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Greetings!
Recently, a Kentucky pastor posed a thoughtful and honest question: "How does the Cooperative Program help impact lostness in my part of Kentucky?"
A thoughtful question deserves a thoughtful response, and I thought I'd share with you some of the ways CP impacts our corner of the world. Here's how CP impacts central Kentucky:
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 | | Alan Witham |
CP strengthens local churches and makes them more effective at advancing the Gospel and assisting Baptist causes across central Kentucky by funding my ministry and the ministries of other KBC consultants. These consultants help churches strengthen Sunday school, discipleship, worship, audio/visual technical ministry, senior adult ministry, women's ministry and preschool/children's ministry, as well as help churches navigate transitions and conflict and develop sound financial practices. - CP provides for evangelizing students on the campuses of the University of Louisville, Campbellsville University and Kentucky State University through our Baptist Campus Missionaries. Research indicates more than 9 out of 10 college students do not have a personal, saving relationship with Jesus.
- CP also provides for a campus minister to focus on serving international students at the University of Louisville. Through this ministry, hundreds of international students hear the gospel each year. Many make decisions to follow Jesus, and carry the gospel back to their home countries, which are sometimes closed to mission work.
- CP also provides resources to prepare young leaders for ministry and professional service through Campbellsville University.
- CP equips churches, associations and leaders to plant new churches. In the past few years, 27 new churches have been planted in the region.
- CP provides for affinity evangelism training aimed at helping believers and churches connect with lost people through shared interests and common needs. KBC Church Planting and Evangelism Team Leader Chuck McAlister recently trained a church in Louisville, and was featured speaker at a wild game dinner in Frankfort.
- CP provides subsidy to the ministry of numerous Mission Service Corps missionaries, associations and Directors of Missions who are personally sharing the gospel and are coordinating local churches in cooperative missions and evangelism projects to share the gospel.
- CP provides for the seminary education and theological equipping of the current and future pastors, staff members, and missionaries at Boyce Bible College and The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Many alumni of these institutions will serve churches throughout the region while they pursue their theological education and/or after they graduate.
- CP provides for the ministry of Karl Babb who is working with churches in the central Kentucky that are in conflict, times of transition and/or searching for new pastors and staff members. Helping these churches transition well rather than implode is directly related to advancing the Gospel and assisting Baptist causes.
- CP has trained Disaster Relief workers always on standby to meet the needs of flood victims, tornado victims, and victims of other forms of natural disaster in central Kentucky. Forty-five units - including chainsaw, flood recovery, shower/laundry, feeding, child care, communications - stand ready across the state to respond to needs close to home or several states away. Disaster Relief workers are intentional in their work to advancing the Gospel and assisting Baptist causes.
- CP provides for the ministry of Crossings, where several thousand students will attend summer camp at Cedarmore Camp and Conference Center in Bagdad, and several hundred will be saved, thus advancing the Gospel and assisting Baptist causes.
- CP is the avenue through which churches in central Kentucky are able to obey Acts 1:8 and the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20 by ensuring that those churches are a direct part of taking the gospel to their Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth and making disciples of all nations through the work of the North American Mission Board and the International Mission Board.
- CP helps provide resources for local churches in central Kentucky to deal with public policy issues like gay marriage, religious liberty, gambling expansion, healthcare reform, immigration, etc, and also makes possible the ministry of those who work to ensure that the "Baptist voice" is heard in Frankfort and Washington DC on matters that will directly affect all churches and Baptist causes, including those in central Kentucky.
Through the Cooperative Program, we do all these things and more. To find out more about the Cooperative Program, visit http://www.kybaptist.org/cp or contact me directly at (270) 889-4276 or by email at [email protected].
Thank you for your support of the Cooperative Program!
Alan Witham
Regional Consultant Kentucky Baptist Convention |
