Editor’s note: South Carolina Baptist pastor Hans Wunch was featured in a nationally distributed Baptist Press story highlighting young pastors who encourage their congregations toward stronger support of the Cooperative Program.
“We are not a wealthy church, and it would be nice to have more money, but the Lord provides,” said Hans Wunch, 36. “God gives more money to those who use it for his glory and purpose.
Hans Wunch“The more we give, the more that goes to the International Mission Board,” Wunch, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Ware Shoals, said in reference to Southern Baptists’ global outreach. “The more that goes to the IMB, the more that gets into the hands of the people who are telling the nations about their Savior, whom most have never met. God has not yet called me to international missions, but I can support those who have been called – with my prayers and with my money.”
Started in 1951, Calvary reaches out globally through hands-on mission trips and through committing 21 percent of its offerings to reaching people through the Cooperative Program. Another 3 percent is forwarded to Lakelands Baptist Association.
Locally, the church reaches out through community ministry and major events, such as the mid-December Christmas Living Nativity, replete with music and drama, and “released time” instructors provided so public school students can learn about the Bible in off-campus classes.
Wunch has a talent for making high-quality writing instruments, a skill learned from his grandfather. He uses the proceeds to help fund church missions projects, such as an upcoming trip of about 10 Calvary members to minister during the Iditarod dog sled race in Alaska in early March. The exquisite fountain and roller ball pens are made from rare woods or other materials, such as cut-up credit cards and can be seen online at www.pensbyhans.com.
“Our team is really excited about the trip, knowing that we will meet people from all over the world, knowing that God will use us to make an eternal impact,” Wunch said. “We’re praying that this adult mission trip will turn into an annual trip because of the impact he makes on us.”
Calvary also has “Mission Emphasis Sundays” and, in the last two years, has restarted Girls in Action and Royal Ambassadors missions education programs to build on its longstanding Mission Friends program for younger children. As part of its local ministry presence, the church recently began prayerwalking its community, starting with Ware Shoals public schools. “We are working on seeing what needs those around us have, and, as the Lord leads, meet those needs,” Wunch said.
Vacation Bible School and backyard Bible clubs are summertime staples. The church’s 23-acre location on a main highway just outside of town limits helps draw participation in Calvary’s annual outdoor productions at Christmas, Easter, the Fourth of July and “Fall Harvest.” Ministry to men also is a major linchpin, with two men recently licensed to the gospel ministry.
“I believe God has us here for a reason and is preparing us for something,” Wunch said. “What that is, exactly, I don’t know, but we continue to grow as his disciples while we wait.”
The church’s greatest challenges revolve around training leaders in this generation and in the next, the pastor said.
“Our church’s needs are much like other churches,” Wunch said. “We need most of our congregation to be more committed to the cause of Christ. We need them to see outside the walls better.
“I think the Cooperative Program is the best vehicle ever devised to get ministry money to areas where it is desperately needed,” the pastor continued. “It is an incredible tool, but it seems to have lost some of its focus and momentum.”
His college and seminary education were partially underwritten by the Cooperative Program, and the churches where he has served received training and Christian growth events and missionary speakers thanks in part to local church’s participation through CP.
Wunch is aware of the growing needs around the world from reading articles in South Carolina’s Baptist Courier state newspaper, the SBC’s online Baptist Press news service and from the International and North American mission boards.
He is one of more than 40,000 pastors in the Southern Baptist Convention with similar knowledge of the benefit, need and command to spread the gospel globally, and yet, he noted, “Estimates are that between 95 and 98 percent of all evangelical money is used in the United States, while we only comprise about 5 percent of the world’s population.
“To put it another way,” Wunch continued, “we consume 95 percent of all that is given in churches to reach only 5 percent of the world’s population. Why? So our churches can be pretty while a lost and dying world is going to an eternity without God.”
One of his goals is to continue to rail against that inequity, Wunch said. He’s seeing progress in South Carolina, he said.
“Two years ago, our state convention started the process” of increasing the percentage of CP giving that left South Carolina, Wunch said. “And I believe that small step of faith is the reason why ours was one of just a few conventions who made budget last year.”
– Karen L. Willoughby is managing editor of the Baptist Messenger, newsjournal for the Louisiana Baptist Convention.