by Ronnie Autrey

It has been a great joy to work in the various ministries that God has given us in the Dominican Republic. Resurrection Baptist Church and Seminary are two of these ministries. The seminary began in 1995 as a ministry of the church. Today we have 45 students. In this country a Bible training institution is called a seminary. The purpose of this institution is to prepare men for the ministry of preaching the gospel and planting churches. These men are not only needed in the Dominican Republic but also in other Spanish-speaking islands of the Caribbean. The curriculum includes conventional classroom methods as well as video instruction. Our philosophy of education focuses on the individual student. This personalized training requires much time spent in counseling and assisting individual students in developing their gifts for the ministry.

Pastors and Bible teachers from the States are invited to teach one-week modules in ministry related areas. Their experience in the Lord’s service is shared with the students.

Each student must be recommended by a local pastor and take an active part in soul winning and the ministry of his church.

The seminary monitors the progress of each student not only in academic areas but also in practical Christian service. Before graduation each student will have been involved in planting an independent Baptist church. Training involves preaching, song leading, soul winning, visitation and discipling new converts.

Resurrection Baptist Church and Seminary are seeking to develop a successful plan to aid in the building of responsible, independent Baptist churches throughout the Dominican Republic. Our goal is to train pastors who will know how to lead their churches in reaching the biblical goal of self-governing and self-supporting ministries. We are also stressing the importance of each church having a strong missionary program.

As Resurrection Baptist Church grew, we knew that we would have to prepare our people for a much-needed building project. I met with the men of the church and discussed the type of building we would need and the cost involved. I recommended that we should have a building fund. A large thermometer going from 0 up to 40,000 pesos and a poster picturing the building were made. A graph of the number of concrete blocks and bags of cement needed for the building was posted.

On a Sunday night in November I presented the plan to the church. I told them that they could put their names in each concrete block and bag of cement that they promised to buy for the building. With every block and bag promised the building fund goal would be reached. When I finished explaining the plan of giving, I asked if there was any questions. A man raised his hand and said, “Pastor, we are very poor. What you are asking us to do is impossible. We should get others in this town to help us. We should have our ladies set up tables in front of the church each week and sell cakes and cookies. This has been a very successful way of raising money here in this country.”

When this brother finished his suggestion, I felt as if a torpedo had hit our plan. I prayerfully asked everyone to open their Bibles to III John 2-8. After reading these verses I explained to the people that we could not expect those who were not saved to help us with our building project. I said, “God doesn’t need nor does He want His work accomplished with money from those who have not received Him as their personal Savior.” After I finished, we prayed and voted. All but one voted “yes” to press ahead with the plan we had presented.

What a blessing it was to see all our members come forward to sign their commitments. The most amazing thing was that our brother who voted “no” came forward and bought 100 blocks for the building project. God blessed our church and I told our people that it was our goal to have the 40,000 pesos by the end of the following year. In November 1996, we were 8,000 pesos short of the goal.

I began to announce that we would have a Christmas offering for the building in December. The theme of this offering was “Proving the Sincerity of Your Love.” We were seriously praying that the 8,000 pesos we had committed to give would be provided. When the offering was received, the 8,000 pesos was given plus an additional 14,000 that made the total offering come to 22,000 pesos. The whole church rejoiced in what God had done for us. Our church people surely proved the sincerity of their love for the Lord.

With this money available, I planned to write churches in the States concerning our need. The 54,000 pesos equaled approximately $4,000 US of the estimated $30,000 that would be needed to build two floors of the building. This would provide twice the space that we currently had. Before I could write the letter, I received a phone call from an assistant pastor of a church that had not supported us nor were receiving our prayer letter. I had not contacted them at any time in the past. Pastor Barry Shearer, an assistant to Dr. Bradley Price at Northside Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, called and stated that he had heard of our need from Dr. Ray Thompson at BIMI. He said that he would like to come and see our work, and I gladly told him that we would love to have him come.

The construction team at Northside helps with the building of churches and schools in the Caribbean each year and were considering two other projects for the summer. However, Brother Shearer wanted to know for sure whom God would have them help. After seeing our work, Pastor Shearer who has a degree in engineering and a real understanding of construction, said he would let me know in a week as to what their decision would be. He added that if they were to come, they would be able to help us with about $25,000 toward our proposed project. Needless to say, we were all praying for God’s direction. After one week had passed and we had not heard from Brother Shearer, we thought they had decided to help one of the other projects. On Sunday night I told our people that it might not be God’s will for them to help us and that we just needed to pray that the Lord’s will would be fulfilled. The next day Pastor Shearer called and stated that they were coming to help. We shouted, “Praise the Lord!”

Northside brought a group of 28 men to assist us with the building project. The men of our church worked side by side with this special group of men. We were able to do much more than we had thought possible. Instead of two floors, we have three floors in our building. We have gone from only 700 sq. ft. to almost 5000 sq. ft. of floor space.

Great joy has been experienced by our church people as they have seen God do the impossible in our building program. For the Dominican Republic this is indeed a miracle from God. The Lord supplied every need through our people and their brothers and sisters in the States that love God and missions.

This beautiful building will be used for all the various ministries of Resurrection Baptist Church as well as Resurrection Baptist Seminary. We are praying that God will continue to use all of us here in the Dominican Republic to accomplish great things for His honor and glory.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

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