Great Hope Baptist Church in Chesapeake, Virginia, commissioned Tracey and Martha Jones as missionary church planters with BIMI. Tracey confirmed that the Lord was leading him to plant a church in Montana. Prior to moving there, he and Dr. John Bailes (USA Director for BIMI) traveled more than 5,000 miles throughout the state to determine the best places for church planting.
After raising support, Tracey moved his family to Whitehall, Montana, to plant their first church. When they left Montana six years later in November 2006, the church accepted the leadership of Kevin Turman—a homegrown pastor.
Kevin had visited Whitehall Baptist Church with his wife, Kristy, on the very first day of services. He led singing in the early days of the church and eventually surrendered to preach the Gospel. The Lord used Tracey to mentor and prepare Kevin to eventually pastor the church. Today, God is blessing with continued growth and fruit.
Pastor Jones then followed the Lord’s leading to return East as he sought God’s will concerning his next church plant. I approached him with the idea of partnering with our church. As pastor of Central Baptist Church, I had been praying for several years to see an Independent Baptist church planted in the southern part of our county. We saw that prayer answered on February 27, 2007, when our church voted to help pastor Jones start Appalachian Baptist Church.
Our church committed $30,000 from our Faith Promise monies for the startup costs of the new church. In addition, several of our members, seeing the need for this new work, stepped forward to add thousands of dollars out of their own pockets. This provided pastor Jones with additional money for hymnbooks, chairs, sound equipment, nursery supplies, and money for the rent of the building.
On Mother’s Day, May 13, 2007, Central Baptist Church voted unanimously to “birth” Appalachian Baptist Church, to set in place the church constitution, and to call Brother Tracey Jones as the pastor. They concluded by receiving a group of willing folks from CBC to become the first members. Needless to say, it was an exciting night at our church!
In a message prior to the vote, I shared with our people the following three thoughts:
1. The Foundation of our local church is Jesus Christ.
2. The Focus of our local church is world evangelism.
3. The Future of our local church is the visible return of Jesus Christ.
Until our future is realized, we must be busy about our duties for the Lord. We must reach our world for the Lord. We have an obligation to our Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the world—all at the same time! We have sent families out of our own church to the foreign field. However, this is the first time that we have had the distinct opportunity to birth a new church here in our “Jerusalem.”
Together as a church, we have prayed and worked and visited, and God has seen fit to bless us greatly in this endeavor. Just prior to “Opening Sunday,” our local Independent Baptist pastors met together at the newly rented facility for Appalachian Baptist Church to pray that God would now continue to bless this new church.
Our prayer is that this is not the end of a “project” but just the beginning of many years of service for the Lord, seeing lost souls reached and lives changed. May He entrust us with the opportunity and resources to birth another new church soon!
