Darryl Wilson, Sunday School director for the Kentucky Baptist Convention, authored the following guest post.  Darryl joined the Kentucky Baptist Convention staff in 1997. He focuses his energies in helping Kentucky Baptist churches improve their Sunday school ministries and experience congregational growth through dynamic Sunday school/small group ministries. His blog, Sunday School Revolutionary, has become a primary online resource for Sunday school leaders in Southern Baptist life and beyond.

I’m optimistic about the future of the Kentucky Baptist Convention because Baptists have long been a creative, pioneering people. Kentucky people come together in times of need, crisis and change. They remind me of a story told by David Francis in his book, Missionary Sunday School.

Stephen Paxson was America’s most famous Sunday School missionary. Traveling across the pioneer west in the mid 1800s—which at that time was anything west of the Appalachian Mountains—Paxson organized 1,314 Sunday Schools where none had previously existed, enrolling over 83,000 students and teachers. He encouraged or strengthened another 1,747 existing schools with 131,000 additional participants.

In the face of need and change, Baptists are not quitters. They are starters. They are dreamers. They are hard workers. As the reorganization of the Kentucky Baptist Convention staff begins, I fully anticipate creative partnerships at every level resulting in new ways to accomplish the Great Commission work we have been given to do together. A fresh vision will motivate Baptists toward renewed missionary zeal in every corner of Kentucky.

The vision and change will result in creativity, dreaming and hard work in the areas of Sunday School and discipleship. Networking, encouragement and action will result.

In advance of Kentucky Baptist Convention staff reorganization, I have witnessed this Baptist spirit all across the commonwealth this year during Blueprints for Sunday School Growth events. These training and planning sessions with pastors, Sunday School directors and planning teams have been held from Hazard and Fort Mitchell to Salem and Hardin and a dozen places in between.

These partnership events with associations and churches have produced stories of praying, planning and success as teams have returned to their churches and communities. They are communicating. They are setting goals and calendaring. They have owned the problems, needs and work required. Despite the challenges, they see hope and purpose in what they are doing.

New leaders will be enlisted and trained. New classes will be started. Retreats, planning meetings and training sessions will be held. They will not quit. They will roll up their sleeves like Kentuckians and get to work.

As we prepare for hard work ahead, the time is now for spiritual preparation and honest evaluation. We must identify needs and be open to joining God where He is at work. We must focus on priorities in our planning, budgeting and calendaring. We must set God-sized goals and order our steps for carrying out this important work. And we must encourage one another and hold one another accountable along the way.

Christ and His bride, the church, deserve our best effort. Nothing less will do. Join me in making disciples. Be revolutionary!

Margie and Charles Wilson

LOUISVILLE– Partners are being sought to help sustain the work of the Wheelwright Baptist Center in Floyd County following the retirement of its long-time director.

“The Wheelwright Center is located in one of the poorest regions of the commonwealth and ministers to about 200 families each year,” KBC Executive Director Paul Chitwood said. “We want to see this ministry continue.”

The U.S. Census reports that 11,000 families in Floyd County live on less than $10,000 annually.

Charles and Margie Wilson have served as North American Mission Board missionaries for more than 32 years, devoting 26 of those years to the people of Wheelwright, according to Eric Allen, director KBC’s Mission Service and Ministries Department.

“The Wilsons and a faithful core of volunteers model what it means to be missionaries,” he said. “As a means to sharing Christ, they help families with food and clothing. They provide after-school and summer programs for children. They help transport people to the doctor and the pharmacy. There’s also a deaf ministry there.”

Last year about 15 short-term mission teams came to Wheelwright to serve. During the year, 37 local people made professions of faith in Christ.

“This is a vibrant ministry,” Allen said.

Wilson is among 27 KBC employees to accept retirement or resignation incentive packages in preparation for a major restructuring of the work of the KBC Mission Board staff. Compensation for several staff, including Wilson, was provided jointly by NAMB and KBC.

Wilson also serves as pastor of First Baptist Church of Wheelwright, which holds services at the center.

“It was our hope that this week we would announce the transfer of the property and the ministry to a congregation in another state that has generously supported the Wheelwright Center in the past,” Chitwood explained. “Unfortunately that arrangement has fallen through and we are actively and aggressively seeking a new partnering church or association.”

