4 | March 2025
President’s Pen Rejecting the Status Quo
The church where you worship hasn’t been there forever. Whether it was five years ago or 100 years ago, at some point, somebody planted the church where you worship. We can safely make a few assumptions about those people: they loved Jesus, they wanted other people to love Jesus too, and they weren’t content with the status quo of their day. What about today? Should we accept the status quo? Does Ohio already have all the healthy churches it needs? Would more faithful churches be a good thing for our country or our state? What about your county? Would more healthy, evangelistic, Christ-exalting churches be a good thing for your county? Would they be desperately needed co-laborers for the harvest? Or simply competition for the opportunity to serve the churched people in the area? How would you see it? I live in Knox County. It’s mainly rural. It’s got about 63,000 people. These are my people. I love them. A lot of them don’t know Jesus. About 21,000 people in my county say that they have a meaningful connection to a local church. About 8,200 of those 20,000 say they belong to an evangelical church. That means that in my county, there are at least 40,000 people with no meaningful connection to a local church who very likely do not know Christ. That bothers me. The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. If you’re receiving and reading the Ohio Baptist Messenger , there’s a really good chance that you belong to a cooperating church. This is awesome!!! So many laborers are supported by our generosity to the Cooperative Program. Let’s keep it up! But what would it look like for your church to also become a sending church ? A sending church takes the primary responsibility for a new church plant–sending them, supporting them, caring for them, training them, etc. The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe your county already has all the healthy churches it needs. But if your area could use another healthy church, what part is God calling you to play? If you’re interested, but not sure where to begin, we can help! It’s just an email or phone call away. There are amazing resources in our state to help church leaders. You can always reach me at president@ scbo.org. Grace and Peace, Adam Pursel SCBO President 2 And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Lk 10:2). (2016). Crossway Bibles.
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