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Ben Kingston

June 2022 – Mission Director’s Report

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Dear BMAMO churches,

I hope all is well for you this month of June. I am sure you are aware of our need to lift our editor, Bro. Jim Hoffman up in prayer for his recent health concerns, I am grateful to the Lord for answered prayer for two successful procedures.

Also, please continue to pray for Bro Juan Fernandez’s father, who has had serious health concerns. I am also grateful for answered pray for Juan’s father and safe travels for the Fernandez family.

This is the first article since our missions symposium and mid-year meeting at Bethel. Everyone was so gracious of our attempt to treat you well. Special thanks to the folks of Bethel for rising to the challenge. I was especially appreciative of your acceptance in the late change of the program due to Bro. Larry Woods’ news about His wife’s health concerns. Bro. Juan brought an energetic and exciting message and update from His field. I also want to thank Bro Claude for his report on how Stony Point has responded, and as a result been blessed by raising the bar of awareness of missions in their local church. Again, I do not see the BMAMO assessment as a necessity, but as a tool that God can use to raise the bar of awareness in your local church. I am very excited about a meeting I have tonight with a professional in the area of evaluating businesses to see what improvements can be made in the assessment itself.

If I may, I would like to take this opportunity to share how the Lord put this all together. This professional, you see, is not meeting with me in his professional capacity. Instead, he’s meeting with me because he and his partner help charitable organizations with their tools and evaluating systems. I met him at a wedding reception through our mutual friend, Dr. Gavin Hooks. We started with small talk at the reception, and I basically asked his profession. When he shared it with me, I asked if he would mind reviewing the assessment to get his opinion if it is hitting the mark. He scrolled through the assessment, looked at me and said, “This is what I do! I can absolutely help you and let’s meet soon.” About two or three months ago I got the news from Gavin that Joe had had a devastating stroke and the doctors did not think he would make it through the night. Joe is a believer. Praise God, Joe did survive the night and in fact did much better than anyone expected, but he was still “not out of the woods.” So, on my tractor a few days after the stroke I just said, “Lord, You know what this man’s plans are, and You know what Your plans are. If You still have plans to use him I pray that he will recover completely. I know that I was not the only one praying, but I’m telling you God has answered those prayers! So much so that about two weeks ago out of the blue I get a text from him, “Hey brother Ben, do you still want to meet?” I said, “Joe, I’m just thrilled to hear from you!” His response was hilarious: “Well, I knocked on heaven’s door and they said not yet, so I’ve still got to work to do.” I just wanted you, the BMA churches of Missouri, to be aware of how God is working! I praise Him for it! You’ll probably be hearing the continuation of this conversation in next
month’s article.


Lastly, I would like to follow up on my challenge from the Missions Symposium. How is your tomato doing? If you’re reading this and you were not at the symposium, I will explain! I had several tomato plants laid in my lap right before the symposium, so I decided to share this caveat with the
people that were in attendance. I asked if they took a tomato plant, to transplant it and take care of it and try to bring it to full fruition. Then, save a few seeds from one of the fruits and then plant another plant the following year. This is essentially mirroring the discipleship process. God has not just called us to win people to Christ. He’s called us to win people to Christ AND TRAIN them to win people to Christ to train them to win people to Christ, etc. The ultimate goal of any seed is not fruit for that season. The ultimate goal is seed for the next season, and so on, and so on. As a result, I challenged the people that night to take that tomato plant home and do just that, All along, asking God to teach them lessons of discipleship as they care for this tomato plant. I’ve already had some interesting conversations with people and I’m excited about what God‘s going to do in teaching us how to truly reproductively disciple others.

May the Lord richly bless you is my prayer.
Bro. Ben Kingston

PS this from Bro Larry Wood about his wife’s current health situation: After a series of tests and scans the doctor decided to do a biopsy this past Saturday. The results will take 7 to 10 days. We are rescheduled to fly out on June 28 and will keep this schedule if everything is good. If not, we will adjust our plan. If the biopsy is good, then her issues can be treated with medication. If not, she will have to have surgery and possibly some type of treatment.

