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4Give and TakeNovember 2011Small Church Learns You Cannot Outgive GodDUBACH, La. (BP)--Theforests and farmland surrounding Sharon BaptistChurch don’t block its global vision. Church members-- with perhaps 40 in worship on Sunday mornings-- still give 48.6 percent oftheir offerings to missions.“We just simply try togive what the Lord is doingfor us to somebody else,”said Caroll Holmes, pastorof the Dubach, La., churchsince 2004. “We don’tsee ourselves as a moneymaking church, but we putthe money that comes into work for the Lord.” Thecongregation in the northeast rural part of the state isolder and mostly living on fixed incomes.Their missions givingdoes what they canby going where theycan’t, the pastor said.“The CooperativeProgram is such a tremendous program,”Holmes said. “We see it asone of the most beneficialways we as a church canparticipate in supportingseminaries, missionariesand all the areas covered bythe Cooperative Program. Itgives us the opportunity tosupport so many differentministries, which iswhy it was founded.”The CooperativeProgram supportsmissions and ministries of state Baptistconventions and theglobal efforts of theSouthern BaptistConvention. Sharon Baptist,which is debt-free and hasa 2011 budget of 132,000,allocates 10 percent of offerings to the CooperativeProgram. Another 10 per-cent goes to the ministriesof Concord-Union BaptistAssociation, where BarryJoyner is director of missions. “We’ve got one ofthe best directors of missions in the state,” Holmessaid. “Barry really does agood job of keeping us allfocused and together, andhe keeps good lines of communication open, keeping usinformed of what’s going onin the state convention andacross the Southern BaptistConvention.

www.MichiganBaptists.orgKing’sKing’s Ice CreamFROM PAGE ONEtional Bible studiesto all that end upin our shop on anygiven night. PastorSteveElliottwillwalkthroughthe shopand outside announcing “IcecreamforBiblestudy!” Often, Iwill offer the samestudy multiple timesa night as anothergroup of kids willcome later and askfor Bible study andice cream!2. Build Relationships This summer I amthrilled about a 17 yearold in our neighborhood named Adam.He and I have becomegood friends over aping-pong table in ourshop. He comes up tothe shop on most nightsthat we are open and isa great deal of fun. Heattendsour Biblestudiesand willsometimes gethimselfup andwill joinus forSunday morning worship. As our VBS approached this summer,we found ourselves inneed of someone to leadour recreation. Theidea came to me to askAdam. I knew full wellthat this could havegone either way Hewouldholdan od. Some we knew,many we did not.Adam did an amazingjob leading our recreation. It is such a thrillfor me to see Adamgoing from a teen inthe neighborhood, toa friend, to getting involved theministry of ourchurch.3. Break DownBarriers Ice cream hasbeen a wonderful way for us tobring a smile tothe face of anyone that may happen towanderinto ourchurch. It iswell knownthroughoutthe neighborhoodthat whensomeone comes to theice cream shop for thefirst time, they receive afree scoop of ice cream.It is while we scooptheir ice cream that weexplain that they are ina church and that thereare some expectationsfor behavior, but alsoa great many activitiesand games to participatein. We also advertisethat evening’s Biblestudy. More often thannot, we also make aninstant friend. I havefound that ice creamcan be very disarming.One example thissummer, is 20 year oldBrittany that came toour shop a couple ofweeks ago. I offered afree scoop and she accepted. As I scoopedher a cup of mint chocolate chip, I asked her ifshe knew that she wasin a church. She saidshe did not, so I beganto give her a tour. I ledher into the part of ourstore-front building thatwe worship in and shestopped to inform methat she was an Agnostic. I told her that was“cool”, and I proceededto tell her about whatGod had told us to dohere and how He hasand continues to provide for it. She wasBeacon Subscription PlansThe Every ResidentFamily PlanOffers churches a premiumrate when they send theBeacon to all their resident households. Residentfamilies are calculated tobe at least one-fourth of thechurch’s total worship attendance. Churches who sendonly to members who re-quest a subscription donot qualify for this lowerrate of 4.00/year foreach subscription.The Church Group PlanAllows church members toreceive a discount when 7or more individuals sendtheir subscriptions togetherthrough their local church.Subscribers pay 6.00/yearfor each subscription.The Individual PlanMay be purchased at therate of 8.00/year for eachsubscription.Deadline for subscriptions for the Januaryedition is November 1st2011.Individual and group5receptive to my story ofGod’s interaction withus. I was again amazedto see how a simplescoop of ice creammade the entire conversation possible. I wasmore amazed to see herjoin us for worship thislast Sunday! I imaginethat she has some questions to be answeredand some things towork through, but I wasglad to see her takingadvantage of God’svisitation upon her.Every time that weopen the ice cream shopwe share God’s Word,build relationships, andbreak down barriers .It is an amazing ministry that God has givento us. Every night thatI leave the shopto go home, I canpinpoint exactlywhy God had us upthere that particularnight. A new friendmade, a questionanswered, or a relationship deepened.Something of eternal significance.We ask that youkeep us in earnestprayer.Especially as theFall and Winter soonapproaches. As it soonbecomes too cold forice cream, we will begin our yearly transition from ice cream, tohot chocolate and freshbaked cookies! YUM!Steve Elliott is thePastor at Faith OutreachFellowshipClinton Township, MIsubscriptions may be purchased by emailing beacon@bscm.org or callingthe state office at 810-7141907.When inquiring abouta subscription, please listyour name, address, andphone number.

