O - Baptist Bible Tribune

c h u r c h p l a n t i n g
NCPO helps rebirth
churches, too
by Wayne Guinn | Director | NCPO
The NCPO is not only helping start brand new churches, but it
is also helping to rebirth languishing churches. We believe this
is an important work too. It was exciting for the NCPO to partner
with the Iowa Baptist Bible Fellowship, Heartland Baptist Church of
Ames, IA, and Bethel Baptist Church of Carroll, IA, to see a ministry
reverse a decline and begin to grow again.
On August 29, 2010, Bethel Baptist Church of Carroll, IA, held a
special charter service, adopted new foundational documents, and
called Mike Salati Sr. as pastor.
Bethel had been in decline for five years. Pastor Randy Abell
(Heartland Baptist Church of Ames, IA) and the Iowa BBF, not
wanting to see a church closed and sold, began to pray and to work
on behalf of the church. They met with Wayne Guinn and Jason
Todd of the National Church Planting Office, with whom Abell had
worked in the past, and hammered out a template for the future.
The church would remain open under the stewardship of Pastor
Abell, and work would begin to salvage and guide the faithful to
ascertain if a work for God
would continue in Carroll.
Mike Salati began as
interim pastor in late February
2010, and he began
regrouping the congregation
with the financial backing of
the Iowa BBF. God began to
bless immediately as a core
group quickly formed around
the normal Sunday school, morning, and afternoon services. By the
end of August, when the charter service was held, attendance was
averaging about 25, the past-due bills were paid off, and the congregation
was poised to move forward.
In late January 2011, the church held its first annual business
meeting. God has continued to direct and bless, and a calendar
has been laid out for the next year. Plans include an evangelistic
outreach for spring, a vacation Bible school for summer, and the
continuation of regular congregational fellowship meals between
Sunday services. The church has elected its first officers and it also
adopted its first annual budget plan, including partial support of
two local missionaries from the Carroll area. Already God is using
Bethel to bring the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth!
None of this would have been possible without the pastors of
the Iowa BBF and the NCPO representatives working together to
further God’s work in God’s time. As Scripture says, “Being confident
of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good thing in
you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).
March 2011 | Baptist Bible Tribune | 5