CLARION, Pa., (BRN) – The Stay at Home Mission trip was a week-long event in the Clarion, Pennsylvania, area. It was also a partnership between First Baptist Church of Clarion (FBCC) and Shady Grove Baptist Church (SGBC) from Belton, South Carolina. It had multiple components and goals targeted throughout the week. One was a Vision Trip with the pastor of SGBC to the “unreached” areas north of Interstate 80.
Pastor David Cox (SGBC), Buff McNickle (BRN), Pastor Jason Hunter (FBCC), Mack West (Elder FBCC) and Dave Kiehl (FBCC) traveled from Clarion, up Route 66 North, all the way to Jamestown, New York. We stopped in places like Cook Forest State Park, Kane, Bradford, etc. and prayed and considered future ministry opportunities and partnerships we could pursue in these small rural contexts.
In Jamestown, we met with Mike Flannery from the Frontier Baptist Association of New York and visited a church building that they are hoping to start a plant in. We returned to Clarion through Waren, Pennsylvania, Tionesta, Pennsylvania, and other small towns.
The goal was for Pastor Cox to see the need for more work in this area and that we could foster a multi-year partnership. He discussed the need to strengthen existing evangelical churches in this area and discover new ministry opportunities. The 10 counties we traveled through have a population of about 500,000 and less than 10 BRN (SBC) churches. Pastor Cox was very receptive to this vision.
While the Pastors were on the Vision Trip, a group of volunteers from both churches received training in how to “exegete” the community from Greg Drayer, BRN church health consultant. He then led them out into the downtown area of Clarion to survey the area.
The training was successful and the volunteers felt they learned a great deal. The results were fair – there were not as many people out because of the extreme heat we were experiencing that week. However, many of the volunteers did feel like they had significant conversations with people on the street. The most important result was that it was recognized that FBCC has a significant amount of foot traffic in front of it on a daily basis, and so we are challenged to figure out how to utilize this fact.
We had a specific time for training all the volunteers that were going to be helping that week. We demonstrated how to give a 30 second testimony and how to present the “3 Circles” gospel method. The group paired up and practiced with each other.
Some said, “that was the first time I ever shared that with anyone.”
We then had a time of worship and prayer together that set the tone for the rest of the week.
On Wednesday, the concentrated outreach began. We took volunteers, around lunch time, to a large trailer park in the area along with the TellGrill (tailgate grill) and passed out hot dogs from house to house. We talked with people, prayed with some, and invited them to an event that evening in a local park called JAM (Jesus and Me).
We did this again on Thursday in another trailer court. We had hoped to visit more developments but the extreme heat was problematic for the volunteers, so we had to scale back our goals. However, lots of conversations were had, some good contacts were made, we learned better strategies for future endeavors and the ice was broken between the church and these communities.
Also on Wednesday and Thursday, we had JAM in the Park from 6 – 8 p.m. We welcomed kids with a drawstring backpack that said, “Jesus Loves Me,” and had a time of worship led by the teens of the church.
The kids then rotated through a series of stations where they were introduced to some Christian basics. They were introduced to the Bible, prayer, stories of Jesus and the gospel. They also had time to play in the playground and bounce house.
At the Bible station, they were given a Bible (special age appropriate Bibles for the littlest kids were denoted by SGBC) and taught how to find and read certain passages. The prayer station gave them a Prayer Bear (a 3-inch stuffed animal with an encouraging slogan about prayer on its chest). Then they were instructed in a simple J.O.Y. prayer method, and then were prayed with.
The gospel was taught to the children during the craft station. The crafts were gospel centric and as the kids made them they learned about – creation, fall, rescue, and restoration.
The final station was the video station where kids were shown a show from the RightNow Media library that focused on a story of Jesus. The kids were all given a card with a QR code on it so that they could have their own RNM account.
One story to share is that one little boy who attended on Wednesday had a doctor’s appointment on Thursday morning. He was nervous and a little frightened. Before he went in for the visit, he told his mom that he needed to call Jesus. He proceeded to pick up his “Prayer Bear,” which he called his “Jesus Phone,” and he prayed for strength and courage for the appointment.
The finale of the week was a huge block party at FBCC, Family JAM. We also wanted to introduce people to the Church. We had five large inflatables, cotton candy, snow cones, popcorn, hot dogs, games and candy all free.
People were invited throughout the week to attend. Not only did our volunteers man all the attractions, many roamed around specifically to engage and converse with parents while their children were entertained.
While all this was going on, SGBC had a team installing showers in two restrooms at FBCC. They provided the materials and labor for us. This was so that we could accomplish the future vision of hosting more mission teams as well as other opportunities to use our church building for new ministry opportunities.
We feel like the whole endeavor was successful. We built a very good partnership with SGBC and look forward to future ministry in Northwestern Pennsylvania in the future.
Many of our people received evangelism training, and several had their first gospel conversations with outsiders in their lives. We started forming relationships with several communities that we hope to reach into. We loved our neighbors well and both churches were encouraged and invigorated to be on mission.
We want to Thank the Baptist Resource Network (BRN) for their support across the board with this. You really made this possible and we hope that you are able to see what God is doing through our partnership.
Have an outreach event you would like to host, but could use a little help when it comes to the cost? Apply for a BRN Evangelism Grant today by visiting brnunited.org/grant!