Allen said he is hopeful that God soon will call a new missionary, or missionary couple, to Wheelwright. He added that he is confident that with a missionary in place, the financial resources will follow to sustain the work.

“The Kentucky Baptist Convention will do what we can to match people power to resources to see this ministry sustained,” Chitwood said. “We do not want to see this flock without a shepherd.”

He encourages Kentucky Baptists to contact Allen for information on the center and how to help. Allen can be reached by e-mail at eric.allen@kybaptist.org or by phone at (502) 489-3530 or (866) 489-3530 (toll-free in Kentucky).

Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief feeding the hungry

But, I must confess, my excitement was clouded by the reality of our present situation.   My eager view of an exciting new day was suddenly blocked by the vision of throngs of people gathered before us…my heart became strangely heavy as I began to contemplate what has forced this need for massive restructuring.  Though the restructuring is timely and strategic, the reality is that we just do not have the funds to do all we once did.

As I contemplated all of this, God reminded me of a true story found in Mark 6.  It was an exciting time of ministry for Jesus and the Twelve.  The Twelve had just returned from their first mission for the Gospel.  They had driven out demons, healed the sick, and preached God’s truth…they had attracted clamoring crowds of people to Jesus.  When they had tried to get away for some debriefing, the crowds ran ahead to meet them.  The Bible says, “Jesus had compassion on them,” and began to teach them about God’s Kingdom.  He taught until the hour grew late, and the disciples approached Him to send the crowds away so they could find food.

Jesus replied to His disciples, “You give them something to eat.”

They responded by telling the Lord that if we had a year’s wages, we could not feed all these people. Times are tough.  They might have added, “Do You not remember that You just sent us out with instructions to take neither bread nor money.”

Jesus’s reply to their evaluation of the present reality was to question, “How many loaves do you have?”

That is what troubles me.  It is not about losing programs or departments or offices. What troubles me is that I fear, we are clamoring for the Lord to send these people away because we just do not have the money to take care of them.   Servants of God will be leaving ministry posts where they have served with passion and faithfulness.  I know a year’s wages cannot save these cuts. But, these are not the only ones being sent away.  I fear that we may send widows and orphans, the hungry and broken, the young and the old, the lost and unreached away as well.  As we count our coins as Kentucky Baptists, I fear that we have come to a day that missions and ministry may have to be cut. The heart of missions and ministry is not programs, but people. It troubles me to think that there could be a day when the hungry will have no meal after a disaster, or that a college student will not hear of Jesus for a lack of campus ministry…a day when a hispanic neighbor will be unable to hear the Gospel, or an unwed mother will have no place to go as she struggles to make a life or death decision…an Aids orphan in Africa will have no chance for an education, or a villager in a forgotten corner of Suriname will have no one to bring him the Good News.

I know that times are tough…poor economy, unemployment, shrinking dollars.  I know that our churches are feeling the crunch. But, how can I say this delicately…what continues to trouble me is that despite all this, we are still the richest generation of Believers in history. I am struggling because as our gifts to the Cooperative Program are shrinking for Missions, we all seem to have the latest iPhone, Kindle Fire, and big screen television.  We have no extra money in our churches to give to the World Hunger Fund, but our Upward Programs have record numbers in our Family Life Centers. Please do not hear this as a criticism of Family Life Centers or Upward Programs or iPhones.  There is nothing wrong with any of these, and Upward can be a great way to impact children and families for the Gospel.  It’s just sometimes, we sound alot like the disciples as we look on the throngs of hungry, hurting, unreached peoples before us.  Lord, what can we do?

What difference would an extra three dollars make in the offering plate as we look at all this need?

What difference would it make to the Great Commission if our church gives an extra 1/2 percent to the Cooperative Program?

What difference would it make if each of us would give to World Hunger as much as we spend eating out in a typical week?

“Lord, there is just too much need and what can we do? If I gave a year’s wages, it would not make any difference.  What is that Jesus?”

“How many loaves do you have?”

I wonder, just wonder…if we, as Kentucky Baptists, would just give what is in our hands to Jesus for the sake of the multitudes.  I cannot help but wonder if we would not discover again that Jesus has taken what is in our hands and multiplied it to feed the hungry, mend the broken, and touch the unreached.  And there would even be some left over for another day.

