Colorado Baptists - They Had Been with Jesus!
When they observed the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed and knew that they had been with Jesus. Acts 4: 13
One of my favorite passages in the Bible is the fourth chapter of Acts. As the newly birthed, Spirit-filled church was beginning to get traction, we see a scene with Peter and John boldly preaching the Gospel and healing in the name of Jesus. The established religious institution (the captain of the Temple and the Sadducees) don’t like this and have Peter and John arrested. In their trial, again filled with the Spirit (this will be a theme in this article), Peter and John pull no punches – “for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” From this bold response, the religious leaders can say nothing but, “they have been with Jesus.”
This is my prayer for me personally and all Colorado Baptists. When people encounter us, they walk away and think to themselves, “Wow, they must have been with Jesus.”
There is a lot of swirl and uncertainty in the Southern Baptist Convention right now. The Great Commission Resurgence (GCR) Task Force Report has been adopted but we don’t know its impact on our state. Will the addition of Great Commission Giving as a matrix for a church’s cooperation erode the Cooperative Program? Who will be the next North American Mission Board president? How will he and the trustees of the NAMB Board interpret and apply the components of the Task Force Report?
However through all this, I have “no worries.” In fact the opposite is true. I’m excited about our future! There are several very significant happenings taking place in our state that I believe, once again, empowered by the Spirit, will move the work and ministry of our convention of churches forward to truly saturate Colorado with the Gospel. This will happen no matter the impact of the national SBC changes.
One significant happening taking place is the work of our own special Mission/Strategy/Structure Task Force. This special task force was formed about two years ago with the assignment to determine what is truly the mission of the group of cooperating churches we call Colorado Baptists? And, how do we accomplish this mission? This group was formed before the GCR Task Force was even conceived. Although, at the writing of this article I am not free to share the details, let me say that significant changes in the way Colorado Baptists do ministry is in the offing. The recommendations of the Task Force will be announced at our October Annual Meeting. After being formally announced, we will take the next nine months to have meetings in each association to process and tweak the report with implementation to begin in 2012. I believe, yet again empowered by the Holy Spirit, the changes will significantly enhance our work and Kingdom impact.
The other significant happening in our state over the last year is the addition of three Colorado Baptist church planting missionaries. They will initially impact our Front Range but their ministries will spill over to Western Colorado as well. The first missionaries are Wynn and Sung Chu Greene. Wynn is a specialist in Multi-housing ministry. With a significant population of our state living in multi-housing units (many that have controlled access) this population represents a key unreached people group that must be saturated. Wynn has already helped engage more than a dozen multi-housing communities.
Then joining us about a year ago are Joe and Cheri Beckler. Joe’s assignment is urban church planting with a particular focus on Denver. Joe is originally from urban Atlanta but most recently has planted a church in Durango called Matthew’s House. This is a church that targeted, among others, the transient, bohemian, younger population of the city. Joe’s ministry has already made a significant impact on the multi-cultural milieu of people that live in urban Denver.
And finally beginning last month Jim and Paula Misloski have joined our team of church planters as our State Director of Missions for Eastern Colorado. Jim originally comes out of the secular business world where he was a successful advertizing agent. Saved later in life, Jim now has a unique skill set that lends itself perfectly to entrepreneurial church planting. Most recently here in Colorado Jim started the Loveland Community Church and formed a network of church planters in northern Colorado. Along with veteran Steve Hoekstra who is our State Director of Missions for Western Colorado and our 11 Area Missionaries (DOMs) Colorado Baptists’ church planting team is perhaps the best in the nation!
With all that said, the bottom line is no matter the landscape of the national SBC, Colorado is poised to truly begin to be part of the total saturation of the state with the Gospel. I’m excited. Repeatedly throughout this article I’ve stressed “empowered by the spirit.” I believe we are tweaking the way we do ministry and God has called together a team of missionaries in such a way that we are on the cusp of a true spiritual awakening in Colorado. The key is the Spirit. Only through encountering the Spirit will people in our state be able to walk away and say – “Wow, they have been with Jesus.”
Mark Edlund, Executive Director
Colorado Baptists
