By Message Staff
ALEXANDRIA – It is a milestone worthy of celebrating.
Louisiana Baptists will gather at the Louisiana Baptists building ready to celebrate the planting of the 200th church since 2010 July 12. By reaching this mark, it means Louisiana Baptists are two-thirds of the way toward reaching their goal of planting 300 churches by 2020.
“When we started this journey, it seemed to be such a formidable task,” said John Hebert, director of the Missions and Ministry Team for Louisiana Baptists. “But through much prayer, hard work, a really good plan and God’s blessing we are not only going to meet our goal but possibly could surpass it.
“We are over joyed and grateful to God for helping us to plant this many churches (200) in just seven years’ time,” Hebert continued. “This is huge … really, really huge.”
The goal was part of the President’s 2020 Commission report, affirmed by messengers during the 2013 LBC Annual Meeting in Alexandria. The report included 10 actions steps of which one was to plant 300 churches by the year 2020.
“Church Planting Director James Jenkins is a wonderful partner in ministry, he is to be commended for his untiring work on helping us to reach this milestone so soon,” said Hebert. “He is just one of those rare individuals who has such a passion to plant churches and reach the lost.
“I also must thank Executive Director David Hankins for his support and enthusiasm,” said Hebert. “He has been with us from the start and it is because of him we have made such big strides as a convention in assisting our church planters.
“Finally, I must thank our many partners, especially our Director of Missions, whose Kingdom vision has been such a huge help. Early on they recognize these church plants are an expansion of our Lord’s work and have worked tirelessly.”
Louisiana Baptists church planting strategist Lane Corley echoed Hebert’s thoughts “With 200 churches planted it looks like this goal is very achievable and we are so grateful for the many, many great partners that have come together to help us plant these 200 churches,” he said. “What this means for Louisiana is more people will have access to the Gospel and opportunities to hear the Gospel through outreach of new churches.
“Since 2010 we also have celebrated having more than 11,000 new commitments to Christ through our new churches,” he continued. “And significantly this year our 200th church plant will be in the city of Baton Rouge where our state convention’s annual meeting will be in November. So we are looking forward to seeing this church planted and continuing to help the association in Baton Rouge reach its goal of planting 70 churches by 2020.”
Checkerz Williams will be among the church planters honored during a special reception 9:30 a.m. July 12 at the Baptist Building in Alexandria. Williams, who along with his wife, Nicole, are launching Renew Church in Baton Rouge, the 200th church planted. Williams comes from Celebration Church’s River Parishes campus in LaPlace.
“Renew Church is a multi-ethnic multi-generational Church that we believe will impact thousands with the Life transforming message of Jesus in the Greater Baton Rouge area and around the world,” Williams said. “Being the 200th church plant adds a while new element of excitement and a feeling of responsibility to this new work. We are truly humbled to be able to serve the Lord in this capacity.”
Multi-ethnic churches such as Renew Church are an area that reflects the emphasis Louisiana Baptists are placing on where new churches are planted.
The strategy is to plant churches where most Louisianans live, so there is an emphasis along the I-10 corridor and southward where 3-4 million Louisianans reside. So far, 150 of the new church plants are located in southern portion of Louisiana.
Of the 200 churches planted, 110 are non-Anglo including 57 which are African-American, 27 Hispanic, nine Asian and 17 that are a mix of multi-ethnic, Arabic, Ahmeric and French.
