Two Years in the Rearview: Where We've Been

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Dear Friends and Prayer Warriors,

As we face the start of our third year of ministry here in East Tennessee, we thought it would be helpful to first, remind you, our dedicated friends and supporters, of why we came to East Tennessee to serve.  And second, to hopefully show you how God has been faithful to open doors for the tasks that He has laid before us. 

Why are we here?

 We live in the Tri-Cities area of East Tennessee working with Mountain Vision Ministries. We serve those living in poverty in East Tennessee, seeking to meet their physical and spiritual needs. We desire to equip and mobilize local churches toward effective benevolence ministry, and to equip and encourage rural pastors and church leaders as ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ using the Bible Training Center for Pastors (BTCP) and Leaders (BTCL) curriculum.

What has God done in our first two years? What has been accomplished?

To answer this it is critical to remember that this is the Lord’s ministry first and foremost.  To Him be all the glory, honor, and praise for what He has done through us, His servants. 

Over the past 2 years, though slow at times, God has opened, and continues to open the necessary relational doors for expansion of our pastor and church leader training (BTCP/BTCL) ministry here in East Tennessee.   

How has God done this?  First, God opened the door for a relationship with Ben Proffitt, Director of Missions for the Holston Baptist Association (HBA) in Johnson City, TN.  Then, through that relationship, Daniel was introduced to Pastor Willie Lunsford who directs the Seminary Extension program for the HBA, which is the current program used for training local bi-vocational pastors and church leaders.  Pastor Willie was hesitant to immediately embrace BTCP/BTCL, but opened a door for Daniel to teach the Christian Growth and Discipleship class through the Seminary Extension Program in the Fall of 2012.  Through teaching this class, Daniel met two students who, along with two other students, formed his first BTCL Preaching class which met from March 2013-August 2013.  This October-December 2013 Daniel will again teach a class through the Seminary Extension Program, Church History.  In 7 years they have not been able to find someone to teach Church History.  As Pastor Willie’s (and others through the HBA) confidence in Daniel’s ability to teach grows through these seminary extension classes, Daniel can see how God is laying the ground work for possible transition to BTCP curriculum and away from traditional seminary extension in the future.  Teaching at the Seminary Extension has also given Daniel some credibility with other leaders in the community who respect that organization.  

In August, Daniel was introduced to Sheldon Livesay at a Second Harvest annual meeting.  He's been doing something similar to what Mountain Vision does in benevolence, but he's been doing it for 25 years and in the last 5 it's really taken off and become a large and influential ministry that partners with many of the rural baptist churches in the two counties just west of us.  He doesn't have any formal education, but he teaches on a radio program every week in addition to teaching his staff and volunteers regularly.  He's expressed an interest in becoming a student in our church leader training program to learn how to more effectively handle the Word, so we're driving over to talk about the possibility of launching a BTCL class with him and some of the other key leaders there.  If it comes together, that could be a huge momentum boost to our pastor and church leader training ministry.  Meeting Sheldon happened through being faithful in our benevolence ministry, but Sheldon viewed Daniel as credible because of his faithfulness to serve through the Seminary Extension at the HBA. 

Though this process has felt painfully slow at times, building relationships is always slow, and trust is huge.  People will not embrace you or your ideas without you first being proven.  We believe these past two years have been a proving time for Daniel but one in which God is laying the ground work for BTCP/BTCL to grow exponentially in the future.  We will share more in the next blog post about where we believe the Lord is taking us next.

What has God accomplished on the benevolence side of this ministry?

First, in our hearts, he has given us a greater passion and heart for impoverished people here in East Tennessee. Working with the materially poor is often painful and difficult, and learning to love people who look, talk, and smell different than we do has not been easy.  But that's what the Lord calls us all to do!  

Over the past two years, we've provided clothing, blankets, household items, or furniture to over 450 unique individuals or households!  On average, we provide food for 50 families per month through our first Thursday food distribution.  We've hosted 6 different mission teams from 5 different churches and one high school. We've become a ministry that local churches feel confident sending people to, because they know we'll try to help them, share the gospel with them, and send them back to the church that referred them!

For those interested in a little more detail, here's a timeline.

June 11, 2011

The Shraders arrive and join the Mountain Vision Ministries team in Greeneville, TN.

June 18, 2011

 The Havens announce their pending departure from our team.

July 2011

Mike Scheer and Tim Ford fly in from Denton to meet with our team and talk about transitions.

Daniel begins serving alongside Charlie at the Storehouse.

Daniel and Meredith begin attending First Baptist Church of Greeneville.

August 2011

 Mountain Vision hosts a mission team from Mount Moriah Baptist Church in Raleigh, NC.

September 2011

Daniel meets with Director of Missions (DoM) from 2 of the local Baptist associations to talk about BTCP/L, pastor and church leader training.  They both agreed on the need for it, but wouldn't commit to partnering with a total stranger, an outsider.

October 2011

Daniel meets with Ben Profit, the DoM for the Holston Baptist Association to discuss pastor and church leader training.  Ben was kind, interested, and not too wary of an outsider.  He set up a meeting for Daniel with Pastor Willie Lunsford, who directs the Seminary Extension for the HBA.

November 2011

Daniel meets with Pastor Willie to discuss pastor and church leader training.  Willie explains the HBA's history with Seminary Extension, and invites Daniel to teach a class in the Fall 2012.  (Yes, almost a year later).