A strong front of storms swept across Kentucky on Friday, March 1, unleashing damaging winds and tornadoes to multiple communities in the Commonwealth.   As the sun arose on Saturday morning, it revealed tremendous loss and devastation from Northern Kentucky to the eastern Kentucky Mountains.  The F-3 tornado that unleashed its fury on West Liberty, Kentucky tore through this small town with winds of over 140 mph and tracked along the ground for 95 miles. For many, the storms ripped apart their homes and their lives…leaving them searching for hope as they sifted through the remains of what was left of their homes and businesses.

Kentucky Baptists were on the ground in these hard hit areas quickly offering a compassionate hand and the hope of Christ.  Because your church gives to the Cooperative Program, Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief was able to be there with:

•  a Command Trailer offering vital radio communication for responders
•  Feeding units providing thousands of meals to survivors
• Chainsaw and Debris Clean-up Units
• Shower and Laundry Units
• a Childcare Unit that provided critical care for small children
• Chaplains
• Scores of trained Disaster Relief Volunteers

All of them making a difference for Christ’s sake… bringing hope to the hopeless.  Because Kentucky Baptist Churches give, you were there and provided:

Volunteer Days                 2227
Meals Prepared                28719
Debris Cleanup Jobs      141
Chainsaw Jobs                  325
Children Cared For         68
Showers                              438
Laundry Loads                  190
Chaplaincy Contacts       179
Professions of Faith        28
Gospel Presentations     261
Other Decisions                8
Ministry Contacts            1651

  Reaching to those ravaged by life’s storms for Jesus’ sake. 

    Jesus said, ” Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to ME.” ( Matthew 25:40)

If you’re in the Louisville, Lexington, Bowling Green or Paducah television markets, keep your eyes out for a television spot that’s currently running. Produced by the North American Mission Board, the Kentucky Baptist Convention is running the ad as part of the ongoing God’s Plan for Sharing evangelistic emphasis.

The 30-second spot directs viewers to visit the Find It Here website or to call a special toll-free line: 1-888-537-8720. The website features stories of people who have found hope, purpose, peace and life through a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Kentucky Baptists are spending approximately $70,000 on the campaign in Kentucky, using funds provided by NAMB and by churches through the Eliza Broadus Offering for State Missions promoted by Kentucky Woman’s Missionary Union.

In addition to the TV campaign, KBC has also placed Spanish-language billboards in key locations around the state and is using social media advertising to promote Find it Here.

The media campaign is providing support for churches and groups of churches planning special outreach events this spring.

The campaign was put together by the Van Winkle and Associates advertising firm of Atlanta which also handled Southern Baptists’ national Find it Here campaign in 2010.

The campaign is designed to reach 85 percent of the adult population in the target areas with the message three and a half times on average during the period.  The number of times any individual sees the spot will vary based on his or her specific location and listening habits.

The TV spot features individuals sharing how they found Christ during significant life events.

At the site, which is available in English and Spanish, visitors can read more about the Christian faith, use a search feature to find a Southern Baptist church near to them, and download a free e-book.

More information about the Find it Here evangelism initiative can be found at www.kybaptist.org/findithere.

Embedded above is a great video featuring Tak Oue, a Kentucky native, who is ministering in Japan as a missionary for the International Mission Board. Please pray for this missionary and others as they seek to touch lives with the gospel.

Click here to see a related prayer map with vignettes and prayer requests.

There’s an old saying that “people don’t really care how much you know until they know how much you care.” There’s a lot of truth to that, especially in times of disaster. And it’s why the work of Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief is so important. Our volunteers don’t respond to disaster to do anything other than meet individual needs but because they are there meeting needs, there are often opportunities for people to ask questions and hear the gospel.

Here’s an update about the latest Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief response to the tornadoes that hit here in Kentucky this past Friday. This work is every bit as much a Great Commission endeavor as any of the more obvious evangelistic efforts of Kentucky churches and the Kentucky Baptist Convention.

Kentucky Baptists Expand Tornado Response

LOUISVILLE – After a busy weekend of ministry, Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief expanded its response today to more survivors of the March 2 tornadoes.

About 110 volunteers, with an additional 25 poised to begin work on Tuesday, are providing hot meals, clean-up assistance, emergency communications, hot showers and laundry service in several counties in eastern Kentucky.

