BCNE News
The latest news from our network of New England churches. Looking for our New England Perspectives Articles? Click here.
Family of nine uproot, make a new ministry home 1,000 miles north
STOWE, Vt. (BP) – Gerald Hunt was a Georgia kid with an interest in Vermont, a land way above the Mason-Dixon line where hockey is more popular than college football and bread stuffing replaces cornbread dressing on holiday dinner tables.
Praying for the most strategic mission field
This fall students will attend college on the campuses of New England: students from the region, the Northeast, every state in the country, nearly every protectorate of the country, and nations spanning the globe. As students live, study, recreate, and make friendships on a localized campus community, they crystalize the worldview, habits, and relationships that will propel them for life. On campuses all across our New England region, nearly one million students will be making decisions that will guide their lives — and eternities — in real time.
Three keys to keeping long-term mission partners
There’s no doubt about it, energetic volunteer mission teams are one of the best resources to give a boost to your church’s ministry. Every year scores of churches, mostly from the South, send teams to New England. Unfortunately, some of these do just one project and never return, while others come back year after year and accomplish an enormous amount of good. What is the difference?
BCNE, Georgia Baptists kick off partnership with initial mission trip
As part of a newly launched partnership, fourteen pastors and leaders from Northeast Georgia traveled to New England to meet with pastors and see the region first-hand. Many of these men expressed shock at seeing the difference in New Englanders’ religious perspectives and the relative isolation of New England pastors compared to ministry in the Southern culture.
Fruitful ministry hides in plain sight
It’s like searching everywhere for your glasses while wearing them on your head, or looking for your cell phone while holding it in your hand: sometimes we overlook fruitful places of ministry located right in front of us. You could say they are hidden in plain sight.
Come over to Europe and help us
The Bible records how the Gospel was first preached in Europe. While on his second missionary journey, Paul had a vision of a man from Macedonia (modern Northern Greece), who called out to him, “Come over and help us!” And Luke the physician, wrote, “. . .we immediately looked for a way to go to Macedonia, because we were convinced that God had called us to tell the people there the good news.” (Acts 16:10)
How moving changed my perspective on being “called” to ministry
Before moving to Rhode Island two years ago, I lived most of my life in Florida. Jacksonville is my “hometown,” although I was born in Georgia. It was in Jacksonville that I surrendered my life to Christ and accepted His call to ministry.
Armed with a two-year Bible degree back in 1998, I set off to fulfill my calling. I spent the next 20 years serving in various roles of ministry. It seemed as though the vocational ministry possibilities were abundant while living in Jacksonville. Many of my friends served in part-time or full-time ministry roles. In fact, I was probably in a subculture of Christianity called the “ministry bubble” without even realizing it.
Youth must be on mission, too
We had just finished roasting marshmallows over the charcoal grill—the coals still hot from the amazing Brazilian BBQ we had eaten. We were all outside, sitting spaced out in a circle, trying our best to do youth group in the “new normal.” But this week I had a challenge for the teens. I announced that we would be helping to launch a brand new youth group on the South Shore of Boston.
Seven fast facts about New England for volunteer mission teams
According to the 2017 Gallup Poll, New England is the least religious region in America. In fact, Gallup found that the four least religious states in American are all located in New England: Vermont is the least religious, then Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. According to the Barna Group, the five most post-Christian cities in America are all located in New England: Springfield, Massachusetts; Portland, Maine; Providence, Rhode Island; Burlington, Vermont; and Boston, Massachusetts. There is no place in America in greater spiritual need than New England. That is why mission teams like yours are so important! Thank you for being mission partners with us in New England!
Why the International Mission Board?
Editor’s Note: BCNE churches that give to the Cooperative Program and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering support more than 3600 missionaries around the world. Two of those missionaries are Matt and Shelby Meyer, members of Rivertown Church in Brattleboro, VT, who have been serving in Poland and were recently appointed as career missionaries.
In my time preparing to go overseas as a missionary and during the past three years of living in Poland many people have asked me, “Why did you choose to serve with the International Mission Board?” My first response is to say that this is the path the Lord led us to, and we want to be obedient to the Father. However, when we dig deeper there are many reasons to serve with or support the IMB if you are looking to reach the nations.
Give and it shall be given
I recently dropped my husband and 15-year-old daughter at the airport. They were off to Guatemala for a week on mission in our church’s adopted village of Zacapa. It was an emotional morning, and as I sat and reflected on what God has done in the past four years, tears welled up in my eyes.
Welcoming international students into our lives — and our church
It wasn’t all that different than every other year. My plate overflowed with turkey, gravy, and stuffing, followed by pumpkin pie—and more pumpkin pie. In many ways my twenty-six previous Thanksgivings all blend together into a blur of food, family and football. But this year was different. My twenty-seventh Thanksgiving aligned with another group’s first Thanksgiving, creating a moment that was so much bigger than food or football. It was truly a unique family moment, even though I was not related to a single person in the room.
Who’s influencing you? (Or five reasons to read a missionary biography this year)
Have you recently put together a creative charcuterie board? Traveled to an unusual vacation spot? Have you donned a casual hat, some new hipster eyeglasses or matching family pajamas? Begun a new health or beauty routine? If so, it may be due to the influencer who shows up in your social media feeds on a daily basis. I opened a new set of resistance bands for Christmas, because, hey, if they work for Tom Brady and Kira Stokes, maybe they’ll work for me, too.
What the Northeast needs from missionaries
There is a constant call within the northeastern part of the United States for laborers to move to the area and join the battle to see the region re-awakened to the power of the Gospel. Church planting ministries regularly recruit and promote vision tours in an attempt to get more missionaries to the shores of the proverbial Babylon that is the New England states, plus New York and perhaps New Jersey.