• Volunteer Days: 235
• Meals Prepared: 591
• Families Assisted with Flood Recovery/Mud-out: 7
• Chaplaincy Contacts: 191
• Ministry Contacts: 32
• Gospel Presentations: 15

We have enjoyed the blessing of serving beside teams from Missouri, Virginia, Illinois, Tennessee, and Minnesota/Wisconsin as we served in Illinois.

Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief is also continuing to work with Hurricane Sandy Rebuild in New York City.  We are currently seeking to fill volunteer teams for the following dates and have already filled the core of these teams:

July 7-13 – Blue Hats Bill and Debra Kramer – still seeking an additional five volunteers to date

July 14-20 – Blue Hat Chris Cropp – still seeking one additional volunteer to date

July 21 -27 – Blue Hat Carolyn Gray -

July 28 – August 3 – Blue Hat Donna Castle – Still seeking  five additional volunteers to date

Video captured by Mark Garner of Bedford, Texas.

Southern Baptist Disaster Relief has established quite a reputation. In their coverage of the aftermath of the Oklahoma tornado, two veteran newscasters had the following conversation:

“As you and I have seen in so many different places in this country, If you’re waiting for the government, you’re going to be in for an awful long wait. The Baptist Men, they’re going to get it done tomorrow,” Harry Smith, NBC News. In response Brian Williams replied, “They are already delivering food along the street.”

Thank you, Kentucky Baptists.  Thanks to your faithful giving through the Cooperative Program, the Annie Armstrong Offering, and the Eliza Broadus Offering, the work of individual churches and associations, Southern Baptists have been able to train and equip thousands of volunteers to become one of the largest and most effective disaster relief providers in the United States.

The Kingdom result? Those who are hurt are comforted. Those who mourn are comforted. Those who are hungry are fed. And most importantly, God is glorified.

Thanks for being the hands and feet of Jesus, Disaster Relief volunteers.  The world notices what you do, and they notice the One you serve.

Brian Burkhead of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Lexington will serve on the Credentials Committee.

Richard Gaines of Consolidated Baptist Church in Lexington will serve on the Committee on Resolutions.

Ben Dockery of Vine Street Baptist Church in Louisville and Mark Payton of St. Paul Baptist Church at Shively Heights in Louisville will serve on the Committee on Committees. The Committee on Committees will nominate trustees to serve on boards of SBC entities. The committee is also authorized to appoint special committees that messengers authorize during the SBC annual meeting.

Gathered from Baptist Press reports.

Nominees will serve if elected by the messengers to the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, June 11-12 in Houston, Texas. 

Arnaldo (Tino) Soto-Cuevas, layperson and member of Immanuel Baptist Church, Corbin, has been nominated to fill a term on the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention. The seat was previously filled by Stephen D. Wilson, Paducah, and will expire in 2017.

J. Wesley Noss, pastor of New Hope Baptist Church in Versailles, was nominated for a second term in the board of Guidestone Financial Resources.

Charlie W. Davis, pastor of Hunsinger Lane Baptist Church in Louisville, was nominated for a second term with the International Mission Board.

Timothy D. Turner, minister of education at Porter Memorial Baptist Church in Lexington, has been nominated for a second term on the board of LifeWay Christian Resources.

Ralph C. Prince, layperson and member of Lone Oak Baptist Church, Paducah, has been nominated for a term on the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary board, replacing Lonnie Riley of Harlan, who resigned. The term expires in 2016.

Todd A. Linn, pastor of First Baptist Church of Henderson, has been nominated for a second term on the board of Southeastern Theological Seminary.

Larry T. Lewis, pastor of Reidland Baptist Church in Paducah, has been nominated for a second term on the board of Midwestern Theological Seminary.

You can help by praying and by giving.  Several giving options are available through Southern Baptist Disaster Relief organizations.  Here’s a rundown:

• You can give through a special fund set up by Kentucky Baptist Convention Disaster Relief. All contributions will be used for Oklahoma relief efforts.
• You can give through Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief.
• You can give through Southern Baptist Disaster Relief. Currently, all contributions through the North American Mission Board’s Disaster Relief fund are being set aside for Oklahoma relief.

• Volunteer Days: 176
• Mud-Out Jobs Completed: 6
• Chaplaincy Contacts: 186
• Gospel Presentations: 15
• Ministry Contacts: 26

LOUISVILLE

Assess where you are. What is your first impression of the affinity group that presents the greatest opportunity for outreach in your community?

Establish a strategic leadership team.

Disciple and be discipled. Your strategic leadership team won’t help the church lead others to Christ effectively unless its members are growing in their own relationships with Christ.

Identify your community’s affinities. There are more than you may realize. Do people like hunting and fishing, motorcycles, classic cars, horses, quilting, scrapbooking or cooking? And don’t forget to think about affinity groups that are not based on an activity. Your community may have people from different cultures and languages, the deaf/hearing impaired, military families or colleges.

