FLUSHING, Mich. (BP) — Like the tools he helped build as a die maker with General Motors, Ed Emmerling is a Michigan product. He was born and raised there. Graduated high school there. Grew up in the church his grandfather started back in 1956.

Emmerling’s 10 years with GM included volunteering in the music and youth ministries at Westside Baptist in Flushing, the church Glen Emmerling founded 68 years ago. Glen’s son, Ron, would serve Westside as associate pastor.

Ron’s son, Ed, continued to explore a call to vocational ministry while working his job at General Motors. His involvement in student ministry led to being good friends with evangelists Ronnie Hill and Wade Morris, both of whom would be instrumental in leading Ed Emmerling to enter full-time ministry.

In 1997 Westside’s pastor, Randy Wheeler, approached Emmerling about joining the church as associate pastor for worship and education. Ron Emmerling had accepted the pastorate at another local church and another staff member had left for seminary. GM gave him a six month leave of absence in case Emmerling changed his mind about ministry.

He didn’t. On the first Sunday in 2002, Emmerling preached his first sermon as pastor of the church his grandfather launched. He grew as a well-respected leader in the community as well as state convention. When the director for Genesee Baptist Association retired three years ago, Emmerling was asked to help lead it as somewhat of a consultant. He says this was when God began to “flourish in my heart the desire to help pastors.”

Others recognized that desire, and on Nov. 1 Emmerling was introduced as the new state executive for the Baptist State Convention of Michigan (BSCM).

Lay of the land

“It’s pretty overwhelming and humbling,” Emmerling told BP on being approached for his new role. “It’s an unbelievable privilege and nothing I’ve aspired to.”

As a native Michigander, he’s uniquely aware of the state’s needs and ministry landscape. Diversity from a large Hispanic population has become even more pronounced with growing Arabic communities in urban areas. Rural areas have their own set of ministry needs. The Upper Peninsula is one of the most sparsely-populated regions of the country and sometimes it’s easier to drive there by going through Chicago and Milwaukee.

Within churches, those on the western side of the state generally operate in a white-collar setting. The eastern side has a blue-collar mentality that can come out in churches when congregations view staff as management and those in the pews as akin to a union.

“It’s so vast, too,” Emmerling said. “You can start in the lower-right corner around Monroe and it would take you somewhere over 16 hours to drive to the northwestern tip.”

Missions beyond Michigan

As a pastor, Emmerling saw the need for church revitalization and church planting. Both are going to be a big part of his vision as state executive.

“About eight years ago I was going deer hunting with my dad and we were talking,” he said. “Churches were closing every year in the association. One of our churches in the association was at a crossroads, about ready to close their doors.

“I remember thinking that Westside wasn’t in a great place to help financially or with people, but God was calling us to be a part of helping replant that church. Today that church is thriving and running over 100 regularly.”

It helped him see how helping other churches is a two-way street that benefits all parties.

“I’ve been involved at different levels with five different church plants now. Some of them were just as an encourager and help guide them in their financial arrangements,” he said. “But I found out that the more our people were involved, the more excited they got about the Gospel. When we gave money, God made a way for us to have some back from somewhere else. When we sent people, God sent more our way.”

If a church is struggling, he added, the way to build it up is to see how you can serve others.

“One of the greatest things you can do to invigorate and bring excitement to your church is connect to a church plant where God is doing some crazy stuff. Cheer for it. Pour into other churches and find ways to come alongside them.”

Emmerling also preaches the value of national partnerships.

“I believe Send Network is the greatest church planting movement — and I’m calling it a movement — we are seeing,” he said. “We want to do whatever we can to expand that partnership. This year we were privileged to host the Send Relief Tour in Flint. It’s been such a blessing to our community and state and caused some non-SBC churches to consider partnering with us.”

Similar partnerships with the International Mission Board and Send Relief are “priceless.”

“We love what they do and love being a part of it. A couple from our church is IMB missionaries and we’ve done work in the Dominican Republic, so we take missions very seriously. The Sending Ceremony is my favorite part of the SBC Annual Meeting and motivates me every year to get more involved.”

Emmerling had no plans to leave his pastorate, but his final sermon as pastor at Westside will be Dec. 29, closing out 23 calendar years.

“God opened the door for this,” he said. “I’m just wanting to be obedient to what He has in store for my life.”

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Scott Barkley is chief national correspondent for Baptist Press.)