Missional Opportunities Guide

Since our beginning, CBFNC has taken seriously the call as Christ followers to go and serve. We embrace our neighbors, near and far, by resourcing local church mission engagement and supporting missional catalysts. This guide provides CBFNC endorsed opportunities for you and your congregation to engage with mission work happening in our state, our nation and our world. This resource is provided by the CBFNC Missions Engagement Team and we will continuously update the guide.

Download the Missional Opportunities Guide here.

 

Disaster Relief

As North Carolinians we are no strangers to hurricanes and other natural disasters but the aftermath never gets easier to navigate. CBFNC is here to support your congregation and community should disaster strike. The Disaster Relief Grant is for CBFNC churches that seek to reach out to their community during a time of immediate crisis. We can also help you secure Disaster Response Cleanup Buckets or coordinate a bucket build in your community. Contact Lydia Tatum, ltatum@cbfnc.org, for information as needed.

CBF Field Personnel with NC Roots

Anna & LaCount Anderson    |    Together For Hope – Eastern NC Poverty Network

Anna and LaCount are involved with a community in eastern North Carolina, Conetoe, in helping to provide resources. Conetoe is commonly called a “food desert” and they work with Rev. Richard Joyner and the Conetoe Family Life Center, which seeks to improve the health of the youth and community by increasing access to healthy foods, increasing physical activities and providing access to health services. The goal is to break the cycle of poverty by improving the resources available to families, specifically children.”

 

Bev & Woody Baker    |    Global Service Corps – Ahoskie, North Carolina

Bev and Woody work through Global Service Corp with the Roanoke Chowan Christian Women’s Job Corp (RCCWJC) empowering women in need by providing resources to help them move from dependency to self-sufficiency. RCCWJC works in conjunction with Together For Hope, a rural development coalition fighting persistent poverty in the US.

 

Maha & Chaouki Boulos    |    Beirut, Living Faith Ministry

Chaouki and Maha minister to the people of the Middle East. An evangelistic weekend celebration is held in the spring and an open-air, seven-day event called “Celebrate Jesus” is held every summer. Mission teams can help with the following: camps for orphan kids, refugee kids, and sports camps; Celebration events; women’s ministry Bible studies; and humanitarian ministries among the most neglected people. Food packages and other help for the millions of Syrian refugees are greatly needed.  They also work with refugee assistance in the distribution of more than 500 food packages to refugee families every 5-6 weeks, assisting medical & dental teams who provide free medical & dental work to all needy persons.

 

Laura & Carson Foushee    |    Japan

For their first three years , Carson & Laura served alongside Japan Baptist Convention churches in Kanazawa and Toyama by leading English ministries in both congregations. Carson and Laura helped to bear witness to Jesus Christ in regular preaching through translation in both congregations, as well as by leading English Bible studies for adults at various levels of English abilities.  Carson and Laura also cultivated beloved community through activities like weekly English classes for kindergarten mothers and English summer camps for families. They welcomed Japanese and internationals interested in Christianity and English to join in worship and fellowship at Kanazawa International Baptist Church, the English ministry of Kanazawa Baptist. Their work helped to connect the Japanese congregations with both Christians and non-Christians in their areas.  Recently, Carson & Laura have been in language school as long-term field personnel.

 

Michelle & Matt Norman    |    Barcelona

Matt and Michelle, are partnering with the Union of Evangelical Baptists of Spain working with immigrants and refugees from North and West Africa, Central  Asia and Latin America. Mission teams can participate in the Mission Learning Lab, Pivot, a spiritual formation process that helps a church discover and engage with the most neglected in their own community. The Normans are looking for churches willing to covenant long-term in friendship and ministry.

 

Stella Perrin    |    Cyprus

Stella Lail Perrin seeks to be the presence of Christ and cultivate beloved community as she serves the vulnerable who have been displaced from their homelands due to war and natural disasters as a mental health educator through All4Aid. Cyprus, although small in size, has the largest per capita population of asylum seekers in Europe. Her presence allows for those traumatized by their displacement and the horrors that caused them to seek refuge in Cyprus to know the healing love of Christ.

 

Mina & Gennady Podgaisky    |    Kyiv, Ukraine

Gennady and Mina facilitate the ministries of the Village of Hope, a ministry center that assists foster families and families in transition. They also lead Bible studies, provide counseling, organize and lead family seminars/couples retreats, partner with a refugee center and provide training on the Life-Skills Manual for Youth.  Gennady and Mina helped to establish the Village of Hope in 2003 when seven buildings in different stages of deterioration, located on a 16-plus acre former communist pioneer youth camp in the town of Bucha, Ukraine were purchased.  The Village of Hope currently hosts three Ukrainian foster families with a total of 25 children as well as one refugee family forced to flee the war zone that exists between Russia and Ukraine. The Village of Hope also offers year-round camp facilities for local churches, Christian camp organizations and other groups to rent.

