God’s Plan For Sharing
By Jon Sapp
January 2012
Family gatherings and church Christmas celebrations have filled these past weeks. Hearing of what is happening with family and friends enriches these days. And I love to celebrate!
As 2011 draws to a close and 2012 begins, I am discovering a new area for encouragement and celebration. Hearing what God is doing in our churches and seeing the number of new believers defines how I celebrate God’s harvest here in Nebraska and Kansas. God is at work and we are honored to observe His leading in watching brothers and sisters decide to obey the Lord with their baptism. Churches have been faithful to report these baptisms, and as a result I have celebrated.
Let me share several of the items that have encouraged my heart with the close of the year. We have grown to 409 churches across Nebraska and Kansas. One of the encouragements is that of the 409 churches, 41 are less than three years old. Those new churches and missions demonstrate the growth and expansion of our faith and reported 210 baptized in their fellowships. We still have yet to hear from 16 of those new churches. I believe as we hear what has happened in these 16 churches, we will have further reason to celebrate.
Currently our total is 2,321 baptisms for 2011. That is 10.1% more than back in 2010 and a reason to celebrate. One of the dynamics that contributed to this growth is the number of churches that went beyond zero baptisms. This year, 39 churches that reported a “0” in their baptism for 2010 baptized one or more in 2011. Those 39 churches celebrated the obedience of at least one of their members as they followed the Lord in baptism and this adds to my celebration!
Finally, I watch three “number goals” for baptism. First, any church that has over 100 baptisms is seeing two persons a week or more in this step of obedience. This year three churches broke the 100 mark. Those churches were Lenexa Baptist and Westside Family both from Lenexa along with Cross Point in Hutchinson, Kansas.
My second marker is 52 for an average of one person a week responding. This year six churches baptized more than 52 and that doubles the number from 2010 of three churches that accomplished the 52 baptism goal. That encourages me in that we doubled from 2010 to 2011 the number of churches that saw an average of one a week baptized.
Finally, churches seeing 12 or more baptized represents an average of at least one person a month obeying the Lord in baptism. KNCSB had 56 churches baptizing 12 or more during the 2011 church year. These 56 churches represent 13.6% of our Kansas-Nebraska churches with at least one baptism a month. However, even with this good news, I would love to see us grow beyond this year’s great report. My dream would be seeing where we have 20% or more of our churches baptizing at least 12 during the year.
I hope you can see my reason for celebration this year. We have seen God doing great things in the hearts of our new members. Celebrating the harvest is one of the “mile markers” for God’s Plan for Sharing. I appreciate the opportunity of letting you in on this encouraging element of working alongside each of our churches in fulfilling God’s Plan for Sharing.
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