State paper prompts missions experience

State paper prompts missions experience

W. Frank Banks and Charles Banks have been pals and members of First Baptist Church, Jasper, for a few decades now, and their compatibility has prompted them to take several missions trips together.

The two men (who are “probably related somewhere down the line,” according to Charles) have traveled internationally, but their latest joint trip was a domestic one to Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.

“What prompted me to go on this trip was an article I read in The Alabama Baptist in the summer of 2009 by Dr. Bob Terry (and Carrie Brown McWhorter) about the need up in Michigan,” Frank Banks said. “The project we accepted was mentioned … in this particular article.”

Connecting Frank and Charles Banks with the Michigan project is a perfect example of a role the newspaper plays, Terry said.

“Each week, the state Baptist paper plugs readers in to missions efforts across the state and around the world,” he said. “Articles may feature innovative ministry ideas that can be duplicated in a reader’s community. The articles may report how God is blessing a ministry somewhere in the world.”

The article that caught Frank and Charles Banks’ attention said an estimated 8 million people in Michigan are lost. So the men answered the call to share the gospel among them July 21–28, working with a house church to grow its congregation.

In addition to mentoring the church members and offering support any way they could, Frank and Charles Banks hit the streets, reaching out to the community in a very hands-on way: They went door to door.

The men would start out around 9 a.m., stop for a brief lunch break and then knock on more doors until about 4 p.m. At the end of the week, they had netted 12 new converts and about 25 prospects for the church.

“This was a new experience but a very rewarding experience,” Charles Banks said. “This was the first time I’ve been on a missions trip where they were trying to get a church established.”

He and Frank Banks encountered a lot of need in the community and left knowing that much follow-up work remained to be done.

“I saw a need for people, probably older Christians with experience, to act as mentors,” Charles Banks said. “We learned there was so much to be done with planting a church.”

And for that very reason — the needs in the Upper Peninsula as well as across the globe — the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM) is hosting a series of conferences across the state dubbed Acts 1:8 Connections. There will be four conferences, two Sept. 7 and two Sept. 9, complete with personal testimonies from volunteers who have been a part of past missions projects.

“The purpose is to link churches with our partners and the projects we have for 2011,” said Reggie Quimby, director of the SBOM office of global missions. “People can learn more about the Michigan partnership, among many others.”

In 2006, the Alabama Baptist State Convention embarked on a five-year partnership with the Baptist State Convention of Michigan.

For more information, visit www.alsbom.org or 1-800-264-1225.