ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Against
the backdrop of a land as rugged and wild as it is spiritually lost, the North
American Mission Board (NAMB) commissioned 30 new missionaries and chaplains
Sunday, January 24, many of whom will serve Alaska and it’s northern neighbor,
Canada.
The service took place at
First Baptist Church (FBC) Anchorage, which was Alaska’s first Southern Baptist
church, started in 1943 by a small group of GI’s stationed at nearby Fort
Richardson. The church has a long history of starting churches in Alaska.
“It’s a real privilege for
us to have this group of missionaries here at this point in your sending
process — to be a part of that is a wonderful blessing,” FBC Anchorage pastor Ed
Gregory told those in attendance. “Thank God for this privilege and for the
fact that He is indeed at work across our land and we get to be in on it.”
“For 60 years the Alaska
Baptist Convention has had a close relationship with first the Home Mission
Board and now the North American Mission Board,” said David Baldwin, executive
director of the Alaska Baptist Convention. “I want to say on behalf of the 105
Southern Baptist congregations scattered across Alaska — welcome. We are so happy
to have this moment here tonight.”
Baldwin told the new
missionaries, “You are in a friendly crowd. Probably every person here tonight
has been touched by the Home Mission Board or the North American Mission Board
because of the church planting and all that has gone into our state. We do not
take that for granted.”
Larger than the size of
Texas, California and Montana combined, Alaska’s land mass accounts for 16
percent of the United States’ total land area. Half of its population of nearly
700,000 is concentrated in the metro Anchorage area with 365,000 people. The
next two largest cities are Fairbanks (31,000) and Juneau (30,000).
The vastness of Alaska’s
size creates great challenges for the 105 Southern Baptist churches and
missions trying to reach the state’s residents. Alaskan culture and lifestyle
also bring challenges.
Many of the state’s citizens who transplanted from the
“lower 48,” came seeking solitude and greatly value their independence, making
evangelistic outreach difficult. On the other hand, many of the state’s native
Alaskans live in remote villages that cannot even be accessed by car.
Luke and Sarah Stewart are
Mission Service Corps missionaries ministering at an SBC mission church in the
remote Eskimo village of Kobuk. In 2008, Stewart, his wife Sarah and their
young family moved to Kobuk. Temperatures their first winter plunged to 65
degrees below zero. The village is inaccessible by car, so supplies must be flown
in when weather allows.
Stewart said ministry in the
village requires a slow approach and serving the village members while trying
to share Christ as relationships develop.
“I am trying to be an
encouragement to the believers and help them grow in their Christian lives,”
Stewart said. “Beyond that, we are trying to serve the other people so they
will see by the way we live and the way we treat them that we love them and
that God loves them.”
Other missionaries
commissioned to Alaska will serve in Kodiak and Girdwood. In addition to those
commissioned who will be serving in Alaska, missionaries serving in Oregon,
North Dakota, Hawaii, Washington State, Utah, Canada, California and South
Carolina.
Carlos Rodriguez and his
wife, Paola, serve in Seattle as church planting strategists who are starting
congregations for Hispanics, Slavic, Russian and Ukrainian populations living
in the area.
“The Northwest is the most
un-churched area of the United States and Seattle is a very diverse area of the
nation and very multi-cultural,” Rodriguez said.
“Many of the Ukrainians and
Russians come from a Christian background. Their parents and grandparents
suffered for the Lord when they were a communist country. And some come from a
Russian Orthodox background or communist background. Many of them have left the
faith and are un-churched.”
Carlos and Paola relocated
to Seattle five months ago after serving as language church planter strategists
in Portland, Ore., for five-and-a-half years. Carlos said the area needs prayer
for more church planters to start churches for the 1.5 million Hispanics living
in the Northwest. In addition, Carlos asked for prayer in reaching the second
generation Slavs, Russians and Ukrainians living in Seattle. Rodriguez said he
and other SBC church planters in the region are in a race with Mormon’s and
Jehovah’s Witness missionaries who are actively working the region for
recruits.
The new missionaries arrived
in Anchorage two days before the commissioning for a time of training and
orientation hosted by NAMB leaders including Richard Harris, NAMB’s interim
president, Frank Page, vice president for Evangelization, and Ken Weathersby,
vice president of Church Planting. Tim Patterson, chairman of NAMB’s Board of
Trustees, also attended the event.
The missionaries fanned out
across the greater Anchorage area on Sunday morning, visiting with and
preaching in local Southern Baptist churches.
Harris gave the
newly-commissioned missionaries a charge: “Whatever else you are trying to
accomplish in your ministry, as we send you out tonight, it is to proclaim the
Gospel of Christ by way of life and by word of mouth.”
Harris encouraged those commissioned
to approach people with “gentleness and respect.”
“You are going to confront
all kinds of people with all kinds of backgrounds. Go to them in humility.
Remember who you are. Remember whose you are.”
But spreading the gospel is
not only a missionary responsibility. Turning to those from area churches who
attended the commissioning service, Harris said, “Every year, three million
precious souls are added to North America’s population. You say ‘I can’t reach
everybody.’ No, but you can reach somebody and if you are willing to share, God
will bring a harvest field into your life.”
In all, more than 5,300
missionaries serve with the North American Mission Board, most of them through
partnerships with state Baptist conventions. In addition to the missionaries,
NAMB is the endorsing entity for more than 3,300 Southern Baptist chaplains
serving in military, hospital, professional, corporate, public safety and
institutional settings.