For so many reasons, summer is a season of transitions. In addition to the usual changes, this June contains a few additional transitions within the NAB. Dennis and Nancy Palmer, Calvin and Susanne Hohn, and Elsie Lewandowski are all retiring as long-time missionaries with the NAB. We thank them for their service over the decades as they complete their terms at the end of June, and we want to take this opportunity to share our appreciation of them and all they have accomplished for the Kingdom.
The missionary ministry of the Palmers in Cameroon spans six decades. In just the last few years at Mbingo Baptist Hospital. . . .
With a little more than a year to go before the 2024 Triennial in St. Paul, Minnesota, we cannot contain our excitement any longer. Our time together at Triennials past are always special, and July 11–14, 2024, will be no different.
The final details concerning Triennial are still coming together, but we want to get the word out. This is where you and your church can help. Would you share the promotional video from NAB Executive Director Harry Kelm, sharing the theme of the upcoming Triennial? Show it during the announcement block of your Sunday gathering, share the link on social media, or email it to friends in the NAB. We want everyone in the NAB to know they are invited and welcome.
You can also check out www.nabtriennial.com to read more about the theme of this year’s Triennial, as well as find videos of a few of the most recent Triennials.
There is still room! The next Fit Assessment is just around the corner, July 10–12, 2023, in Medina, Ohio, and if you are interested in church multiplication, church revitalization, or international missions, we invite you to consider checking it out!
The NAB Fit Assessment is designed to help individuals and couples discern their next best steps in ministry based on their skills and the leading of the Spirit. Key to this is the Fit Assessment staff entering into the discernment process with each candidate or couple. We use proven methods and tools to help each individual and couple, if married, accurately appraise their fit to be the lead planter in a church plant, be the lead pastor of a revitalization effort, or serve as an international missionary.
If you, or someone you know, might be interested, it is not too late to sign up for this next assessment. If you are interested but cannot make it to this next assessment, the good news is the next Fit Assessment is already scheduled for February 7–9, 2024, in Folsom, California.
For David Curtis, pastor of Salt Creek Baptist Church in Dallas, Oregon, going through Blue Ocean changed his life for the better. “God did some real significant work for me in that, and that spurred me to start working with a Christian counselor,” David said. “It’s added a lot of depth and been a real life-giving process, to me personally and for my family, just because of the way I’ve grown out of that.” David understands God still has some work to do in him, which is why he looks forward to the annual Bonfire gathering, what he describes as “an opportunity to get around the table with other people that are on the journey of leading and understanding how to lead from a place of health and how to navigate the challenges that we face in ministry.”
Bonfire and Planter Summit – the gathering of those planting or revitalizing church communities – are quickly becoming key components in the spiritual lives of leaders across the NAB. These annual reunions are designed to help shape us, communally and individually, into people who look more and more like Christ, because who we are becoming matters. (Check out the mailer sharing David’s story, and the story of other pastors and church multipliers, and the impact Bonfire, Planter Summit, and other NAB gatherings have had on their lives and ministries.)
Would you consider giving to the Ministry Resource Fund to help support the formation of NAB leaders through events like Bonfire and Planter Summit? Your generosity will, in part, assist pastors, leaders, and missionaries across the NAB through training, resources, and assistance created specifically to help them become the people God made them to be so they might impact their communities for the Kingdom.