Tag Archive for: Missions

A Great Finish To Missions Conference

Wow, what a great finish to we had to our Fishers of Men Missions Conference 2012!  On Saturday, October 13th, Goffstown had its annual Pumpkin Regatta.  For the last couple of years, Cornerstone Baptist ChuIMG_1362rch has hosted a booth at the Regatta.  To us, worldwide missions includes reaching out to our own community.  We had a great location on the town common for our booth this year.  We set up several carnival-like games for children to play complete with toy prizes to give away.  The parents and grandparents were thrilled to have something for their kids to do that was free!  It afforded us the opportunity to get our name out there and give away hundreds of church invitations.  Our missionaries had lots of fun working the booth, handing out tracts, and then just spending time enjoying the giant pumpkins and the Regatta.  We met many wonderful folks not only from Goffstown, but also the greater Manchester area.  It was a great way to get the Gospel out and to let people know there is a church in their community that cares!

When the Regatta was done and the booth packed up, we headed over to the church for our Missions Banquet, where our theme was International Soup and Sandwich Night!  Church folks prepared delicious soups and sandwiches frIMG_1363om around the world.  Everything was absolutely delicious!  After we ate, Josh Foote brought us a brief message from God’s Word to encourage us.  It was a great way to finish the day!

 

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Fishers of Men Missions Conference 2012

What a great missions conference we are having this year.  Our theme is a great reminder of what the mission of Cornerstone Baptist Church is–fishing for men!  “And he (Jesus) saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19).  Our Missions Conference is all about reaching our community, our country, and all the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Having this conference in the middle of October affords us a well-rounded opportunity to emphasize the mission of our church because we are able to tie it in with our community outreach at the Goffstown Pumpkin Regatta.  I will update this in a future post.IMG_1422

We have two wonderful missionary families with us.  Joshua and Heather Foote and their two children are missionaries to the country of South Africa.  You can read all about their ministry at thefootesinafrica.com.  Brooks and Tricia Suttle and their five boys (yes I said 5 boys!) are church planting missionaries to the Yarmouth area of Maine, USA.  You can read all about their ministry at maine4christ.com.

We are thankful for the vision God has given to these men of God and for the opportunity they give to our church to be a part of reaching beyond our community with the Gospel.  Pastor David Smith is our keynote speaker.  He and his wife, Sharon, are ministering to churches around New England, encouraging them to get involve in worldwide missions.  They have been a great blessing to us every time they have been in our church!  To be involve, we can pray, we can go, and we can give.  Every Christian should be involve in helping others know Jesus!  It IS the mission of the local, New Testament church! IMG_1409IMG_1395

Goffstown Pumpkin Festival

This year we purposefully scheduled our missions conference to coincide with the Goffstown Pumpkin Festival.  By doing so it brought a reality to missions for each of our church folks.  We had the opportunity on the Saturday of conference to set up a booth in the center of town.  We chose to set up some games for the kids, complete with prizes that they could win.  We also had a coloring table set up where kids could color little

books we made that had a pumpkin/fall theme and the Gospel on the back that they could take home with them.  It turns out that we were one of the only booths that was giving things away instead of trying to raise money for an organization!  Hundreds of people came by and we were able to invite many to church and give out tracts.  Later in the afternoon there was a parade through the center of town.  We were able to decorate our

church van and march along side it in the parade.  We gave out candy with our church name and address on it, as well as tracts, to as many of the parade watchers as we could.  We had a great time and there was a welcome response from the community.  When all was said and done, we went back to the church for an International Hot Dog Supper.  It was awesome!  We had hot dogs fixed all kinds of ways to represent countries around the world.  Ron Cole of HELP Ministries brought a great Bible devotion to encourage us.  We all went home tired but happy in the Lord to have served Him with our day.

Missions Conference 2011

Wow!  What a Missions Conference we had this year!  Pastor David Smith is  a dear friend and tremendous man of God.  After pastoring churches in Massachusetts and Arkansas for many years, he has come back to New England with his precious wife Sharon to encourage churches in the areas of soul winning, church planting and missions.  He was our keynote speaker for our conference this year.  Our theme was “Get On Board” with missions!  We had five missionaries come to share with us their burdens for souls:  The Papes to the Dominican Republic, the Staples to Spain, the Princes to Uraguay, the Browns to Montana, and Ron Cole with HELP Ministries.  We had great attendance each night and our church folks were so faithful each night.  The Lord really used this conference to stir our hearts to reach the world with the good news of Jesus Christ.  Pastor Smith showed us with clarity from the Bible that our church has a responsibility to reach the whole world with the Gospel.  God is all about saving sinners and changing lives, and we need to be about that business by reaching our community, our country, and  the world.  The auditorium and Sunday School rooms were decorated with a train theme for “Get on Board.”  We started each service with the pastor and missionary men dressed up as train conductors, complete with train whistles, marching around the auditorium singing “The Good Old Gospel Train.”  As we marched around, we would call people out of the pews to get on board.  By the time of our last service, everyone in the auditorium was marching around and the pews were empty!  No one thought it was silly, but all got on board!  It was an awesome time and very memorable for everyone!

 

Encouraged by the Brown family

We had the wonderful privilege of having Phillip and Michelle Brown visit our church last night.  They will be planting a new church in Bozeman, Montana.  I love having missionaries and church planters in to try to be an encouragement to them.  Years ago, when my family and I were preparing to start Cornerstone Baptist Church here in Manchester, we spent several months on deputation.  Deputation is a time when missionaries and church planters visit churches of like faith to present their ministries and seek prayer and financial support.  Missionaries to other countries are not allowed to work in those countries so they need to raise enough support from here in the states to be able to take care of their families and do the work of the ministry.  Church planters here in the States should also raise support.  It is very difficult to start a church and work a full time job.  I can attest to how difficult that was!  Deputation can take several years of going from church to church trying to raise that support.  It is exciting, but it can also be very difficult.  You are away from home, often staying in people’s homes or in motels, eating lots of fast food, and living day to day by faith.   Even after only a brief time of deputation, my family and I realized how difficult it was for missionaries.  That has helped us to be more sensitive to their needs as we have them visit.  Our church has a heart for  both home and foreign missions, so we try our best to be an encouragement to these men of God who are willing to go on our behalf and reach others for Christ.

All that being said, I have to say that it was the Browns that ended up doing all the encouraging last night!  They are a fine family and have a tremendous heart for God and others.  We were able to see their video presentation of their burden to reach Bozeman, Montana.  You can view that video on their website, browns2bozeman.com.  Phillip then preached a great message from Romans chapter 10:  “My Heart’s Desire Is For My People”.  The apostle Paul, though he was a missionary to the Gentiles, had a great burden for his own people, the Jews.  They were going about trying to establish their own righteousness.  In other words, they were trying to be good to get to Heaven.  Isn’t that how so many Americans are trying to get there?  Paul’s message is the same as ours today.  No one will ever be good enough to get to Heaven.  Phillip did a great job reminding us of the need to keep our burden fresh for our own people!  We finished up the night by hanging around for a while just gabbing.  I think it was that time that was the most encouraging!

I hope you will take a few minutes and go to their website.  Send them a note and let them know you are praying for them.

Tag Archive for: Missions

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