by Sandy » Mon Apr 16, 2012 7:56 pm
If you examine the record, and look at the church planting with which NAMB has been directly involved, it is not taking place in areas where, as you say, "churches and ministry are plenteous and we are viewed as strange." If that's the case in Binghampton, NY, then that city is quite unusual in terms of any similarity to other cities of the same size in the Northeast. The county seat of the county in which I live in Pennsylvania has a lot of churches, and a number of large church buildings, but in most cases, the congregations have dwindled down to a handful of older members. On any given Sunday, you'd find more empty pews than you would people, and many of the churches have drifted far away from preaching the gospel. The First Baptist Church is a viable, gospel preaching, Bible-believing congregation affiliated with the GARBC, but doesn't have the resources to meet the evangelistic, discipleship or ministry needs of this city of about 30,000 people. The few other evangelical, gospel-preaching congregations include an Assembly of God, a large CMA church, two small SBC congregations, and a PCA church. I know the pastors of most of those, and they would be very open to another SBC church plant, or another evangelical church of any kind starting up.
I've worked with World Changers through NAMB, and now Lifeway, for a number of years, and they had a project in Binghampton this past summer. Word is that there is very little ministry going on there, and this NAMB project was welcomed with open arms by all kinds of churches of differing denominational backgrounds. My wife and I visited at the Buffalo, NY World Changers and I know that it was extremely well received by the churches of the community. From what I saw, the inner city of Buffalo is a wasteland of disbanded, abandoned church buildings, with few viable churches. But there are several thriving SBC church plants there, and more to come.