Keep It Simple Saint6November 2011Evangelism Made EasyK.I.S.SBy Gary MacManamyBy Gary MacManamyEvangelism DirectorWe are told that thenumber one reason peopleare not evangelistic is because of fear, fear of ridicule and rejection. There isa second reason, too muchtraining and memory work,that is to say, time. The fearand time factors have cometo their apex. Actually, thereal Biblical approach isshort, simple, and servantoriented.John, Peter, and Paul(Acts 4, Col. 4:4, & Eph.6:18 – 20) ran into momentsthat fear kept them fromsharing their faith. Their answer to their fear was veryshort and simple and chasedtheir fears away. They couldnot shut up about Jesus afterthey applied a very simpleand easy Biblical method.Acts 4 shows Peter and Johnseeking prayer from otherChristians for “boldness”due to the fact that Jewishgeneration are those that areleadership had threatenedbuilt upon a person’s story.them into submission andPeople will listen to yoursilence about Jesus. It wasstory because they have anot an in your face boldstory and the time must beness, but rather a natural retaken to hear their story. Welaxed sharing of the Gospel Perhaps the most effectivein spite of who was beforeway to get a hearing is tothem. Paul was in chainslet it rise out of a naturalin house arrest and fearedsharing Jesus until he moment. Blend your storyinto those moments whenasked fellow believers topray for him for boldness.people are talking aboutThe rest is history. If people their needs, their problems,like the 3 greatest apostlesbroken dreams, the shortneeded others praying forfalls of life.them to be bold, do weneed brothers and sisters inChrist praying for us for noall have a remarkable storyless?of how God has revealedThe time and scripHimself to us and how Heture memory elements ofhas met incredible needs inmulti-session training overour lives. The world is hunan 8 to 16 week time spangry for the love that reachesis more than most churchout to them when they aremembers will do. This is the at the end of themselvessweet part of the short andand gives them hope for thesweet training. Simply trainfuture. “For God so lovedpeople in one hour or sothe world that He gave” Hisand give them material thatonly Son to die for themcovers the whole Gospeland take the one thing thatbriefly. We call that a tract.separates them from God,The “in your face” tracts oftheir sin, and put it upon Histhe last 50 years won’t work Son as well.very well in the current culPerhaps the mostture. The best tracts for thiseffective way to get a hear-ing is to let it rise out of anatural moment. Blend yourstory into those momentswhen people are talkingabout their needs, theirproblems, broken dreams,the shortfalls of life. Equally effective is to be a servant to help meet people’sneeds with time and effort.The question that almostevery time arises is “Yourgoodness to help me costyou something. What’s inthis for you?” The answeris “I just wanted you to geta taste of what the love ofGod is like who gave Hisonly Son to pay for all ourneeds.”Jesus said, “Lift Meup, and I will draw all menunto Myself.” This wholematter of telling the worldabout our Savior and Lordis to simply lift Him up, andHe will draw them to Himself. Keep it simple saint!Go get em for Jesus.Gary MacManamy is retiring at the end of the year asthe Evangelism Director ofthe State Convention.