 

Delores Stimpson    |    Global Service Corps – Research Triangle of NC

Appointed as the first Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Global Service Corp post-career field personnel, Delores joins the Welcome House ministry of CBF field personnel Kim and Marc Wyatt. What started as one apartment has grown into a network of churches providing hospitality and housing ministries across North Carolina and beyond. Delores encourages and supports the ministry of local churches in the Durham, Chapel Hill and Hillsborough area of the Research Triangle.

 

Kim & Marc Wyatt    |    Research Triangle of NC

Kim and Marc partner with CBFNC churches and individuals connecting resources and mobilizing churches to welcome and love their international  neighbors.  In October 2015, they established Welcome House Raleigh shaped after their previous ministries to refugees in Canada.  Seven Welcome Houses have been established across NC and two apartments for ESL and other ministries.   Welcome House is a temporary reception home for refugees who are resettled in the area that do not have a place to live upon arrival or a longer term residence for refugees gaining education or job skills.  Welcome House provides a safe home, settlement assistance and bridges into the community.  The main goal at Welcome House is to share the love of God in Christ Jesus through the ministries of hospitality and friendship.  Volunteers and local partners furnish the home, provide appropriate groceries and help their new friends discover their new American neighborhood.

 

For further information, visit www.cbf.net.

Offering for Global Missions

“Because of the Offering for CBF Global Missions, field personnel and other expressions of CBF Global Missions, you and I are being the presence of Christ and sharing the love of God in significant and profound ways. The CBF Global Missions enterprise is financed, to a very large degree, through the Offering for Global Missions (OGM). This offering is received all year long, but many churches focus their efforts to promote the offering during the weeks leading up to Christmas and Easter. I’m embarrassed to admit that until recently, I didn’t realize how critical this offering is to our global mission efforts. I was under the false impression that basic global missions needs were provided by regular contributions to the CBF budget, and that the OGM was a bonus for special projects. Basically, I thought that when it came to CBF Global Missions, the regular CBF budget was the “meat and potatoes” and the OGM was “dessert.” I have since learned that nothing could be further from the truth. The funds raised through the OGM are absolutely essential for the basic, ongoing operations of CBF Global Missions, including support for field personnel. Approximately one-half of the CBF Global Missions budget is provided through the OGM. Without the OGM, there would be no CBF Global Missions. I am proud of the contribution CBF Global Missions is making to the larger efforts of the Kingdom of God. Our Global Missions field personnel are doing faithful, effective work, sharing Christ’s love around the globe, often in challenging circumstances and with limited resources. I pray that our contributions in support of their efforts will be up to the challenge as well.”

—Larry Hovis, Coordinator, CBFNC

 

CBFNC supports and participates in missions outside our state, including the missions efforts of the larger CBF movement for Global Missions.  CBF Global Missions mobilizes field personnel to share the love and compassion of Jesus Christ in over 25 countries and regions around the world. Responding to God’s call and empowered by the Holy Spirit, field personnel cultivate beloved community, bear witness to Jesus Christ and seek transformational development among people who have been forgotten and forsaken by others. Our field personnel serve alongside congregations and local ministry partners within three primary contexts: global poverty, global migration and the global church.

The Offering for Global Missions secures the long-term presence of all CBF field personnel, while field personnel raise support from friends, family and other partners to fund their mission programming. 100 percent of your church’s gifts goes to missions funding and keeps CBF missionaries serving on the field sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Don’t forget to supplement your planning by visiting the Offering for Global Missions website. Here, you can click on the box for logos and promotional materials to find great ideas, or contribute a few of your own.

 

Encourager Church Program

Encourager churches are an important part of the work of CBF field personnel around the world. This relationship invites churches into a unique role with CBF field personnel, their ministry work and unites churches with CBF’s global mission work in three contexts: global poverty, global migration and the global church.

Your congregation can become an Encourager Church! Get to know all CBF field personnel. Perhaps their ministry is similar to that of your church. Perhaps your congregation is filled with retired teachers or nurses who would love to establish a relationship with field personnel doing the same work around the globe. Once your congregation feels called to specific field personnel you can formalize the relationship.

There is flexibility in this program so your churches can shape the details of the partnership to best fit your needs and the needs of the field personnel with whom your partner. CBF suggests that Encourager Churches include four encouragement areas: prayer support, program support, short-term engagement, and financial support. It may also be helpful to formalize the roles and responsibilities of your church and the field personnel in a covenant.

View the Encourager Church brochure.

If you have questions about how to become an Encourager Church contact Ellen Sechrest (esechrest@cbf.net).

Embrace CBF North Carolina

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RACIAL EQUITY & JUSTICE
RED LATINA CBFNC
WELCOME NETWORK
NC & GLOBAL MISSIONS