Home Missions: Interview with Bob Thompson of BHM (2)

Don Johnson Recently, I sat down with Bob Thompson, director of Baptist Home Missions, a small independent Baptist mission board devoted to church planting in North America. This aspect of mission work is often overlooked by the attention given to foreign missions, but it is vital for the church to replicate itself both on the…

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Home Missions: Interview with Bob Thompson of BHM (1)

Don Johnson Recently, I sat down with Bob Thompson, director of Baptist Home Missions, a small independent Baptist mission board devoted to church planting in North America. This aspect of mission work is often overlooked by the attention given to foreign missions, but it is vital for the church to replicate itself both on the…

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The Strategy of Multiplication

Mike and Gail Mestler Throughout Kenya grows a flowering tree with striking orange-red blossoms appropriately named the “flame tree.” The flame tree is indigenous to Africa, where it easily grows to a height of fifty feet and produces many clusters of flowers on the tips of its branches. A flame tree in full blossom is…

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Dr. Ed Nelson On Church Planting

In my conversation with Dr. Nelson, one of the topics I wanted to cover was church planting. Dr. Nelson’s ministry has been closely connected with church planting in every aspect – as a church planter, as a pastor supporting church planting ministries, and as a member of the board of Baptist World Mission, a mission…

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What to Do When Your Church Leaves You

Don Johnson I recently had a conversation with a friend who expressed his appreciation for Proclaim & Defend and other ministries of the FBFI. Of course, one always likes to hear accolades, but behind my friend’s compliment lay dissatisfaction with the trending development of his local church. His church was still “the only alternative” in…

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Kids of Church Planters: CPK’s

Susannah Barba Dad’s words at breakfast on the morning of June 30, 1994, changed my life forever. “Well, kiddos, we’re going to do it, ” he said. Stephanie, Jeremiah, and I all waited to be enlightened. “Last night, the Lord made it clear to me: we’re going to go off the road and start a…

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Helping Church Planters

Scott and Becky Swinton We moved here to the San Francisco Bay Area at the end of 2001 because the Lord had given us a burden to help a small but dynamic church in Pleasant Hill, California. Through a bizarre set of circumstances, which only an omnipotent God could have orchestrated, we were introduced to…

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Do You Have What it Takes?

Dave Barba The phone rings. A fine Christian layman tells you that his church is compromising. His and three other families are eager to start a new church. Is this “Macedonian” phone call a divine call from God? Should you pack up and sail to Philippi? Paul the apostle, the premier church starter in the…

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The Need to Reseed

Bruce McAlister An alert homeowner who maintains a beautiful lawn knows the need to periodically overseed or reseed. Thinning grass or bare patches of dirt reveal the need for more seed. In a similar way, an evaluation of the American church situation reveals our urgent need to reseed the nation with many more Bible-believing churches.…

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Seeing through Spiritually Sensitive Eyes

Jim Bickel Upon first stepping foot on the busy streets of Brooklyn years ago to evangelize, my initial impression was that I had entered a foreign mission field. The world has come to New York City like no other place. Research reveals it is the largest, most diverse cosmopolitan city on earth.[1] Because the City…

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