 Mountain Vision Partners with Second Harvest and WCQR for Project Thanksgiving, providing Thanksgiving meals to families in need in the community.

December 2011

Daniel and Meredith formally become a part of the faith family of First Baptist Church of Greeneville.

Mountain Vision partners with First Baptist Greeneville in their Christmas Store event, bringing in resources from Central Baptist Church in Wendell, NC and Calvary Bible Church in Williamston, NC.

January 2012

Daniel submits a proposal to leaders at the HBA for improving outreach to bi-vocational pastors in our association.

 A sudden unexpected drop in our financial support sends us reeling and forces us to ask, "Did God really call us here?  Are we where God wants us to be?"

Daniel begins leading Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University at FBC.

February 2012

The Lord replaced our lost support, not from our efforts (which were great), but by his grace from people we hadn't even asked. It affirmed in our minds that this is where the Lord wants us to be.

Daniel met with Pastor Willie to discuss his proposal to launch sermon-prep groups for bi-vocational pastors.  Willie thinks this needs broader support.  We plan a meeting for next month with other leaders.

March 2012

John and Ngoc Brown fly in from Texas to spend some time encouraging us and offer insight for the future.

Daniel meets with leaders of the HBA to discuss his proposal to launch sermon-prep groups for bi-vocational pastors.  They need to pray about it. No decision is made.

Mountain Vision hosts a mission team from Boca Raton, FL.

April 2012 

Daniel again meets with the leaders of the HBA.  There's some good verbage in this meeting, and they give their blessing.  If Daniel can recruit the pastors and get them to show up to these sermon-prep groups, then the HBA will endorse and support it.

Daniel begins reaching out to individual bi-vocational pastors through cards and phone calls.

May 2012

Daniel wraps up Financial Peace University at FBC.

Daniel continues reaching out to individual bi-vocational pastors through cards and phone calls, but so far has receive no response, not even a single returned phone call.

Daniel and Charlie fill-in teaching at U-Turn for Christ, an addictions recovery ministry we partner with.

June 2012

Mountain Vision hosts a mission team of 33 people from Denton Bible Church in Denton, TX.

July 2012

Mountain Vision hosts the high school ministry from First Baptist as a part of their summer missions program.

August 2012

With no response from the local bi-vocational pastors, Daniel begins to prepare to teach in the Seminary Extension at the HBA.

September 2012

Daniel begins to teach in the Seminary Extension at the HBA and to build relationships with key local ministry leaders.

October 2012

 Daniel continues to teach at the HBA.

November 2012

 Mountain Vision Partners with Second Harvest and WCQR for Project Thanksgiving, providing Thanksgiving meals to families in need in the community.

Daniel and Meredith move into their new home, becoming community insiders rather than outsiders.

December 2012

Mountain Vision partners with First Baptist Greeneville in their Christmas Store event, this year bringing in a mission team from Mount Moriah Baptist Church in Raleigh, NC, who brought material items as well as manpower!

January 2013

Daniel and Meredith travel to Denton, TX for Denton Bible Church's Mission's Conference! It was 2 weeks of encouragement and strategic planning.

February 2013

Daniel begins recruiting for an independent BTCL (church leader training) class.

March 2013

BTCL begins with four students from 4 different churches.

April 2013

Our BTCL class continues.

Daniel attends a seminar called "When Helping Hurts" to get ideas to enhance our benevolence ministry.

May 2013

Our BTCL class continues, and the guys are really growing.

June 2013

Mountain Vision hosts a mission team from Grace Church in Greenville, NC.  The team spends the week doing community surveys with our benevolence clients, providing information to help us better serve their needs.

The BTCL guys taught the mission team during the evening sessions, practicing what they'd been learning.

July 2013

Our first BTCL class concludes.

Mountain Vision hosts the high school students from FBC in their summer missions' program.

August 2013

Daniel begins teaching the high school senior's Sunday school class at FBC.

Daniel begins meeting with FBC about the Christmas Store 2013 outreach.

Daniel begins preparing to teach Church History in the Seminary Extension at the HBA this Fall.

Daniel meets Sheldon Livesay at the Second Harvest annual meeting.

 September 2013

This Thursday Daniel and Charlie go to meet with Sheldon Livesay in Rogersville to discuss a possible launch of BTCL this winter.

A few lessons I've learned along the way.

Launching a new ministry in a new place requires time.  Lots of time.  Nothing makes a person credible like faithfulness over time.  People here are wary of outsiders, particularly outsiders with think they have something to teach them.  There is no substitute for time when it comes to building trust. As much as I would like for things to move faster sometimes, the Lord's timing is perfect.  The Lord measures success in lifetimes, not in months or years.  

Everyone here agrees there's a huge need to train rural pastors, but no one has yet found an effective way to reach out to this group and persuade them to give their most precious asset, time, to further their theological training. We continue to make this our focus.

Working with the materially poor is challenging day in and day out.  Trying to discern between needs and wants, the needy and the greedy, is a daunting task.  Trying to keep the gospel message central while meeting physical needs requires constant attention.

The Lord is always faithful.  He provides daily for our needs, for the Storehouse's needs, and for the needs of those we serve.  We are blessed to serve him in full-time ministry.

Next post, I'll give you an update on where we the Lord is leading us next, in both pastor and church leader training and in our benevolence ministry.  Please lift up our meeting with Sheldon Livesay this Thursday, the 19th.