New church starts

In your editorial comments in The Alabama Baptist Aug. 16 on “Starting New Churches in Alabama,” I beg to disagree with you.

You state that, “Alabama Baptists regularly start about 30 new churches each year,” and then you say, “Unfortunately few of these are purposeful, intentional church starts. Most of them result from church fights and church splits.”

That is not true. Of the 42 new church starts presently supported by the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM), 38 of those are purposeful, intentional and very much needed and have absolutely nothing to do with church fights, splits, discord, dissension or factions.

Whether Alabama Baptists will grasp the opportunity to start new work in needed target areas, as you question, is not a moot question. Thanks to concerned, missions-minded local churches, directors of missions and SBOM leadership, which include our executive director and his entire staff, this work is and has been for several years a top priority for Alabama Baptists.

In the 25 years that I was pastor of First Baptist Church, Athens, Ala., we were involved in five new church starts, and not one of them had anything to do with church faction. All five are strong, active, cooperative churches.

Fred Lackey
Jasper, Ala.

EDITOR’S NOTE — Won’t it be wonderful if the description of this moment in time which your letter references becomes a description of the history of church starts among Alabama Baptists. Unfortunately that is not the case at the present time.