So please add these needs to your church’s prayer list.

December 2021 – Mission Director’s Report

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Dear Churches of the BMAMO:

Merry Christmas, everybody! It has been a full year plus 2 months since I became your Missions Director and that time has been fruitful and positive in many ways. I could not be more excited about the ministry that Bro. Juan Fernandez and his family are carrying out and the fruit that they are seeing. I beg you to continue to pray and support Bro. Juan in any and every way the Lord leads.

On a State level, I am striving to encourage each church to do the BMAMO assessment and utilize the accompanying pamphlet so that the next time you perform the assessment, the church as a whole will score better and thereby increase their Missions knowledge. These articles over the next few months will lay out specifically the impetus behind the assessment questions and how to use the pamphlet to better prepare yourself for your next assessment. I am hearing positive things from the churches that have made use of the assessment and will be sharing that soon.

Most of us have heard the question, “What do you give someone that has everything?” As Americans, we don’t think of ourselves in that light, yet compared to 2/3 of the world we do have everything. We have comfortable homes, wardrobes to clothe ourselves, refrigerators and freezers full of food, cars, trucks, houses, and lands. You and I know there are lots of people that have more “stuff” than we do. But to get back to the question – what do you give someone that has everything? The answer is to give them something that they cannot provide for themselves. For every man, woman, boy, and girl, that is what Jesus did for us. He gave us the one thing we could never provide for ourselves – His precious salvation. This is why we call ourselves “Missionaries.” It is our mission to take this most wonderful gospel to the world, specifically to the people within your and my sphere of influence.

On a very practical level, I believe we can take the same ideology and ask, “What can I do for the people within my sphere of influence that they cannot do for themselves?” That’s the way you make your Christmas list and shed the light of the gospel in their lives. Some of those on your list will have physical needs, some will be spiritual, some will be time that you spend with them, and some will be financial gifts. I encourage you to ask yourself the question as you go about preparing to bless others with a gift.

Lastly, on a negative note, but also positive from the standpoint of potential healing and restoration, our Baptist Missionary Association President Justin Rhodes was relieved of his duties as Pastor of his church because of an unstated moral failure. This is public knowledge, I am told, and I got permission to share this before I included it in this article. You may not know Justin, but I do. This was a shock and a great disappointment. I have nothing but empathy, forgiveness, and love for Justin, and I’m asking you to pray for him, the church that he pastored, and the association, that God will bring healing, restoration, and forgiveness. I love the verse that says God will restore the years the locust have eaten. What Satan means for evil, God will use for good and for a lesson to all of us.

Let’s remember 1 Corinthians 10:12-13 “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”

May the Lord richly bless you this Christmas season.
Bro. Ben Kingston

August 2021 – Mission Director’s Report

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A page from my heart…

Unfortunately, I was not able to go to the national Association meeting. I’ve heard nothing but good reports from those who were able to go, and Missouri was well represented. As you know, it’s been a difficult season for meetings since Covid hit in 2020, and date adjustments made it quite difficult for many including myself to attend.

It is my understanding that we were well represented in the missions commissioning service with Bro. Juan being our representative as a national missionary to the St. Louis Hispanic people. It is so exciting to see him and his family do such a tremendous job in that ministry.

As I shared in last month’s edition, I had the opportunity to speak at Ohlman Baptist Church. This past month I was invited to share at Stony Point, where other churches availed themselves of that meeting. It’s a thrill to represent and present the work that we’re striving to do for the BMA of Missouri in the area of missions.

I have been in discussions with the advisory committee of the Meramec Association, and it is their recommendation that we not hire a missions director at this point, but see how the push for the Benchmark Assessments goes with our churches as a whole throughout the state. If the Meramec churches that also are supporting the state association throw in with their support of the Benchmark Assessment approach, we will basically be accomplishing the same thing.

