For more than 30 years, East Cooper Baptist Church in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, has remained committed to missions locally and internationally. Their commitment includes getting the gospel to unreached people groups by supporting IMB missionaries.
Throughout Dave Bruner’s tenure as missions pastor at ECBC and Buster Brown’s as senior pastor, their ethos for the missions program has been getting the gospel to the unreached in world regions that have the highest concentration of lostness.
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“What can we do to see the gospel go to unreached peoples? We can invest in the workers and the people who are going. That’s really been a huge focus for us,” Bruner said.
Since 2000, ECBC has sent 17 people to the missions field. The church currently supports 40 missionary partners.
In a sermon given this month, Brown asked for 100% participation in Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and challenged the congregation to give $350 over their tithe amount. They also recently hosted their 30th annual Global Impact Conference, a highlight of the year for members and staff.
Big goal
Brown said their goal in the next three-to-four years is to take 500 mission trips and send 10 career missionaries.
Bruner shared that the church’s Lottie Moon goal was $16,000 in 1994. This year, their giving goal is $650,000. Since launching their missions program in 1993, ECBC has given $17 million to international missions.
“That just shows you it’s something that has been important to our church and [our pastor] for a long time,” Bruner said.
Craig Harris said they’ve always met their goal and have raised their goal every year. Before retiring in 2023, he held several roles on the church’s staff, including the outreach, education, administration and youth pastor.
“It’s a dangerous thing to have a good preacher who’s got a heart for missions. It mobilizes a lot of people to go, give and pray, and so our church really from the very beginning has been very linked with missions,” Harris said.
Supporting missionaries well
Brown, Bruner and Harris all have overseas missions experience. Brown served as a Journeyman in Singapore, and Bruner is a missionary kid from South Asia. Harris, his wife, Raffia, and their children served in the Asia-Pacific Rim with the IMB.
Bruner said he’s heard from missionaries that preparing to serve among unreached people groups can take three years to go through training, learn the language and culture and dive into ministry. With that time investment, he said, care is needed.
Bruner is a firm believer that the local church needs to be part of the process.
‘Barnabas partners’
ECBC calls the missionaries that the church supports “Barnabas partners.” A missions committee member is assigned to one or two of their Barnabas partners to be a liaison between them and the committee.
“I will go down into the pit, if you will hold the ropes,” Brown said, quoting William Carey’s famous statement made to Andrew Fuller, who served as president of the Baptist Mission Society until he passed away.
“We have to hold the rope for these people, and that’s why we want to be involved with them and pray with them and know them,” Brown explained.
ECBC’s support of long-term partners includes providing funds for couples to take a marriage retreat, providing missionary kid scholarships and supporting specific ministry projects. Bruner said if emergencies arise, such as the death of a family member, ECBC helps with any funds needed. Harris said that when he was on the field, 80% of their ministry budget overseas came through ECBC, and the church provided childcare and support during group meetings.
Bruner makes two-to-three trips a year to visit partners, some of whom rarely have visitors. Bruner visited Will and Reed after the birth of their first child.
Reed, who currently serves in the IMB prayer office, said, “I grew up at ECBC and am so thankful for the many men and women who poured into me for years, modeling a love for Jesus and what a life spent for Him could look like.
“When we moved overseas, their support for us just grew,” Reed continued. “We had so many people who prayed for us and visited us in our time overseas. In fact, Dave and his wife, Ceil, were the first people from our ‘home culture’ to see our son when he was born. And when we came back to visit, they provided us with a place to stay, a car and even schooling for our kids.”
Will, who currently serves in the IMB’s global research department, shared, “I became a believer while attending East Cooper with Reed during high school. I started attending as a skeptic, and, as I studied the Word, God showed me that the gospel was true and could change my life.”
He took his first cross-cultural trip with ECBC the year he became a Christian.
“I realized the gospel was not just for me but for the whole world, and I knew I wanted to spend my life for Him,” Will said.
Kristen and her family moved to the Charleston area after serving with the IMB in Asia.
“We joined ECBC during a hard year of transition after leaving the mission field, and they provided a very soft landing for us in many ways,” Kristen said.
“Many people there welcomed us, pursued a relationship with us, and took a genuine interest in our time overseas. We felt seen,” she continued. “We immediately felt a strong connection with the church because their love for missions and missionaries was plain to see. It was built into their church culture.”
Two recommendations
Bruner is retiring this year after serving as full-time missions pastor for 23 years. He leaves behind a thriving missions program he began 30 years ago that supports missionaries across the globe.
Bruner recommends two things for churches looking to begin or strengthen their missions program. First, host an annual missions conference. He said this has infused a passion for missions in the church. Second, Bruner recommends that churches write down their vision, how they want to accomplish it and what their focus is going to be.
“You have to be very thoughtful,” Bruner advised. “What are your priorities? Our priorities from day one were unreached people groups, and our priority became supporting long-term workers and raising up long-term workers to go to unreached people groups.”
Bruner said his career has had many highlights, but two recent ones were commissioning the daughter of one of the IMB families the church sent out 12 years ago. She will serve as a Journeyman. Bruner’s nephew and his wife, who served as Bruner’s outreach coordinator, will soon be heading to the mission field.
ECBC’s past and present are missions-focused, and the church is committed to continuing partnering in the Great Pursuit.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Tessa Sanchez and originally published by the International Mission Board.
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