The Best Practices Institute, an intensive evangelism and discipleship workshop, was held Sept. 27-29 at Pendleton Street Baptist Church in Greenville. The workshop was led by International Mission Board personnel working in South Asia who also taught proven strategies for starting new churches to South Carolina Baptist missions leaders.
At the Best Practices Institute, Andrew Limbaugh (right), of First Baptist Church, Mauldin, practices discipleship methods with Larry Rice of Six Mile Baptist Church.“We now live in the midst of a mission field,” said Wayne Terry, South Carolina Baptist Convention multiplication team associate executive director. “When we look at our communities and neighborhoods as mission fields, methods like these give us a way to engage our neighbors to talk about Christ.”
In South Asia, IMB workers cultivate relationships with one or two people at a time. They might share the gospel through chronological Bible storytelling, simple evangelistic pictures, or personal testimony. Small discipleship groups are formed and meet regularly to study scripture and teach about prayer. The goal is to equip new believers with simple, reproducible methods to share their new faith with their own people, in order to begin more discipleship groups and new churches.
“The beauty of the methods shared at this workshop is that they are simple and easy to reproduce. Anyone who follows Jesus can do this,” said Joel Thrasher, missions strategy team leader for Greenville Baptist Association.
“All of these methods were modeled by Christ, and we should think strategically in order to multiply believers,” an IMB leader said, adding that the same basic principles that are effective in South Asia can also work in South Carolina. “You have to think outside the box to reach the masses of people coming into the state and the internationals who are already here.”
Grant Faulkner and Tyler Macchio are members of Midtown Fellowship in Columbia. They attended the workshop because Midtown is focused on international missions and ministry to international students. “This has given us some tools to continue to help people grow in their faith” Macchio said.
The workshop focused on practical state missions applications and included time to formulate specific ministry plans. After two days of training, the participants practiced what they learned by prayerwalking and engaging people in conversation in eight different areas of the city, including historic and shopping areas downtown, a homeless shelter, apartment complexes, ethnic shops and restaurants.
“It was great to see the techniques that others in my group had learned and watch how they approached people. The experience helped me to develop my ministry plan even more, and showed me how to be specific in where I am in ministry,” said Abi Elrod, a North American Mission Board-appointed US/C2 missionary serving in the Greenville area.
Faith Hudgins is a member of First Baptist Church, Norris, where she is a middle school Sunday school teacher and active in the church’s missions and community events. She said God revealed new ways she can make a greater impact in each of those ministries.
For more online information about evangelism and discipleship training assistance, including tools used at the conference, go to www.scbaptist.org/missions, or call 803-227-6180. – SCBC