton said.
Alabama Baptists also helped follow up on contacts made from the sports camp.
In addition to reaching people for the Lord, Belton said the partnership between Baptists of the two states is helping develop a better understanding of each other’s ministry field. “I have never been to Alabama, but I have some ideas about Alabama,” he said. “They may be misunderstandings because I have never been there.
“The same is true about Michigan. People have ideas about us without ever being a part of our work.”
He called Michigan “a tough sell” to some Baptists but added that the 10 million residents of the state need to be saved just like people in other places.
“It may sound trivial to say it is cold here, but when you are from the South, that can be a problem for some,” he observed. Belton also said Michigan remains an expensive place to live and minister despite the recent economic downturn.
“That is why we need partnership churches to help us find church planters and to work with us to support these church planters while they grow a church,” he said.
Belton, who serves as second vice president for the state convention, did not grow up a Southern Baptist.
“I was an independent Baptist and did not understand all this missions stuff but I have learned. The Lord is working here in Michigan, and He is using partnership missions to bring personnel and opportunity together.”
Belton urged Alabama Baptists to continue praying for work in Michigan and to come and work alongside Baptists of Michigan to do community evangelism programs.
For more information about work in Michigan, contact Reggie Quimby at the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions at 1-800-264-1225, Ext. 239.
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