Baptist Missionary Association of Missouri
2013 Minutes were just added. You can also access minutes from prior years.
Annual minutes page.
Attention All Ladies!
The Washington County District WMA will meet on Saturday, March 8, 2014 at Landmark Baptist Church in DeSoto, MO. The meeting with start at 10:00 a.m. After a very brief business meeting we will have a special speaker discussing working with our youth. ALL MISSOURI LADIES ARE INVITED!
Our Guest Speaker is Mrs. Sherry Laminack. Sherry is the National Sunbeam Promoter. Her home church is Denver Street Baptist Church in Greenwood, AR. Here is some information that she shared about herself:
“I am married and have one daughter, son-in-law, and 2 WONDERFUL grandchildren. I am a retired administrative assistant. I have taught Sunday School, WMA, GMA’s and Sunbeams. I currently serve as church clerk, assistant church treasurer, local WMA President, Sunbeam Director and teacher, State and National Sunbeam Promoter, and District WMA Second Vice President.”
The topics to be discussed are:
The Importance of Teaching Children
Methods of Teaching Children
Rewards For Teaching Children
Ladies, you do not need to be a member of WMA … if you work with young people and would like to get some new ideas, helps and encouragement in working with your young people, please come. We invite you and are anxious for you to come and listen to Sherry Laminack share her heart.
Six of our pastors met in St. Clair, MO for a joint prayer retreat between the BMA of Missouri Special Mission Committee and the Meramec Landmark Baptist Mission Committee. We discussed various facets of church planting and what steps we need to take to help our churches be more involved in the process. There is more work and praying for us to do, but the committees came up with the following action steps:
1. First Baptist, Potosi, will be hosting a workshop entitled, “Using Home Bible Studies to Plant Churches.” This workshop will answer the questions: Who can host a Bible Study in their home? What will he do? How can I facilitate a Bible Study? How does this kind of study lead to a new church plant? The date is Saturday, February 22 @ 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Lunch is provided.
2. Host a Coaching Workshop at Friendship Baptist Church, St. Clair on March 28-29, 2014. This workshop will equip lay leaders and pastors to listen better, ask the right questions, build awareness, and to move others forward in completing their goals.
3. In the near future (TBA), after a group of leaders are identified who are committed to beginning a new church plant, we will host a “Church Multiplication” training that will prepare them for the work and preparation of church planting.
Everyone is invited to attend any of these training and the committees feel that the trainings will help us to move forward in the planting of new churches.
We do have a change of location for our mission symposium and mid-year meeting in May. Pastor Justin Arender of Faith Baptist asked me to find another church for the meeting due to some concerns he had about the meeting dates and the church’s schedule. I asked Pastor Drew Sawyer and the Lindsay Lane Baptist Church if they would host the meeting, and they have agreed to do so. Thank you, Lindsay Lane, for stepping up at the last minute and serving our association! The dates are May 16 -17 so please mark your calendars.
I have a special prayer request. I will be traveling to Bolivia on February 24 – March 8 and making a 450 mile trip on the MSS Arrington River Boat. A group of 8 BMAA men are traveling to the River Bible Institute and will attempt to complete the construction of classrooms, kitchen, and dormitory space. We will host church services each night and I will serve as one of the evangelists. Pray for our safety, our labor, and for souls to be saved.
April 28-30, 2014
Statehouse Convention Center Center • Little Rock, Arkansas
The Special Missions Committee met at Perryville, MO last month and the meeting provided an opportunity for great discussion on current mission works and plans for the future of church planting in Missouri. Below is a synopsis of a few of the actions taken at this meeting:
1. An offering of $1000 was approved to be given to the Refuge Work Fund in Nixa, MO. All agreed that John and Alisha Herring are doing a great job in establishing a new work and our state missions program can and should provide financial assistance.
2. Our Mission Symposium emphasis offering is designated to the Missouri Baptist Paper. Our state paper is one of the finest within the BMAA and is in need of financial support if it is to maintain its current format. We hope every church will consider giving a special emphasis offering in May, 2014.