Forty-five of those volunteers are serving in hard-hit West Liberty in Morgan County. The Red Cross has asked Kentucky Baptists to increase to 5,000 the number of meals provided each day.

Also, at every location, chaplains trained to counsel people in times of crisis, are providing comfort.

“It’s been a tremendous response,” said Coy Webb, director of the Kentucky Baptist Convention Baptist Men on Mission Department. “Normally it takes about 48 hours to get organized and deployed but our volunteers have been ready and willing to respond.”

In addition to West Liberty, Kentucky Baptists are working from staging areas in Crittenden, London and Louisa.

A team from North Carolina Baptist Disaster Relief is serving around Magoffin and Johnson counties from a staging area at Haven of Rest, a ministry center in Debord in Martin County. Among the communities the North Carolina team will serve is Salyersville, which was heavily damaged.

Clean-up efforts were made more difficult today after a cold front overnight dropped two to four inches of snow on many of the disaster areas.

The heavy snow collapsed one of the disaster relief tents being used in West Liberty.

Webb noted that many of the volunteers serving today were themselves affected by the storms.

“It really is a case of neighbor helping neighbor,” he said.

Residents who need assistance are encouraged to stop by the staging area in their community:

·    Pathways, Inc., 767 N. Main St., West Liberty
·    Crittenden Baptist Church, 215 Russell St.
·    First Baptist Church of London, 804 W. 5th St.
·    Louisa Baptist Church, 301 W. Pike St.
·    Haven of Rest, 58 Haven Rd., Debord

If there is not a Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief staging area nearby, people who need assistance in clean up can contact the Kentucky Division of Emergency Management toll-free at 1-800-255-2587.

Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief is offering training March 10 at Porter Memorial Baptist Church in Lexington. Webb said he hopes people who have been considering becoming volunteers will take the next step to become certified.

“We never have enough volunteers,” he said, explaining that because of personal responsibilities, many of the men and women serving now may be unable to serve at another time, making a large pool of volunteers vital, especially if the storm season is active.

Last year was one of the busiest for Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief. Volunteers served in Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Vermont and also Japan and Zimbabwe.

Among many other services, Kentucky Baptists cooked more than 62,000 meals to people in crisis in 2011.

Phase 1 training March 10 begins at 9 a.m., EST, and concludes at 1 p.m. Upon completion, the volunteer is credentialed and qualified to respond to a disaster call-out. New volunteers pay $40 per person. Returning volunteers who have not participated in training since October 2008 pay $20 per person.

Because of the current deployment, Phase 2 training, which provides more in-depth instruction on a specific unit of service, will not be offered March 10.

Online registration is underway at www.kybaptist.org/drtraining.

Registration is also underway for Phase 1 and 2 training April 14 at First Baptist Church of London.

Funding from Kentucky Baptists and other concerned Christians maintains the work of Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief. Donations can be made securely online at www.kybaptist.org/dr. Click on the green “donate” button.

Contributions also can be made to the Kentucky Baptist Convention by writing “Disaster Relief” in the memo line of your check. Gifts should be mailed to the KBC at PO Box 43433, Louisville, KY 40253.

Webb encourages churches or individuals considering in-kind donations such as bottled water, food and clothing, to contact their local branch of the American Red Cross to determine if those items are needed in a specific location. Often certain areas are inundated with in-kind gifts and are unable to use them while another community may be in need.

The Kentucky Baptist Convention is a cooperative missions and ministry organization made up of nearly 2,400 autonomous Baptist churches in Kentucky. A variety of state and worldwide ministries are coordinated through its administrative offices in Louisville, including: missions work, ministry training and support, church development, evangelism and more.

For more information, visit the KBC website at www.kybaptist.org, find “Kentucky Baptist Convention” on Facebook or follow “kentuckybaptist” on Twitter. “Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief” also is on Facebook.

Drew Nichter, news director for the Western Recorder, recently wrote about a vision trip for Kentucky Baptists interested in living out the Great Commission through the Kentucky Baptist Convention’s partnership with St. Louis Metro Baptist Association.

