The American Baptist Churches of the Great Rivers Region gathered at The Chateau Hotel and Conference Center in Bloomington, Ill., Oct. 2-3, for their annual assembly. The region includes Illinois and Missouri ABC congregations.
Glynis LaBarre brings one of two messages to the Great Rivers Region Annual Assembly. (Bill Webb)Attendees conducted some business, elected new officers, heard from missionaries their churches support and listened to messages from one of their own, Glynis LaBarre, American Baptist Home Mission Societies transformation strategist.
And throughout the two-day event, they enjoyed fellowship opportunities, including breakfasts focusing on American Baptist Women’s, American Baptist Men’s and Alternative Ministerial Education ministries.
William Steger, senior pastor of Oak Park Avenue Baptist Church in Berwyn, Ill., was elected president, succeeding outgoing president Bonnie Cassida.
Elaine Bolen, pastor of First Baptist Church, Sparland, Ill., was elected first vice-president. Craig Donoho, a member of First Baptist Church of Champaign at Savoy, Ill., was elected second vice-president.
Taku and Katie Longkumer, who brought an update on their work during the GRR Mission and Ministry Banquet, pause for a photograph following a breakout session. They are development workers with the 7,000-church Council of Baptist Churches in Northeast India, and they relate to 80 different people groups. (Bill Webb)Taku and Katie Longkumer, development workers with the Council of Baptist Churches in Northeast India, described the wide-reaching challenges and joys of their work in the 7,000-church organization.
Each described a broad geographic ministry that includes worship, counseling and missionary training, missionary support training for churches and pastoral care to field missionaries.
LaBarre, who brought messages in both worship sessions, reminded attendees in her first message of Jesus’ “field trip” to Samaria with his disciples while en route to what would be his crucifixion and resurrection in Jerusalem.
She pointed out the reaction of James and John to the news that the Samaritans would not let them pass through their village: “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?”
Gerald Phillips (right), chair of the Great Rivers Region Executive Search Committee, draws a laugh from Richard Ricks (left), who retired Aug. 31 as associate minister of Areas 1 and 3 of the region after 15 years of service, and Dwight Stinnett, who retired as GRR executive minister June 30 after 18 years. Phillips presented each with a cash gift and plaque. (Bill Webb)Jesus responded by rebuking their attitude toward the despised Samaritans.
LaBarre said John got Jesus’ message. When he wrote his Gospel of John, his tone had changed as he wrote about the Samaritan woman Jesus encountered at the well, who returned to town and brought her whole village to Jesus.
“This is how Jesus treats the ‘other’ — with respect and engagement, LaBarre said.
“The church in America today is feeling rebuked,” she noted.
Today, less than 17 percent of Americans go to church on a regular basis, a sharp contrast to 50 years ago when eight in 10 Americans went to church. For the first time in the U.S. history, only one in 10 of the generation born after 2000 have significant contact with the church.
Change will require new approaches like seminary training on the Internet, she said.
“God has to shake us up sometimes,” she said. “He loves us enough and knows we will respond.”
