Back from Montana...so now what?

Well, we made it back safely and I’ve had a few days now to digest our trip.

The seven days that we spent in Montana were simply amazing. We saw some of the most beautiful scenery that we have ever seen. We saw four churches getting outside their own walls to serve their communities and build relationships. We saw those communities embracing those relationships. And we saw God working through a few faithful people who said, “I will go”. We learned a lot about them, their ministries, and their strategies for using church plants to reach the 90% of Montanans that are unchurched.

So now what? We could mark that up as just another good experience and go about our lives or we could learn from what God showed us through these churches. The story that we were sent to cover was “Church Planting”, but the message God kept giving to me was “getting out into the community”. So that’s what we’re going to do.

Many of the ministries at First Baptist are out in our community partnering with schools, prisons, and other organizations and building relationships by serving them. Some First Media volunteers have joined in and served along side others from our church. But now it’s time for us to be intentional about getting out in the community and building those relationships.

As we learn about ways that First Baptist is involved in serving our community, First Media will be there to capture it via video and/or photos. And that doesn’t mean that Chad runs out with a camera every time there’s a service project...that means that WE (you and me) are out there filming the work that’s being done and capturing the stories of those who have chosen to serve. We’re in the process of developing outlets for sharing these stories with our congregation to encourage and challenge them in serving our community as well.

If you are interested in taking part in this ministry, please email me at cconger@fbchtn.org.