Reflectionswww.MichiganBaptists.orgAs I reflect on thesefirst ten months serving youand our first annual meetingtogether, I rejoice at what Godis doing. Many of ourmessengers expressedexcitement at the approval of the FutureFocus Team’s vision/strategy for the futureand the approval of thenew bylaws. Both willset the tone for our work during this next year as we beginthe process of transitioning tobe more effective at servingour churches.The highlight of thefinal session of the annualmeeting was of hearing pastor’s testimonies. We heardhow God was blessing severalof our new congregationsand about the transformation occurring in establishedchurches. As our “conventionof churches” strive to worktogether to reach our state forChrist, hearing the victorystories was so encouraging.We also highlightedsome of the partnerships thathave been initiated during theyear. Such as: The Arkansas BaptistNews for theredesign ofBobby’s the BaptistBits Beacon The Baptist GeneralBobby GilstrapConventionof Oklahoma’s Camp ministry for 2consultants who are workingwith Bambi Lake ConferenceCenter The Missouri BaptistConvention for support of ournew Michigan Church PlanterAssessment Center The Baptist Foundation of Oklahoma to partnerwith the Michigan SouthernBaptist Foundation to providefoundation marketing materials, church loans, estate andtrust planning, online planningtools and more.On top of new partnerships, we have been honoredSocial MediaSure Social Media andNetworks, like Facebook, Youtube and Twitter etc., have a big“gee-whiz” factor. Everybody ishopping on the bandwagon. People are telling you that if you andyour churchdon’t get connected to thisnew mediathat you’re going to get leftbehind andmiss out.But there hasgot to be amore compelling reason fora church, ministry or nonprofit to signon to thesesocial mediaapplications than “everybody elseis doing it.”The question you have toask concerning your organizationis, “Why get on board and getinvolved with Social Media?”The answer to that question comes from business -theycall it ROI, Return On Investment. What is the ROI of SocialMedia for ministry and yourchurch? In this post, I don’t wantto address the quantitative aspectof ROI, but rather the qualitative.How does social mediaimprove the quality of ministryand help move the church’s objectives forward?I believe there needs to be3 ROI Quality Goals and Objec-7to continue two ongoingour website (www.Michiganpartnerships with our missionBaptists.org) of this challengearies in Southeast Asia and the to work more cooperatively toAlabama State Board of Misreach our world for Christ.sions (ALSBoM). We wereI must also affirm our mesdelighted to have Dr. Ricksengers at the convention forLance, ALSBoM’s Executivethe healthy discussion we sawDirector, to preach in our clos- throughout the business sesing session of this year’s consions. As is par for the course,vention. In addition to preachBaptists rarely agree 100% ofing a challenging message, wethe time. However, the way ininformed thewhich differingconventionviews are disAs our “convention ofthat Alabamacussed is a surechurches” strive to workwas sendtogether to reach our state for sign of health ining Michiganan organization.Christ, hearing the victoryBaptist a giftThis year gavestories was so encouraging.of 25,000 toevidence thatassist us during these difficultwe want to be a healthy repreeconomic times. We are sosentation of Jesus to a watchgrateful for the financial gifting world. Thank you for yourand even more thankful forChristian spirit.the ministry Alabama BaptistsThank you for allowinghave shared with us in theseme to serve Michigan Baptistsrecent years of our missionchurches. It is my privilege topartnership.be your “Partner in AdvancingWe celebrated the close God’s Kingdom!”of our convention with the 1%Challenge proposed by Dr.Frank Page, SBC ExecutiveDirector. Watch the video onFROM PAGE ONEtives for Social Media1. Communication2. Connecting3. Call to ActionLet me break these down:1. Communication: Social Media must help thechurch effectively and efficientlycommunicate it’s message.Certainly Social Media isn’tthe only medium. A church cancommunicate to it’s people onthe Sunday morning platform,bulletins, mailings, phone calls,emails, face-to-face conversations, television, radio etc.Social Media, though, becomesjust another effective tool to addto the church’s communicationmosaic. But Social Media hassome unique benefits all it’s ownin effectively communicating: It’s easy and effortless, itdoesn’t take much money ormanpower to implement ortion? Are they even able touse it.shape the conversation? It’s ubiquitous, since it is so Collaborate: Does your soavailable and pervasive itcial media allow the benefitsisn’t hard for people to missfrom the collective hive ofthe message.experience, skills and knowl It’s variety, socialedge from your community?media takes many dif3. Call to Action: - Socialferent forms, words,Media must prompt people to doaudio and image.something. It can’t be passive. It’s viral, theSome of the calls to ACTIONbeauty of social memight include:dia is that your mes Go: Are you asking somesage can expand wellone to go and serve others inbeyond it’s intendedsome way?audience - therefore Give: Are you asking someexposing and introducone to give either of theiring new people to yourtime or financially to thecause and community.cause?2. Connecting: Pray: Are you calling peopleSocial Media mustto act in concerted and perseconnect your commuvering prayer?nity. Unlike communi Mobilize: Are you askingcation which most often pushespeople to spread the messageinformation in a “one-way”of the cause to their friendsdirection, conand networks?necting mustSo as you thinkHow will this new Social about Social Mediacreate a conMedia “thing” help our for your church,versation. Youchurch, ministry or organi- ministry or nonmust ask, WillSocial Mediazation Communicate, Con- profit, you mustcreate convernect our Community, and ask yourself.Howsation withinwill this new SocialCall People to Action?the communiMedia “thing” helpty? Are peopleour church, minable to talk to you the minister/istry or organization Communiministry team leader? Can theycate, Connect our Community,talk to one another? Also, part ofand Call People to Action?the conversation involves otherkey elements:If you have a clear answer to that Contribute: Can others conquestion, then most definitelytribute in helpful and meanyour church should invest iningful ways to the conversaSocial Media.

