FENTON, MI – Our state is filled with missionaries who plant churches. God-called people who dedicate themselves to sharing Christ, creating disciples, planting or replanting churches, and multiplying that process all over again. We are blessed to live among them and we can rejoice over what God did during 2016.
Lives were transformed. There were 209 baptisms reported through Michigan church plants. On an average Sunday in Michigan 1,564 people were worshiping God in our new church plants.
Devoted missionaries surround us. At the time of this writing, 72 persons are currently training or active apprentices, interns, or church planters throughout Michigan & Canada as partners in church planting.
New missionaries were added this year throughout Michigan. There were 24 church planting missionaries approved for service this past year. Of the 24 missionaries in Michigan, 22 of them are married, many with children in the home. We added 2 single missionaries. We conducted 3 church planter assessment retreats.
Our new church plants gave back to God’s Kingdom. They contributed $85,554 to the Cooperative Program. They contributed $5,415 to other SBC mission offerings. They contributed $46,961 to other mission causes by church plants. In total, the new church plants in Michigan gave a sum total of $137,930 to Cooperative Program & missions.
It takes an elite squad of dedicated people to create vibrant new churches. There were 17 pastors and churches from within Michigan who supported specific church plants. From outside of the conventional Michigan churches, 10 other churches supported specific church plants. There were untold thousands who gave so that we could assist 4 church plants in purchasing equipment for their ministries. There were many who prayed for the missionaries.
“But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus – the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God,” said Paul as recorded in Acts 20:24 (NLT).
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tony Lynn is the State Director of Missions for the Baptist State Convention of Michigan. Before coming on staff at the BSCM, Tony served as lead pastor for more than six years at Crosspoint Church in Monroe, Michigan. He and his wife, Jamie, also served with the International Mission Board in Africa and in Europe.