Locate the “least of these.” What needs of these people groups are not being engaged by your church or other community ministries? How can your church start to engage these people groups?

Listen to your community. Ask neighbors and local leaders about the greatest interests and needs in your area.

Host a creative vision session. Ask church members to share their ideas for helping the community. No suggestions are out of bounds at this point.

Analyze intangible forces. What forces are at work behind the scenes in your community (social, economic, political or religious)? How have these forces previously been a barrier to your church’s outreach? How can your church leverage these issues and address them with an affinity evangelism event?

Choose your focus ministry.

Commit and plan.

Conduct follow-up. How will your church visit those who pray to receive Christ? How will you encourage personal discipleship?

With prayer, planning and hard work, perhaps your church can reach people for Christ more effectively than ever.

Download the free affinity evangelism workbook from KBC at www.kybaptist.org/get2know.

by Dannah Prather, KBC Marketing and Media Relations Associate

LOUISVILLE

That’s what hundreds of church leaders are learning as they receive training in affinity evangelism through the Kentucky Baptist Convention.

Affinity evangelism is a strategy that helps congregations identify “communities within their communities” and engage them with the love of Christ and the message of the gospel.

Kijsa Housman, a member of First Baptist Church of Paducah, shows members of her art outreach group how to create a bracelet that will remind them about God’s love for them. Housman has held several classes for people of all ages as a way to reach more people in the Paducah area with the love of Christ.

Affinity groups may include outdoorsmen, classic car enthusiasts, scrapbookers and more. College campuses, military posts, large local industries, and cross-cultural neighborhoods also are natural affinity groups.

“I’m excited about what we’re going to begin to see happen as churches begin to get engaged with their communities,” said Chuck McAlister, leader of the KBC Evangelism and Church Planting Team. The approach “gets the churches outside the four walls.”

The Kentucky Baptist Convention offers workshops, phone and e-mail consultations and a free workbook with the affinity evangelism strategy mapped out.

The workbook, available via free download at www.kybaptist.org/get2know. includes three different surveys that churches can conduct among their leadership, their congregation and their community.

These surveys also help identify:

• affinity groups in the community.
• gifts and passions among church members.
• which groups the church is best equipped to reach.

The point at which the results of the three surveys overlap “is what we would call the sweet spot for evangelism in the community—the opportunity for the church to reach out into the community with the smallest number of barriers,” McAlister said.

Three of the most promising affinity groups in Kentucky are archery enthusiasts, hunters and families with children in public school, he said, noting that churches can start ministries that appeal to each group.

Some cross-cultural groups, such as Hispanic, South Asian and deaf/hearing impaired may require that the church seek assistance from KBC or another resource to develop an effective strategy, McAlister explained.

“We don’t want churches to become intimidated by something as big as a language barrier,” McAlister said. “Come to us for help. We will work together to reach that important group in your city, county or association.”

College campuses also are a unique mission field that KBC can assist churches in serving. According to Brian Combs, collegiate evangelism strategist for KBC, the partnership between each Baptist Campus Ministry and local churches could impact far beyond the commonwealth.

“With local churches coming alongside our campus ministers, we can better reach our colleges with the gospel, and that includes the ever-growing population of students from other countries attending Kentucky colleges,” Combs explained.

“Many of those international students who meet Christ through BCM and a local church, will be inspired by the Holy Spirit to return to their home countries—some where the name of Jesus has never been spoken—to share the gospel,” he said.

Many Kentucky Baptists already ‘doing’ affinity evangelism

Rolling Fork Baptist Church in the Nelson Baptist Association was dwindling in attendance when Pastor Bruce Nichols arrived 14 years ago. But through several affinity-based outreaches, it has seen attendance and baptisms increase. A classic car show in partnership with a sister church, a community appreciation event at a local park, and a “coon hunt” dinner are just a few of the ministries Rolling Fork has done.

Though the congregation’s focus on affinities pre-dates the KBC emphasis, Nichols said he is excited about what will happen as more Kentucky churches center their evangelism on community interests and needs.

Affinity-based outreach “makes everybody aware of the fact that they can be involved with the ministry without having to be specialists in Bible translations and theology,” he said.

“They don’t have to be professionally trained,” Nichols continued. “They can be involved in a volunteer work and be able to show Christ’s love through services and different types of outreach programs.”

In Paducah, a member of First Baptist Church, Kijsa Housman, has discovered how she can reach middle school and high school girls through art. Once or twice a month, she invites girls to do an art project with her and shares Scripture with them in the process. First Baptist helps by sending invitations and hosting some of the art gatherings in its facilities.