Here’s the story he filed:

Kentucky Baptists See Needs in St. Louis

Pat Rankin, pastor of Have Bible Will Travel Church, once was on the ropes, spiritually. In 2001, the founder of the Bridgeton, Mo., congregation met Rankin in a tattoo parlor and shared Christ with the biker/weight lifter. Rankin accepted Christ as his Savior and now leads the congregation that has a full-size boxing ring in the fellowship hall as a way to introduce themselves to the boxing community. Rankin shared his story with Kentucky Baptists during the recent partnership vision tour to metro St. Louis. (Photo by Scott Pittman)

ST. LOUIS –Standing inside a boxing ring that sits smack-dab in the middle of the fellowship hall, the tattooed pastor of Have Bible Will Travel Church asked for prayer.

His request: that “everyone will understand that the vision is larger than them,” Pat Rankin told a group of Kentucky Baptists.

Rankin, who looks more like he belongs on a Harley than behind a pulpit, leads the church in Bridgeton, Mo., a suburb of St. Louis near the city’s airport. Rankin came to know Christ as his Savior in 2001 through the work of the church’s founder, who sought to reach people inside bars and tattoo parlors.

In addition to ministering in places some would never dare go, Have Bible Will Travel hosts sanctioned boxing matches as a way to reach a segment of the population with which most churches might never connect.

It’s these types of unique ministries that are needed to reach St. Louis’ 2.7 million people with the gospel, Scott Pittman noted.

The director of the Kentucky Baptist Convention’s partnership missions department led a two-day “vision trip” to St. Louis last week. More than 40 Kentucky Baptist pastors, directors of missions and laypersons traveled to the Gateway City to explore the many missions and ministry opportunities there.

The trip was just the beginning of a missions agreement between the KBC and St. Louis Metro Baptist Association, signed last November.

With the partnership in its infancy, Pittman is leading the way in getting the word out to Kentucky Baptist church leaders through the vision trip and informational sessions.

During the trip, Pittman said the Kentucky group visited several churches and ministries in and around the city, ranging from established congregations that have been in the city for decades to recently planted churches. Most, if not all, need significant help, he said.

Matthew Sickling, DOM for Ohio County Baptist Association, described many of the St. Louis churches as desperate.

“They need individuals and churches to come alongside of them and help push back the darkness that is threatening to overtake them,” he said.

Among them is First Baptist Church of St. Ann, an older, suburban congregation that is in need of revitalization. Symbolizing the country’s economic struggles, St. Ann once boasted Missouri’s largest shopping mall; it closed for good in 2010.

But help is coming, by way of northern Kentucky.

While in St. Louis, Bill Clark, pastor of Hickory Grove Baptist Church in Independence, visited with St. Ann First’s pastor, John Stack. Clark got a tour of the church’s facilities and discussed ways his church could help minister to the area’s 13,000 residents.

Clark said a family mission trip likely is in Hickory Grove’s future. Many of the St. Ann church’s needs involve putting on backyard Bible clubs and sports camps, as well as doing light repair and painting jobs around the facility.

“I really feel like that’s where the Lord is leading us right now,” Clark said.

“We just want to really be an encouragement to him,” Clark said of Stack, “because I know it’s very difficult when you’re revitalizing a church.”

Despite the hardships many St. Louis church leaders and planters face, Clark said the energy with which they seek to reach the lost is infectious. “These folks are just so passionate to reach their city,” he said.

That passion, he added, will not only affect the city of St. Louis, but will have a carry-over effect in Kentucky as well.

“We need to bottle that up and have that same infectious compassion for our own cities here.”

For details about the Kentucky –St. Louis Partnership, visit www.kybaptist.org/stlouis.

Two adult Kentucky Changers size and cut siding for a home in the Shawnee neighborhood of Louisville last fall. Another adult Kentucky Changers project is scheduled for the same neighborhood in March.

The Great Commission is about a whole lot more than international missions. We are also to minister in our own Jerusalem and Samaria. There are lots of ways to be a part of sharing God’s love at home. One very tangible way is by participating in Kentucky Changers, a missions opportunity to repair and renovate homes for elderly or low income people who cannot afford to pay for these services.

Kentucky Changers is largely known as a missions program for teens. Students are definitely heavily involved in summer projects. But Kentucky Changers also has projects geared specifically for adults. This spring there’s a great opportunity to work on homes in the Shawnee neighborhood in Louisville, March 28-31.

