Pursuing God’s Call
First Baptist Church, Cornelia, Georgia First Baptist Church, Matagalpa, Nicaragua
History
In
2006, First Baptist Church, Cornelia carried its first medical mission team up
into the mountains of Matagalpa, Nicaragua.
On that trip we began a relationship with First Baptist Church,
Matagalpa that has radically shaped and transformed our understanding of our mission
in partnership with God in the world. In
these seven years, God has developed and deepened many wonderful relationships
between individuals in our two churches.
These relationships form the foundation and freedom to pursue a new
calling.
Calling
Over
the last 3 years First Baptist Cornelia has prayerfully asked to God to prepare
us for our calling in the world. Based
on the relationships built in Matagalpa, we feel very strongly that God
continues to call us to join First Baptist Church, Matagalpa in its kingdom
work in Nicaragua.
At the same time, we have
begun to sense that our calling goes beyond our current once-a-year medical
mission trip. We sense God calling us
to pursue a more focused, holistic, kingdom impacting, and encompassing partnership
in the Matagalpa community.
A
few mission values have arisen in our prayer and preparation:
- Reciprocal – God is at work both in Matagalpa and Cornelia. We must share this experience of the Spirit together.
- Contextual – First Baptist Church, Matagalpa knows its mission field. We desire to come along beside them to further their kingdom impact in the world.
- Mobilized and Sent – Jesus commissions every individual Christian to go into the world to make disciples (Matthew 28:19-20). We desire to develop a mission vision which engages as many individuals as possible to use their gifts and passion. For example, we want more individuals to have the same experience as our medical personnel who use their gifts and passions. These gifts are varied as the individuals and include: educators, carpenters, artists, and business people.
- Community Development/transformation: In the name of Jesus, we desire to see individuals, families, schools, and communities transformed by the Kingdom of God.
Discernment
Based
on these relationships and these mission values, we feel God calling us to join
the work of First Baptist Church, Matagalpa in one of its two mission
settings: Santa Emilia or Quebrada Honda. We desire to enter into a discernment process
with First Baptist Church, Matagalpa to pursue the shape, nature and function
of this calling.
Knowing the shape of this calling will be
developed together, we offer this possible vision. What if …
First
Baptist Church, Cornelia made a long term commitment to work with First Baptist
Church, Matagalpa in Santa Emilia (or Quebrada Honda). As part of this commitment, we will assess
the spiritual (evangelism, congregational life, spiritual leaders, etc),
physical (health, housing, etc) , educational (school, parenting, etc), and
financial (employers, employee, banking, etc) needs of the community. FBC Cornelia then works with FBC Matagalpa,
the community and other partners to develop a comprehensive, long term
commitment to make steps in addressing these needs one day at a time. We want to work alongside FBC Matagalpa to
impact these communities for the Kingdom of God.
Process
What
we present here is a result of many years of listening to the Spirit of God in
the life of FBC Cornelia, FBC Matagalpa and the lives of our members. In our discernment process we were challenged
by these three questions:
- Is it good news?
- Does this seem impossible to accomplish?
- Is there a good chance that we will fail?
We felt that if the answer
to these questions was “yes”, then God must be in it, and we should move
forward together!
One of the ways we have
felt God move recently has been a new ministry contact with an NGO started in
Atlanta and working in Matagalpa. This
ministry uses a model which invests time and resources into a specific
community, by initially partnering with a public school. Rayo de Sol has been working in the school at
Barrio Tule for several years, and their model for focused community
transformation has struck a chord with the sense of calling we are feeling.
First Steps: During our medical mission
trip (5/31 – 6/8), we will send a 4 person vision team to pray, discern and
pursue this calling with First Baptist Church, Matagalpa.
This is a possible
schedule:
- Sunday: Worship with the communities of Santa Emilia or Quebrada Honda at the FBC, Matagalpa mission sites (this would be 4-6 people of the larger team).
- Monday: Site visit with Rayo de Sol at Barrio Tule. Conversation with Peter, national director of Rayo de Sol.
- Tuesday: Site visits at Santa Emilia and/or Quebrada Honda and conversations about next steps.
- Wednesday: Community visits
- Thursday: Vision team participates with Medical Team
- Friday – Vision team will be a part of the regular medical mission team.
After
our return, the vision team will work with our partners to begin developing a
process and steps for moving forward.
- Posted by
Dr. Eric Spivey
Pastor, FBC Cornelia