Therefore, I’m asking everyone who reads this article to pray as we continue this push to get our churches to raise the bar of missions awareness, that the Benchmark Assessment will do just that, and that our churches will grow in awareness of our missions program, and we will become better missionaries and see more churches planted in the state of Missouri. That is the end goal that we are hoping to accomplish.

The finished product of the Benchmark Assessment test and pamphlet will be ready by the annual meeting.

I will be contacting those churches that let me know at the mid-year meeting that they would be interested in the pilot group. If you are one of those churches I would appreciate a text or an email to help my memory. I hope to prepare those churches with exactly what they need to do by the annual meeting in October.

Thank you again for this opportunity. May the Lord bless you as you strive to reach others for Him.

PS: A note to Meramec churches: White Oak Grove was the intended destination for this year‘s annual meeting September 24, 2021 but they are not going to be able to host that meeting, so it will be at Bethel Baptist Church on that same date and will begin at 10 AM. We will send a letter to all the MLBA churches, but please help us spread the word.

Bro. Ben Kingston

July 2021 – Mission Director’s Report

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Dear churches of the state Association of Missouri,

Well, we are roughly three months removed from the semiannual meeting and missions symposium, and a third of the way through summer break. My, how life flies by!

Dawn, Molly, and I were with Ohlman Baptist Church last Wednesday, June 23, with Elaine Stricklin representing Mt. Olive Baptist Church that evening also. The meeting was well attended. I have known Ohlman’s pastor, Bro. Terry Sharpe, for many years and appreciate His love for the Lord’s church and His heart for missions.

I have an appointment set up for July 14th at 7 p.m. at Stoney Point Missionary Baptist Church in Potosi. Any and all churches are invited to attend this ‘Missions Rally.’ Being a full-time pastor and wearing many other hats as well, it is such a blessing if these opportunities can be availed to by more than one church at a time. I have a few more open dates left this summer if you would like to have me come and present our state missions effort. I would also invite you to look at next summer and get an appointment on the calendar.

I relish the opportunity to cover several churches next summer, hopefully rejoicing over what God is doing with our BMAMO benchmark assessment effort to raise the bar of missions awareness and missions effort in our churches.

I would also like to take this opportunity to remind our pastors to please reserve and protect the dates of March 25-26 for our Renewal Retreat at Camp Garwood that had to be cancelled because of COVID last year. More details as it gets closer.

The theme and speaker is Dr. Gavin Hooks on the The Core Principle.

May the Lord richly bless you is my prayer,

Bro. Ben Kingston, Director

June 2021 – Mission Director’s Report

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A Page From My Heart…

What an amazing May it has been for the Kingston family and the State Association!

The Kingston’s saw their youngest graduate High School and leave for an 11 week camp for the summer. We saw our oldest son be ordained to the ministry and then Dawn and I spent the last week on vacation because our February trip was upended due to my having covid! We ended our trip by swinging through Little Rock, AR to visit my 80 + year old mother! So to say it has been a busy month would be an understatement but it was a good month!

Bethel is firing up for VBS this week which Iam sure many of you are doing at your respective churches.

On a Director of Missions note, my cup is full from the Missions Symposium and the State Meeting that we had on May 14th and 15th at New Testament Baptist in Sullivan.

Special thanks to New Testament and Bro. Josh Wright and His family for the amazing way they carried out the host duties! The facilities were top notch and the food was excellent as well along with the tremendous hospitality. Their goal was to bless the association and I would say, “Goal Accomplished!

I was excited about the reception of the “bmamo benchmark assessment” that was presented and we had at least five churches mention that they would like to be pilot churches. The Hope and goal is to have all of our bmamo churches involved with the benchmark assessment.

If you as the pastor want more information or were not able to be with us and you would like to discuss this with me please contact me at your convenience.