I had the opportunity to participate in a project in this same neighborhood last fall and highly recommend the experience. No matter what your skill level, there’s a job for you to do. Most of the work I was involved in was actually demolition. We were stripping the interior of a house so that another team could come in and renovate its interior.

We saw a young man in the neighborhood come to Christ on that project so our work was more than social ministry or planting seeds. We actually got to see a little of the harvest.

Come join us this spring. You’ll be glad you did.

Here’s the KBC news release about the spring project:

Adults Encouraged to Serve Through Kentucky Changers

LOUISVILLE – The Kentucky Baptist Men on Mission Department is seeking 200 adult volunteers to help provide housing for people in financial need.

Registration is underway for a Kentucky Changers project in Louisville, March 28-31. Adults 18 and older are encouraged to sign up for one, two or all days of service.

Kentucky Baptist volunteers are partnering with the Fuller Center for Housing to repair and renovate houses in the Boston Court/Shawnee neighborhoods.

A Kentucky Changer does some painting as part of the adult project in the Shawnee neighborhood of Louisville last fall.

“We worked with the Fuller Center last fall for the first time and it was a rewarding experience,” said Peggy Murphy who coordinates Kentucky Changers for the Kentucky Baptist Convention.

The Fuller Center is an international faith-based organization that mobilizes volunteers and future homeowners to improve substandard housing. There are three locations in Kentucky.

“In a way, we are picking up where we left off, working in these neighborhoods alongside the people who eventually will purchase the houses,” Murphy said.

During a Kentucky Changers project, volunteers build more than houses; they build relationships with the people they work alongside. Opportunities to share the gospel often arise.

“You can have pretty meaningful conversations with people while you are painting or putting on a roof,” Murphy noted.

Volunteers are needed to help with a variety of jobs, from painting to plumbing. Experienced workers always are welcome but the only requirement to be a Kentucky Changer is a willingness to serve.

Local volunteers pay $25 per person. St. Paul Baptist Church at Shively Heights is hosting out-of-town volunteers. The fee is $75 per person.

Details and online registration are available at www.kybaptist.org/kychangers.

The video embedded in this page was shot during last fall’s Kentucky Changers project in the same neighborhood where the March project will take place. Click here to see the video if your device does not display the embedded version.

A puppet team can communicate the Gospel by capturing the imaginations of young and old viewers alike.

Can you remember a time when you were moved to tears by a powerful movie? (Guys, it’s okay to say “yes”.) How about a time when you were amazed by a magician’s illusions? Ever laughed out loud at the antics of puppets like the Muppets? Have you had your soul stirred by a solo or your imagination captivated by a creative storyteller?

We all know how impacting all of these communications vehicles can be so why not use them and other creative arts to share the gospel of Jesus Christ? Jesus understood the power of the story. In fact, Matthew 13:34 tells us that Jesus “always” used parables when he spoke to the crowds during his earthly ministry. He knew that you have to grab the attention of a person in order to open up a connection to their soul.

We give great attention to the gift of preaching in our churches and we should. God uses sermons to speak into the hearts of his people. But we also need to remember to be creative in finding ways  to reach our communities for Christ even beyond the Sunday sermon.

Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Ga. has taken this to heart big time with the formation of its own film ministry. Films like Flywheel (2003), Facing the Giants (2006), Fireproof (2008), and Courageous (2011) have all come from Sherwood Pictures. While you might have some complaints about the acting in some of those movies, you have to admit that Sherwood gets the point that we’ve got to reach the culture at one of the places where key cultural messages are delivered — the local movie theater.

The ministry is paying its dues right now in learning the craft of movie making but each movie that has been released has been better than the one that came before. Sherwood is on the right trajectory to one day create a truly great film that can compete on every level of film making quality.

Your church or mine may not ever be able to fund a major motion picture but almost all of us have the opportunity to think and be creative in sharing the Gospel. One place for ideas is the KBC’s upcoming Creative Ministries Festival set for March 2-3 in Bowling Green. With workshops on everything from drama and mime to interpretive movement, magic and puppetry, nearly every aspect of using the creative arts for missions and ministry is covered.

Maybe you or someone in your church has a talent that’s not being used in ministry because no one has thought to apply that talent to sharing the love of Jesus. Be open to ideas, let your mind wander a bit and see what new life can come from finding a creative way to tell someone about Jesus!