I am writing to share what God has been doing and where we believe He is leading us in the near future, regarding the work we are involved in to spur a disciple-making and church planting movement in Minnesota. As you may recall, when Laura Beth and I were commissioned as full-time missionaries roughly five years ago, we shared the calling we believe God put on our lives. We believed then, and still do today, that God was going to start thousands of new churches across the world through the churches we would get to serve in some way by planting in Minnesota. We may not be directly involved in most of them, but the part God is using us to play in these first few churches will, Lord willing, cement the foundational elements that will be alive and well in each one of them. This has led us to plant prayerfully, carefully and slowly as we work with God to make sure the Bible is the foundation and Christ and the gospel are the center of everything we do.
In the last month, we’ve added four members — two by statement and two by baptism. We saw a member recommit to God and publicly repent, started training another young man to lead and preach, added a man to help lead small groups monthly, assembled a team of four leaders to launch a Christian recovery meeting (Celebrate Recovery), had members commit to start a volleyball outreach and saw God move two more people to seek and commit to be discipled as leaders.
Shortly before that, we had a group of five people commit to start an Outreach Team. That group has a leader now and has grown to eight people. We also had 100 backpacks donated for our annual Back-To-School Backpack Giveaway Outreach.
God has also been working through our family to assist other church plants and churches. Our family serves another church plant leading both of their children’s ministry classes and began serving one of their small groups by providing the children’s ministry during their weekly in-home meetings.
Our Plan and Plea
I met with Larry Barker to begin exploring options for the current plant and to assess potential locations for the next church. I am working with him on several assignments to accomplish both goals. He and I are in agreement that another year would be fruitful and beneficial for the current church plant. I will be working to secure funding to cover our living expenses and some ministry expenses, allowing us to complete our part of the work in founding the church plant in North Minneapolis. As we continue to work in North Minneapolis, I will also be seeking God and testing different nearby areas for their potential to be a fruitful harvest for our next work. Our current church plant will be involved in outreach and the initial stages of church planting in the future location.
I currently feel led to seek God for a more long-term funding option for our church planting since we plan on planting many churches in Minnesota in the years to come. Because we operate more like overseas missionaries in this way than typical North American missionaries, we need to develop partnerships that will have the ability to contribute and partner for more than three to five years. We could use prayer for this work as we will likely need to seek accountants and build a financial infrastructure to complete our ongoing work. We will need to have something in place by August when our five-year stipend period with the BMAA ends. Although we will still be BMAA missionaries and able to receive funds from the BMAA, we will need to have some financial support in place to oversee new functions that we will be directly responsible for, which we have not been responsible for before. I am working to learn what these things will be now. Please pray for us as we transition and I would like to ask you to consider increasing your partnership giving to help us cover the upcoming loss of our stipend and monthly giving.
Currently, I am also working on setting up a Bible Institute. I have a plan and a schedule organized. I am also working with a friend who is a professor at a Baptist Seminary and was previously a professor at a Baptist college. He is assisting me in fine-tuning the plan and thinking through the details of how to set it up and administer it, so we can successfully launch the Institute and start a new chapter of raising up leaders.
I’m excited to report I’m handing off more and more work and seeing our people step up in several ways. We have people who are assisting by overseeing signage, outreach, the worship team, discipleship groups, children’s ministry, preaching, teaching and accounting. The one area we are still in great need of is financial, though that continues to improve as well. Our people continue to grow in Christlikeness and are visibly serving others in need, both within our church and outside its membership. They are doing this more and more since their lives are settling down and stabilizing to where they are living “quiet lives” that increasingly honor and glorify God.
Primary Need
The greatest need is for God’s provision of funds to complete the work at Freedom Missionary Baptist Church (FMBC), as well as partnerships that will enable us to move forward with the next phase of church planting. I am set to lose at least $2,000 per month, and a more significant loss may follow when our five-year term with FMBC comes to an end. I will be reaching out to our current partners to determine what additional losses may be forthcoming. We trust that God will provide the means to enable us to finish well, so we don’t have to compromise the plan at this crucial time and risk losing all the great growth we are currently experiencing.
If you are able to partner with us, please use visit bmamissions.org/canada-unitedstates/#Minnesota to set up giving through the BMAA. They will continue to oversee our monthly contributions; however, the plan is to start sending those contributions directly to the church to administer, covering my monthly salary and any reimbursements for the work.
Additional Needs
We would benefit greatly if we were able to obtain the following items as a one-time gift:
• Roland FP-E50 Digital Piano: $999.99 plus tax (Amazon)
• Liquid Stands Keyboard w/ Wheels: $97.19 plus tax (Amazon)
• Liquid Stands Piano Bench Adjustable Stool: $77.99 plus tax (Amazon)
• Working 12-passenger Van (For picking up church members and visitors who live in women’s and children’s shelters)
• Working Full Size Truck (To pull a trailer)
• Trailer for Events (Preferably enclosed)
Also, if you would like an early copy of our vision prospectus, which I created with the help of Larry Barker, let me know by email at mike@nnccmpls.com and I will send one to you.
Thanks for your partnership. I look forward to sharing more with you soon!
My Ask — Partner with Us
God has given us a unique ministry. We serve in a hard part of a hard city. Overcoming the challenges of poverty, broken homes, incarceration, mental illness, physical illness and violent crime keeps some groups and individuals from coming to join us to serve here. I get that. But it doesn’t have to keep us from reaching the people of North Minneapolis together. Thanks for considering partnering with us.
