NASHVILLE (BP) — Ethiopian church planter Fisseha Tesfaye expresses excitement about the newly formed African and Caribbean Church Collective of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Tesfaye, founding pastor of Fullness of Life Church in Alexandria, Va., and a church planting consultant with SBC of Virginia (SBCV), realized the collective’s necessity and vitality just minutes into its first meeting.

“It helped me see the whole picture of us, African and Caribbean pastors and churches, and what role we should have in the big picture of the SBC,” Tesfaye told Baptist Press after the inaugural meeting March 7 in Nashville. “Charles (Grant) was very knowledgeable to help us understand the vision of the collective.”

Collective founder Charles Grant, associate vice president for convention advancement and relations for the SBC Executive Committee, began collaborations on the new initiative a year ago and continues cooperatively to refine its goals and strategies.

Nigerian, Liberian, Ghanaian, Ethiopian, Egyptian and Haitian Southern Baptist pastors attended the first meeting, along with representatives from the SBC’s national and international mission boards.

“This nucleus of pastors is bonding and collaborating around a central vision of empowering representation of the SBC African and Caribbean diasporas in all of SBC life,” Grant told Baptist Press. “Our plans are to further expand the network of pastors and begin to execute the vision.”

Hundreds of Southern Baptist pastors fit the collective’s target audience, including more than 350 from Caribbean nations and dozens from several African countries, according to the Annual Church Profile.

Francis Tabla, who accepted Christ more than 40 years ago at Baptist church founded by Southern Baptist missionaries to Liberia, said he felt welcomed and appreciative at the collective’s meeting.

“Rev. Grant and his team created a very welcoming atmosphere,” Tabla said. “Our views were heard and well received.”

Tabla pastors Ebenezer Community Church in Brooklyn Park, Minn., a congregation averaging 500 in Sunday worship from several African nations including Cameroon, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Togo, and Uganda, as well as Haiti, Jamaica and the U.S. About 2000 tune in for Sunday worship on Facebook, Tabla said.

Mokhles Hanna, pastor of the majority-Arabic Jesus the Light of the World Church in Lilburn, Ga., appreciates the opportunity the collective creates for him to connect with other Christians from diverse heritages.

“Even though Egypt is an African nation with centuries of Christian heritage, yet because of Islam, which is the religion of the vast majority of people, we have been cut off from our African roots and heritage and forced to lean towards the Muslim Asian nations,” Hanna told Baptist Press. “So, as an Egyptian Christian, I felt happy to be connected to my African and Christian brothers. It was so special to me also to share a lot of commonalities in our ministry.”

Hanna, who began as a North American Mission Board church planter in 2008, leads a diverse congregation including members with Christian and Muslim backgrounds from Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon and Algeria, as well as the U.S.

Light of the World averages 110 in Sunday worship, and Hanna continues to work as a NAMB church planting assessor.

During the inaugural meeting of the collective, pastors heard informational presentations on the Cooperative Program, navigating the SBC, the ministries of NAMB and the International Mission Board, Baptist Press and the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.

Tesfaye speaks highly of the SBC, noting “sound doctrine,” church planting strategies and the convention’s work to help immigrants reach their communities for Christ.

“The SBC is a hub for church planting strategies,” Tesfaye told Baptist Press. “If it were not for SBCV, I wouldn’t have planted Fullness of Christ church. As a result we (were) able to plant two churches in Arlington and Woodbridge, Va.”

In addition to Hanna, Tabla and Tesfaye, pastors attending the meeting included Keny Felix, senior pastor of Bethel Evangelical Baptist Church in Miami and president of the SBC National Haitian Fellowship; Haggai Habila, Nigerian, pastor of the multi-ethnic Living Spring Fellowship in Des Moines, Wash.; Philip Nache, Nigerian, pastor of Hope of Nations Fellowship Church, Bloomington, Minn.; Charles Owusu, founding pastor of the Ghanaian-majority Word of Life Baptist Church in Lithia Springs, Ga.; and John Voltaire, pastoral team, Grace Connection Baptist Church, Miami, and Florida Baptist Convention Haitian Church Catalyst.

Also on hand were Barry Calhoun, IMB church mobilization strategist; Joseph Dicks, NAMB church planting strategist; and John Asante (non-SBC), lead pastor of New Creation Baptist Church in Millbury, Mass., and president of the North American Baptist Association of the Ghana Baptist Convention. Asante attended with an interest in becoming Southern Baptist, Grant told Baptist Press.

(EDITOR’S NOTE – Diana Chandler is Baptist Press’ senior writer.)