3. Our Missions Director will host a 2-Day Prayer Retreat with both the missions committees of both the BMA of MO and the Meramec Association. During the retreat we will consider and discuss the practical step-by-step plans for church planting found in the book “Missional Journey” by Robert Logan and Dave DeVries. Both of these authors are recognized experts in the field of church planting and now they have provided a wonderful guide on how to make disciples, that will in turn, plant churches. From this retreat, we will put together further action plans that move toward more churches being planted. Pray with us that God will provide wisdom and courage during the retreat: January 27-28, 2014.
I am very grateful to the pastors who serve on our missions committees. They tirelessly give of their time and energy to seek out new mission fields, assess worthy missionary candidates, and provide me with wise counsel. When I think about the past few years, I wish that more churches were planted. Yet I know that these men have followed God’s leading and have done the very best job with the opportunities that God has presented.
The 2014 session of the Baptist Missionary Association of America will meet April 28-30 at the beautiful Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Bro. Pastor, we need your help. When the BMAA Committee on Arrangements contracts with a convention center to host our annual meeting, the rental fee is normally tied to the number of hotel rooms we expect our attendees to use during the meeting. The rental fee in Little Rock is contingent upon our use of rooms blocked at the designated hotels. The rental fee will increase by the daily cost of each room not used.
The Committee on Arrangements has negotiated terms in Little Rock that will allow the conference center space to be rent free if we use the total number of rooms blocked at the Marriott and two overflow hotels. Please help us fill the Marriott first to cap the cost of the rental space and then the overflow rooms will help us get the meeting space rent free.
Our association has had to pay extra in the past years because many of the blocked hotel rooms were not used. Please help us avoid a situation like that this year.
We appreciate your help.
Charles Attebery, Leon Carmical, James Ray Raines
BMAA Committee on Arrangements
May God bless you with a joyous new year! We pray that you will have a closer walk with Jesus this year! Thank you God for your blessings in 2013!
Psalm 98:1 says:
“Sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things; his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.”
Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!
We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration in Smithville, MO this past month. Several guests and friends attended our services and celebrated with us on November 24th. We had plenty of food and fellowship, and as always, it seemed to bring lots of smiles and happiness to the hearts of people in attendance.
Our planting process continues, and I trust that your prayers do as well. I ask that you pray about these goals that we recently set for North Lake to meet over the next few months: 1) That we would “Live Sent,” 2) That we would strive to be a “Healthy Church,” 3) That we would become “Good Financial Stewards,” 4) That our worship service attendance would increase to 70. 5) That our LifeGroup attendance would increase to 70. 6) That we would remain engaged in our community by participating in a monthly cause for Christ.
Most of these don’t really need defining, but some of you may be wondering what it means to “Live Sent”. Simply put, “we want each person to be living God’s mission for their life”…. not their own mission, or a part of God’s mission, but really living God’s mission for them. God’s mission is my mission when I live the great commission, live by Kingdom values not cultural values, and I strive to do it the way Jesus taught us to do it. I am realizing that talking about “Living Sent” and actually doing it are two very different things. “Living Sent” requires obedience to God’s Word, and a sensitivity to the Spirit’s leading. I pray that God teaches North Lake to “Live Sent” in the coming months.
Thank you all for your prayers and support of God’s work in Smithville, MO.
Pastor Jamie Jones
Help Me…I’m Stuck!
I remember a time last year when there were some new things happening in my life and ministry. I felt blessed, challenged, passionate, and excited because it seemed that God was up to something big in both my life and my wife’s life. Yet despite these wonderful experiences, I just felt “stuck”, unable to make the decisions that would affect our future. It was a paralysis of my own making as I contemplated different case scenarios, failures, consequences, and unknown factors. Eventually, I would bring this situation to my coach who would help me get “unstuck” and move forward. I came to realize that every pastor or leader needs a coach How did my coach help me?
“And it came to pass, in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed (registered)….
And Joseph also went up out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem….
To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.
And so it was, that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”
Luke 2:1, 4-7