By Michael Benson
Communications Director
“At the end of the day, we’re not just a teen center. We’re not a niche ministry. We’re people of the gospel, people of the Christian faith.”
This is how Jake McGregor described One-Eighty in Lodi, California, when I chatted with him and his wife, Alison, recently about their ministry. Alison and Jake are the executive co-directors of One-Eighty. Originally established in 2002 as an after-school teen center, in the decades since, it has grown into so much more.
They still serve as a teen center, a place for young people to make a home for themselves, a safe place they can be themselves. But One-Eighty also serves as a counseling center, providing mental health services to adolescents and their families; as Alison describes it, they train all of their mentors on socio-emotional needs so they can provide a kind of “mental health first aid.” They also invest in community development through their Intentional Neighbors program (check out this profile of Liz Stevahn for more on what this looks like), and they provide adventure opportunities to kids to give them a larger perspective on the world. There is even a microchurch known as Kingdom Community in the mix as well, serving as a kind of heartbeat, running in the background but helping to shape and guide all that happens.
Above all, Jake said, “We want to see the Good News, tangible Good News. Hope for the hopeless and restoration for the broken and release for the captives and sight for the blind. We want to see the whole Gospel take place and be birthed here in this community. And we’ve seen it happen.”
As part of seeking the Gospel for their community, they are attempting something new. . . .
The latest issue of TouchPoint is now available. This newsletter from the NAB Women’s Connection Team includes a lot of great resources and stories, including:
- Reflections from Heather Senges on fourteen years working with women across the NAB.
- Interviews with NAB missionaries in Brazil, Lyndell Campbell-Réquia and Marci Jones.
- The Saker Baptist College Water Project.
- Advent study suggestions.
- And recommendations for fall book studies for your local women’s ministry.
Click on the link below to read the newest copy. You can also sign up to receive a copy directly in your inbox.
check out the fall 2024 touchpoint
There is a kind of Gospel Language that is expressed when we follow Jesus’s instructions to love God and love others. Whether it is spoken through words or conveyed through actions, this Gospel Language can be heard and seen at churches all across the North American Baptist Conference. One of the ways it is expressed at McKernan Baptist Church in Edmonton, Alberta, is through MELL, their English-language learning ministry.
In some ways, MELL is an outgrowth of years of investment the church has made in connecting its pastors and leaders to the NAB’s missional and formational ministries such as Blue Ocean, where leaders from across the NAB are introduced, or reintroduced, to what it means to be a missional people who are being formed into the image of Christ and therefore seeking to draw others into that kind of life transformation. Would you consider giving to the Ministry Resource Fund, which helps, in part, make resources like Blue Ocean possible?
You can find ways to give through the link below. We have also created resources for you to use at your church, ministry group, or Bible study to invite other people to join in partnership to help support the ministry efforts covered by the Ministry Resource Fund.