8College MinistryNovember 2011Reaching College Students In MichiganBy Larry WoodsMSU Christian ChallengeTHE HEART OFEVANGELISMOne of the most encouraging fall semesters inmany years is now nearly1/3 over. We tried to find asmany international studentsas we could at the beginningof school and communicated to them that they areVery Important People tous. As a result of needingto learn English and beingsuch VIP’s, we wanted tohelp them with their Vocabulary, Idioms, and Pronunciation. There are 3 ways wemight be able to help themwith those things. One isan English ConversationClub where we talk togetherabout a different topic eachweek. Another is a family group that meets in ourhome, shares dinner together, and does an investigative study on the Bible eachweek. The third is pairingeveryone as English conversation partners. The leadership of each of those groupsis committed to identifyingat least one internationalstudent, praying for themdaily, and doing things withthem one on one that buildtrust so they can ultimatelyhave trust that leads to honest discussions about wherethe students are spiritually.Already this fall there are 20international students whoare involved in at least 1 ofthose events every week andsome are involved in all 3events. Those students represent 7 different countries.The challenge is for them tosee Jesus as someone theyneed to consider makinga commitment to in theirown lives and not just as anobject of study in Americanreligious culture.MINISTRYHIGHLIGHTOne of the most important ingredients in anyministry is having someonein the group you are tryingto reach who is a believerand is committed to reaching those people. We havebeen praying for years forone of the internationalstudents in our group to become a believer and to catcha vision for reaching otherinternational students. I received a call in late Augustfrom an acquaintance in Arkansas. He told me about astudent from the middle eastwho had become a believeronly a month earlier andwho was coming to Michigan State as a graduateSenior Evangelism RalliesCentral / NorthernRegionCentral Baptist Church,Flint 2211 N. Center Rd.Flint 10:00 a.m.-1:30p.m. November 8, 2011Southwestern RegionLevel Park BaptistChurch, Battle Creek3438 W. Mich. Ave.Battle Creek, MI.49017(Phone 269-968-6945)10: a.m.-1:30 p.m.November 9, 2011Southeastern RegionMerriman Road BaptistChurch, Garden City2055 Merriman Rd.Garden City, MI. 48135(Phone 734-421-0472)10:00 a.m.-1:30 p.m.November 10, 2011Since we had tocancel the FrankenmuthCelebration becauseof small Registration,I have planned to havethe area Senior Evangelism Rallies like wehave done for years.Our speaker will be JimPalmer, who was to bewith us in Frankenmuth.Jim is pastor of MilesRoad Baptist Churchin Summerville, SouthCarolina. He is a talented, committed preacherof the word. His churchgives over 100,000 ayear in special offerings for mission causesaround the world. Hewill challenge you tobe involved in reachingpeople for Christ. Sinceour quartette Strongholdcould not be with usduring the day we areenlisting local talent forour music. The SeniorChoir from Monroe Missionary Baptist Churchwill be with us at Mer-riman Rd. David Joneswill be the worship leader there as well.Gary MacManamy,our retiring State Evangelism Team Leader willbe leading us in a shorttraining time in witnessing to seniors.We are looking fora great time. Lunch wi

“We would coordinate it, if they would be willing to invest in purchasing a ticket for every law enforcement person within our county plus one [additional ticket for each offi-cer], so that they could either take their spouse or a friend.” The churches, police Convention in PICTURES Nearing