“Affinity evangelism is helping churches find any interest group that they can identify or that comes to the surface naturally through connections or interests that a church member would have,” said Kristen White, a KBC Evangelism and Church Planting Team staff member who has trained churches to use art for outreach.

“As Kijsa says, she (used to) think of her art and her faith as separate, and it’s just amazing how the Lord keeps bringing opportunities for her to use art as the avenue for her to build relationships and introduce people to Christ.”

Near the Fort Campbell Army Post, military families are an important affinity group. So, First Baptist Church of Oak Grove planted a church designed to reach them. Assisted by the KBC and Christian County Baptist Association, the plant—called The Church at Oak Grove—had 29 people at its first service in late March.

“It was great,” Heather Gentleman, the wife of Pastor Carlo Gentleman, told the Eagle Post newspaper in Hopkinsville. “A couple of families were new visitors for that morning, and almost everyone was military, which is great.”

The Church at Oak Grove wants to “be a support for military families, so it was a thrill to see them led to come that way,” Gentleman added.

Church plants centered on affinity groups are nothing new, and McAlister said he anticipates Kentucky Baptists will see more of these congregations.

“In the old paradigm, a church planter is placed within a community to develop relationships which serve as the catalyst for the new church,” he said. A more effective approach is for a church planter to “identify special needs and interests … and to help meet needs within a community. The relationships necessary to plant a church are greatly accelerated.”

Examples of affinity-based church plants are easily found in the Bible.

“People with natural affinities were engaged by the Apostle Paul and others to launch churches in their midst,” McAlister continued. “Whether the people engaged were worshipers at Pentecost, leaders in Athens or members of a particular household, they all shared a particular affinity or interest which served as a catalyst to launch a church.”

Affinity Approach Celebrates Unity Within Diversity

A concern McAlister sometimes hears from church leaders is that affinity-based outreach and church planting could lead to a segmentation of the body of Christ. He believes that the affinity approach actually can reach people across a broad array of socioeconomic and racial groups.

“You look at an affinity like the local school in a rural community,” he said. “You have grandparents that want to be involved in school; you have parents that want to be involved in school. You have every socioeconomic level involved in the school.”

All effective affinity ministries highlight “the unity that results in the midst of the diversity that we enjoy as Christians,” he added.

Contact the KBC Evangelism & Church Planting Team for more information on affinity evangelism:

• Kris White for outreach to women: gro.tsitpabyknull@etihw.sirk or (502) 489-3349.
• Brian Combs for Baptist Campus Ministry: gro.tsitpabyknull@sbmoc.nairb (502) 489-3347 or 1-866-489-3347
• Chuck McAlister for other inquiries, including workshops: gro.tsitpabyknull@retsilacm.kcuhc or (502) 489-3417 or 1-866-489-3417 (toll-free in Kentucky).

Read part one of this story series, listen to presentations on affinity evangelism from this year’s Risk conference, and download the free affinity evangelism workbook at www.kybaptist.org/get2know.

Story by David Roach, KBC Communications

We have decided to supply feeding teams for most of July. This will be after current Illinois deployment and prayerfully before hurricane season.

We will need teams of about 10 people each week (or you can volunteer for two weeks at a time, whichever is better for your schedule).

The feeding teams will not have to pay the $15 per day fee that the rebuild teams will.

We will assign a blue hat for each week and the food will be provided for the teams to cook. You will arrive on Sunday and serve through the end of the day on Saturday. The plans now are to have self serve food items for Sunday.

Please contact gro.tsitpabyknull@bbew.yoc or (502) 489-3399 if you are able to serve and which week or weeks you are willing to serve. This will be a great opportunity for new volunteers to get their feet wet in disaster relief in a less than high stress situation of disaster response.

Kentucky Feeding Teams Schedule for Sandy Rebuild:

• Arriving July 7 – 13
• Arriving July 14 – 20
• Arriving July 21 – 27
• Arriving July 28- August 3

LOUISVILLE

Alumni will gather for a reunion weekend June 21-23 in Bowling Green. All alumni and former chaperones are welcome to come. Alumni will then join this year’s All-State Youth Choir and Orchestra for a combined concert on Sunday, June 23 at First Baptist Church in Bowling Green at 3:00 PM (CDT).

The guest conductor for the alumni choir is Richard Suggs, minister of music at First Baptist Church of Bowling Green. The guest accompanist is Andrea Nance, the congregation’s pianist.

The $50 per person registration fee for alumni covers meals and breaks during rehearsals, a concert polo shirt and other administrative costs. Click here to register now.

Accommodations are the responsibility of each participant; 25 rooms are reserved at Baymont Inn of Bowling Green at a discounted rate of $79 plus tax per night. Call (270) 782-3800 to make reservations. Mention “KBC All-State Alumni Reunion” to receive the discount.

Request to join the Facebook group at “Ky Baptist ASYC Alumni.”