Greetings to all the saints in our Northwest Baptist churches who are faithful in Christ Jesus. We are excited to bring you news and information about God’s work through Northwest Baptists in this first printed Northwest Baptist Witness in over two years. The printed Witness will be printed and mailed on or near the first of February. We are also thankful that your church’s giving to the Cooperative Program has enabled us to develop, print and mail the Witness at no additional cost to you or your church.
As I look back and press forward into 2014, my heart is filled with gratitude. Paula and I are grateful that our call to follow Jesus has led us to serve with you. Your affirmation of this step in our call confirmed that we were indeed hearing from the Lord. As I have listened to you, and to him, it seems clear our greatest need is Kingdom praying and gospel witness. If together in our churches we will “look up” and “look out,” we’ll see the Lord of the Harvest do the things we dreamed in the early days of our walk with Jesus.
Prayer Gatherings
Prayer is our greatest privilege and most important work. For this reason I will come and pray with you in a series of prayer gatherings across the convention throughout 2014. The first will happen in Spokane on Monday evening, February 3. The purpose of these meetings is to gather believers to pray for spiritual awakening and revival throughout the Northwest. We will also have several “MY316 Saturdays” across the convention in which we gather to pray, serve, share Christ and then celebrate what God did.
The intent of these Saturdays is to model what any church can do on a quarterly basis, which is to intentionally love the community and pray for the people for whom they are spiritually accountable (Ezekiel 33:1-9). If you would like to host a prayer gathering, or if you have an idea for how to do a MY316 Saturday in your area, please let me know.
MY316 Evangelism Resources
All English language MY316 evangelism resources are printed and ready for distribution to every church that requests them. Your Cooperative Program dollars have already purchased these for your church. You simply need to request and use the resources. Translators are working on Spanish and Korean language versions.
International Mission’s Partnership
Steps are being taken toward a mission’s partnership with the International Mission Board and the Northwest Baptist Convention. A vision trip to East Asia is planned for the end of March. Five pastors have committed to participate on this trip at their own expense. We will travel to an area that is largely unreached and has dozens of UPGs (unreached people groups) including some who do not have the Scriptures in their language. Our IMB leader for all of East Asia is so enthused about this that he will travel to the Northwest in latter April, giving a week of his time to travel our convention and meet with all interested persons. If we enter into this partnership, every church and each member will have the opportunity to participate. You will hear much more about this in months to come.
God bless you Northwest Baptists! Hopefully I’ll see some of you at a prayer gathering over the next several months. And always remember, never forget, it is a good day to serve the Lord and it’s a good day to serve him in the Northwest!
Randy Adams
Executive Director-Treasurer
Northwest Baptist Convention