I will be with Bro. Terry Sharpe soon and at Stoney point on July 14th. If you are close to these churches please try to attend so you can hear more about this exciting effort to raise the bar of missions awareness in our work. The date is not set with Bro. Sharpe yet, but I will get word to those churches in his area when it is.

Or if you would like to schedule a Wednesday evening with the missions director through the summer there are a few dates left.

On a closing note, please pray for Bro. Juan and the missions effort in which he and his family is involved. They saw a precious soul come to the Lord this week. So proud of them and the work the Lord is doing through them.
Also please pray for protection for our camps this summer and everything that involves. From protection from thieves, to protection of our campers, to the salvation of many souls.

May the Lord bless you is my prayer:
Ben Kingston,
Director of Missions
BMA of Missouri
636-629-2978 Work
636-629-2526 Cell

May 2021 – Mission Director’s Report

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Dear churches of the Baptist Missionary Association of Missouri:

I pray this article finds you enjoying the fellowship of our Lord. This will be shorter than normal because the lion’s share of what I would put in this article will be discussed in detail on May 14 at our Missions symposium at New Testament in Sullivan, MO.

I’ve had a burden for some time now of raising the awareness of our national, state and local missions efforts in our local churches and have a ‘benchmark assessment’ to unveil at the symposium that I believe, accompanied with a missions pamphlet, will help our churches achieve this needed step of being aware of what we are doing in the area of missions and what we still need to do.

What I will be asking at the meeting is for pilot churches to try this emphasis by taking the benchmark assessment twice a year and employing the pamphlet to increase the score on the assessment the next time it is given. I was pleasantly surprised at the response from Bethel when we rolled out the assessment and I am excited about the prospects of increasing awareness in our churches and ultimately increasing our missions effort within our work.

Personally, I have a low tolerance of someone “beating up” on the Lord’s Church so please be assured that is not the intention. This is an effort to accurately assess where we are and make improvements as needed.
This Association and our individual churches are very faithful to financially support our local, national, and global missions efforts and this missions director is so thankful. However, it is time we look at the other areas we can support and make improvements where necessary.

May the Lord bless you is my prayer,
Ben Kingston

Remember our Missionary:
Please continue to lift up Bro. Juan Fernandez’s family and ministry. Please read his article and support where you can.

On a local Association note:
Meramec churches, if you have not received an email with info for this year’s Jesus Camp please contact me at 636-629-2526. It is time to start promoting state camp and Jesus camp!

Note to All Pastors:
Please set aside March 25-26, 2022 for our next Renewal Retreat where Dr. Hooks will discuss his new book, “The Core Principle.” This book is an excellent candidate for a Bible study or Sunday school format.

April 2021 – Mission Director’s Report

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A Page From My Heart…

It’s April and Only one month and a few weeks away from our Missions Symposium on Friday May 14th and the Mid-Year State Associational Meeting on the 15th both at New Testament, Sullivan.

I am looking forward to both, please make plans to attend both meetings if possible.

Have you ever heard the phrase “one life to live soon it will pass only what’s done for Christ will last?”

Well, we as Christians need a steady dose of that eternal reality. Yes, there are many urgent things on this earth that require our attention and effort. Yes, there are many important things on this earth that require our attention. But there is only one thing on this earth that is both important and urgent and that is sharing the Gospel of Christ in our sphere of influence, and discipling those who come to Christ. This is the transcendent cause to which all of us have been called.

We must discipline ourselves to give our lives for this Holy and eternal calling.

All other pursuits will not pass the test of eternity when it comes to importance.

Our finances will be gone, our possessions gone, many of our relationships will be over, our reputations forgotten, once all the temporal is washed away with the reality of eternity we are back to the cliché, “One life to live soon it will pass only what’s done for Christ will last.”

Let’s surrender anew to the great commission and support every level of missions in our work, Local state and National.

