Nearly two years ago, Jesus Navarro felt God calling him to Blount County, Alabama, from Houston, Texas, to lead a congregation of Spanish speaking people. Today, that congregation is thriving ..read more

Over the last several years, I have especially had the privilege of praying for church planters on a regular basis. Church planting is a spiritual engagement in darkness – to plant the Gospel in a community needing new Gospel impact. In praying for leaders, and godly men and women, I have used Proverbs 13 as a great guide and outline to pray more deeply. The following is a sequence that has been helpful though not comprehensive: VERSE 1 – Like David, may he respond well to God’s discipline and rebuke. The Lord disciplines those He loves, so may he experience and know of God’s love drawing him ..read more

In this season of returning to “normal,” maybe it is time to remember our commission and align our activity and focus on Christ’s mandate and priority for us. Over the past years’ gatherings, big and small efforts have been challenging for everyone, but making disciples has remained our call. Many times, I believe that our challenge is not that we do not want to make disciples but that it gets put on the list with everything else. I recently talked to a youth pastor who moved his primary discipling plan into the homes where he became focused on equipping and discipling parents to then disciple ..read more

In 2018, Lamar Duke pulled together a report he’d been asked to compile, and when he finished it, he sat at his desk and wept. The numbers showed that in the five years prior, Alabama Baptists had planted 85 churches, representing 785 people who had been baptized. Those churches were “reaching the unchurched,” said Duke, then-church planting strategist for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions. “I tell people all over Alabama that if we have one church that can baptize 30 a year for the next five years, that’s significant. But if that church can also plant churches that do the same thing ..read more

When Richard Alford was hired in 1991 to serve in language missions with the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions, he had a skill they needed — fluency in the state’s most widely used language behind English: American Sign Language. At that time, the Deaf were by far the largest language group after English in Alabama. But Alford had barely unpacked in his new office before he started noticing a shift. “The 1990 census for Alabama was showing 30,000 Hispanics, and as best I could tell, that was probably reasonably accurate,” he said. “But for the first few years I was here, it seemed like t ..read more

Over the years, I have had the privilege of walking with many followers of Christ as we seek to follow Him together and obey Him. In my praying and making a disciple of Christ, I have been frustrated at different points for many reasons. One of the main challenges is that a learner of Jesus’ way will agree to obey and do, and then does not follow through on the commitment. An example could be that we agree to read a chapter of John each day and take 15 minutes to pray. The disciple and I would talk it over, and many times Bible reading and/or prayer would not happen. Instead of driving it hard ..read more

As I took the call from a planter in training who is already working and leading a small urban congregation, I did not know what the need could be early on a Saturday. He shared that he needed a form from the training overview because he needed to work on things. Our planters go through a three-month training cohort. Last week we tackled discipleship – the need for us to be disciples and make disciples in these new churches. The lesson was pushing for all planters to have a plan on next steps for all members in growing as disciples but especially for those who would come to Christ. We looked a ..read more

As I visited a collegiate church plant – Church at the Oaks in Tuscaloosa – I was so encouraged by the number of students seeking to be disciples and make disciples of all nations. During prayer time, this was on the screen: Pray that every college student on campus would have to step over the Gospel before they graduate. As I read it, prayed it and thought about it, I was reminded that every church has to have a clear Jerusalem community God has called them to reach. Church at the Oaks is focused on the 40,000-plus undergrads at the University of Alabama. Each planter is to look and see the c ..read more

Greetings, this is Brian. Hope you’re doing well. And as you are engaged in extending the Kingdom of God where you’re at, I thought I’d start doing a video blog once a month over this next year, kind of, hopefully, something that would encourage you and allow for others also to get in this blog to encourage you as well. Well, listen, I was looking through “The Alabama Baptist” and I came up on an article that is about Jesus Navarro, who’s one of our church planters, and it says, “Only God can do it.” And I was reminded today that, as I was rereading the article, that it is only God that can ..read more

Jesus Navarro hadn’t planned on leaving Texas and moving to Alabama.  But one Sunday morning in 2021 when he was visiting a friend at First Baptist Church Oneonta, he started talking with Steve Sellers. At the end of the conversation, Sellers — director of missions for Friendship Baptist Association — put his hand on Navarro’s shoulder and said, “Lord, if this is the man we’ve been looking for, can You work it out for us?” Navarro wasn’t sure he was the man, at least not yet. But he did know that God had a tendency of bending his path when he least expected it. Continue reading here. This ..read more