Annual Gathering Reflections
by Gary Snowden, Missions Mobilization Team Leader
There were many highlights of Churchnet’s annual gathering this past weekend at First Baptist Church of Jefferson City, but three stuck out for me. First, I found Brian Kaylor’s message on Friday evening to be both prophetic and challenging in terms of our need to pursue racial reconciliation and justice in light of our nation’s checkered past in that arena. He made it clear that the evangelical church hasn’t been in the vanguard of leading that reform and that far too often we’ve been complicit in perpetuating systems that have fostered racial division. Brian’s references to Clarence Jordan’s efforts to spearhead such reconciliation through the founding of the Koinonia Farm vividly portrayed Jordan’s courageous stance in pursuit of that goal.
A second highlight was the opportunity to lead two breakout sessions about preparing a church group to engage in a cross-cultural missions trip. We had a lively discussion in the first session that featured some veterans of previous missions trips and others who were exploring that option for the first time. In the second session, Jeff Buscher of William Jewell and I had the opportunity to dialogue about their university’s
involvement in some community
transformation projects in
Honduras. It was a very
enlightening conversation.
Finally, the missions banquet
was a wonderful experience that
featured our trip last October to
Cuba as well as the pastoral
leadership training event in
Guatemala in January of this
year. I was deeply grateful for the
generosity of those present in
response to the appeal to help
fund our mission partnerships in
Eastern Europe and Guatemala.
Almost $7500 was given or
pledged during the banquet.
Gary Snowden speaking during the
Missions Banquet at the Annual Gathering.
(photo credit: Brian Kaylor)