Please pray for Bro. Juan and His family on the mission field.
These are his prayer requests and updates for this month:
• For Hannah’s and new baby’s health
• For new outreach, Sunday 2:00 p.m.
•For Salvation for each one of the students attending our ESL outreach: these are their names:

Omar, Cecilia, Janet, Maria, Antonio, Xiomara, David, Arturo, Jorge,
Judith, Alma, Dulce.

•For building meaningful relationships for eternity!
•For Salvation for each one of the relatives living here in St Louis and extended families south of Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador.

Today (4/5 – 5/15) at 12;00 will start another 40 days of prayer for “Men of Peace” discipleship study that starts Sunday (4:11) at 2:00 p.m.

Thank you again,
Harvest is plenteous!
May the Lord richly bless you is my prayer.
Bro. Ben

December 2020 – Mission Director’s Report

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A Page From My Heart…

Ben KingstonDear churches,
Most people know what someone means when they refer to a person as having a ‘Type A’ personality: self-driven, goal-oriented, strong leader, etc. While I would never refer to myself this way, I have heard a ton of people try to push me into this mold. So, let me say quickly that I see myself more as a person who wants to affect change and accomplish goals for the Lord’s kingdom. If that makes me an A-type personality, so be it! But, all this has been said to make a funny about the fact that my first two months as your director has been anything but earth-shaking and motivational!

We had an amazing start to it with a wonderful meeting with Juan Fernandez and both missions committees from the Missouri State and the Meramec associations. More to be said on this soon. Please pray for Juan and our Association as we prepare this project to present to the churches.
Then, November 9th I was quarantined until December 1st! The quarantine started with taking care of Dawn and Molly, and then Tony. As of this writing, God has spared me from contracting the virus, for which we are very thankful, since I am diabetic. Dawn, Molly, and Tony all had mild cases, for which we are also very grateful.

Thank you to all who prayed for me and my family. Bethel has been amazing in their support of their pastor during this time.

And lastly, you may have heard that my father-in-law Ken Burnett passed away November 22nd, so you can see it’s been a difficult month. As of this writing, we do not have his arrangements settled yet.

A word of honor and memorial: Suffice it to say, Ken is easily in the top three of the most influential men in my life. He had reached 90 years of age, and his death date was also his 68th wedding anniversary. He married Joan Hoff 68 years ago and it was clearly his best decision. God then blessed him with Debbie, Diane, Denise, and Dawn, who are definitely his greatest accomplishments. He loved, supported, and mentored His sons-in-law: Jerry Grodie (whom he is reunited with in heaven, and who was a faithful husband, father, and worker in Ken’s heating and plumbing business), Gavin Hooks (who has followed Ken’s footsteps as a faithful and successful husband, father, and business owner), and myself.

Ken was most proud of his daughters and their accomplishments. He was a faithful child of God, church member, deacon, treasurer, business owner, school board president, St. Clair citizen, and that’s just to name a few of his accomplishments. He was also very involved on all three levels of the BMA.
So, to come full circle, I am still studying our missions program and trying to prayerfully shape my approach on how to design, teach, and grow the missions effort in the BMAMO. Please pray with me in this effort.

Please Note:
Stacie sent out an e-mail to all our pastors, clerks, and/or missionary committeemen last week to ascertain the viability of holding a Missionary committee meeting via a conference call in December. So far, I have gotten all positive feedback but if you are the missionary committeeman of the church you attend and didn’t get this e-mail, please contact us and get us your information so you can be part of this conference call.

We will discuss the meeting that was held with Bro. Juan and the motions that the special missions committee made regarding our support of him as a missionary in the St. Louis region. (I was asked by Bro. Claude Evans, our missionary committee chairman, to set up the conference call, and then he will conduct the meeting when it is arranged.

Here are the best ways to communicate with me:
My Cell • (636) 629-2526
My E-mail • Bethelbaptistchurch@live.com
Bethel Church Office • (636) 629-2978

May the Lord bless you and His churches,
Bro. Ben

October 2020 – Mission Director’s Report

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A Page From My Heart…

This will be the new article tag from me from this point forward while I am your missions director.

