Project Jerusalem

Project Jerusalem has given birth to a BRAND NEW resourcing church network called the Northeast Collaborative! Check out their podcast called "Dents in the Darkness" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podbean, Anchor, or NEC's website here: www.necollaborative.com.

For those who may have missed the big announcement Sharon and I posted a few weeks ago, I’d like to clarify to all our friends and partners the ministry transit...ion we’re making. We are continuing our long-time ministry as Baptist Mid-Missions missionaries planting new churches via recruiting, training and coaching church planters but doing so from a Midwest venue. Our vocational calling remains the same while our location has changed as we just moved from Clarks Summit, PA to Medina, OH. Friday, May 31 was my last official day to be on loan from BMM as a full-time faculty member at Baptist Bible Seminary after 20 years of teaching church planting and missions classes, while also directing the seminary-based church planting training program, Project Jerusalem. It’s been a great run. We’ve been delighted to see the Lord use our planting teams to launch 11 new churches in NE PA and Newark. To God be the glory! We both have loved investing in Next Generation leaders, coaching and mentoring planters and their wives. What’s next? We’re NOT retiring but only transitioning into a refocused ministry of coaching church planters and consulting with churches in areas of church health/growth and corporate reproduction. I hope to also make several overseas trips a year to train national church planters, when invited. I’m already scheduled to return to Peru this fall and hopefully Brazil next January. Again, we’re still active duty missionaries with Baptist Mid-Missions and are very grateful for the faithful and long-time support of our partner churches and friends, enabling us to continue in full-time, front lines Great Commission ministry. In the months ahead we will be reporting back to all our supporting partner churches. Partner churches: do let us know when you’d like us to come so we can personally share our refocused ministry and what God has done in the NE. We’re a little overdue reporting back with many of you. What about Project Jerusalem (PJ)? For some time now, we have sensed the Lord’s leading to launch a new church planting and revitalization network/ ministry refocused on the wider Northeast. The 9 states of New England and New York/ NJ are the least evangelical and churched in the nation. A team of us has been prayerfully working behind the scenes to form the Northeast Collaborative (NEC) which will be officially launched/ announced this fall. I’ve passed the baton of leadership to Dan Nichols, a younger PJ leader who I have been privileged to mentor. Learn more about NEC on our website: www.necollaborative.com Stay tuned for more on NEC. I’ve been asked to continue as a consultant, coach and strategist for NEC. I will also continue as a part-time BBS adjunct faculty member, teaching the online church planting courses I created for the M.A. of Arts in Church Planting and Renewal degree, plus Global Ministry and the Local Church and a new Course this fall Contemporary Cultural Engagement. Last week we moved to Medina, OH to be closer to our four married kids and 17 grandchildrenand to churches and planters in the Midwest we desire to assist. In the last 6 weeks we have seen the Lord wonderfully oversee all the details for this move. He helped us list our PA home on the market without a realtor, brought us a buyer within a week, and led us to a nice, down sized house in Medinawhere our oldest daughter and three of our grands live. Please pray for us as we make this ministry transition and are now unpacking lots and lots of boxes and getting settled in. And do contact us if you have questions about our new ministry or how we can serve your church.

Very excited to see what more God is going to do through the leadership of Dan Nichols! Love reflecting on what God has done through Ken Davis over these past years!

Privileged to lead the closing session of our 4-day School of Church Planting (track 2) boot camp. Roger McNamara and I have been teaching together for all 35 y...ears of the SCP! This year was an exceptional group of participants with pastors and planters from around the country, Senegal, Peru and Jamaica. The Lord sent leaders from several other agencies including Baptist Church Planters and Continental Baptist Mission. The Pastoral Enrichment Program (PEP) of BMM, led by Larry Fogle, has now taken over the oversight of the SCP and some of the PEP teaching team joined forces with Roger and I. This year we added 4 needed sessions on local church discipleship ably lead by missionary pastor Larry Hobbes from Grace Church of Mentor, OH. Next summer the next SCP (track 1) is scheduled for June 8-11 hosted by First Baptist Church, Sterling Heights, MI. We’d love to have you join us! See more

Please pray for Sharon and I as we leave today to teach in our annual BMM School of Church Planting, hosted by Colonial Baptist in Blue Ridge, VA. This summer w...e focus on Track 2 and how to grow and reproduce an already launched church. We expect about 35 registered planters, pastors and leaders--one of our largest groups in years. I'll be leading 8 sessions during this 4 day boot camp, sharing the teaching load with five other seasoned leaders. Pray the Lord of Harvest would use us to encourage and equip all the couples and singles who will be there as we share biblical principles and current best practices. See more