Saturday October 10th at Zion Baptist Church in St. Louis at our annual Baptist Missionary annual meeting of the State Association the churches approved the recommendations of the Special Missions Committee to hire me as their Missions Director. And believe it or not, the vote passed.

I have had a burden for this ministry since hearing that Bro. Hoffmann was going to resign.

I Do not, in any level, feel qualified but I do feel called and yes, I am depending on the age old cliché that God qualifies the called!

I have a burden for our missions effort throughout the state and have a tremendous desire to see our churches once again answer the call to plant churches.

We have set aside the next three months for training and will be getting to you the address for where to send your missions offerings. (It is on Page 1 of this issue.) But my first challenge is for each church to make a special effort to lift up the Director and Direction of Departments of our state work, and to specifically ask God to direct us to who our first mother church and church planter will be.

Our nation could be forever changed by a church planting revival and we could be one of God’s tools to accomplish this.

May the Lord richly bless and direct us in this effort.
Bro. Ben…

From Our Former Missions Director…

I hope you are as excited as I am as you read the above note from Bro. Ben! I look forward to seeing what God will do as we refocus on His commission for us in the world today. God has been working even though we have had some discouraging things happen during this year, and I want to emphasize the blessing that the Special Missions Committee has been to me even though we could not meet and get “our plans” put into action at the time and in the manner we wanted. God has been using this group of men to encourage me as we sought God’s will in our recommendations not only in this past year but the entire time I have served as Missions Director. Thank you brethren for your patience, love, devotion and dedication as we have served together. Bro James Hoffman

From God’s Word & My Heart

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by Pastor Ben Kingston • Bethel Baptist Church • Lonedell, MO

“Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: but much increase is by the strength of the ox.” Proverbs 14:4

If you’re reading along on these articles, hopefully you dealt with “bitterness” in January and achieved an attitude of “forgiveness” in February.

Now, I’d like to add some practical advice in life and church life in particular. I hope you will allow me some latitude here, and know that there is no better, nor more dedicated cheerleader of Brad Banderman than myself.

With that said, I have publicly stated many times that 20 years ago when Brad started out, his personality and antics, shall we say, rubbed a few people the wrong way – in particular a few of my pastoral friends. More than once they would say to me “Boy, I am glad you have him.” They would chuckle, of course, and I knew they were not complimenting me or Brad.
But here was the truth: as “obnoxious” as Brad could be, he was an amazing Youth Director. So, after a few years of listening to that and the annoying chuckle that followed, I chose to respond to one of them and I said “I am glad also, because if you had him you would have ruined Him.” Needless to say, that ended the conversation. To that gentleman’s credit, after working closely with Brad a few years later in an associational ministry, he told me, “Ben, I was wrong about Brad; that guy is something and the Lord has blessed you with a real treasure.”

In speaking with my former Pastor, John Smith, he revealed that he had been told the same thing about me years ago. I guess the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree!

Now, what is the point of all this? Look at the verse again: No ox = clean crib; ox = no clean crib. But, did you catch it? There is much strength by the ox…… wait for it….. To get the strength of the ox you must put up with, and yes, shovel some manure.

There it is! One of the most amazing spiritual truths I have ever realized and put to work in the ministry!

It doesn’t matter who they are, if they are a human (ox) they are a sinner and have nuances and hang ups and quirks that will drive you batty on occasion. They also have a spiritual gift: the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, a God-given personality, and a God-given burden for their church and ministry. If we will disciple them, lead them, guide them, and get out of their way, they will grow a great work for and through God.

So, the next time you think, “I am going to ring that monkey’s neck,” remember the verse. Gotta shovel some poop to get the hard work that only the ox can do. May your fields be fruitful and your cribs…well, you get the idea.