October 2, 2000

BGCT surpasses church-starting goals
___By Dan Martin
___Texas Baptist Communications
___Texas Baptists launched 104 congregations in September as part of the Mary Hill Davis State Mission offering emphasis, surpassing the goal of 100 church starts.
___"We are very encouraged that the churches worked together to launch this number of churches as part of the Texas state missions emphasis," said E.B. Brooks, director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Church Starting Center.
___"We feel it is appropriate that this number of new congregations was started at the time we are receiving the offering, which provides funding for the new work," he added.
___The launch was part of a Church Starting Center emphasis to "Light Up Texas" with new churches, said Fred Ater, coordinator of the Church Starting Institute.
___Churches launched as part of Light Up Texas are from all parts of the state, from Amarillo to Athens to Alamo to Abilene to Alton, and reflect the variety of cultural, racial and language groups in the state, he said.
___"They are all sponsored by Texas Baptist churches," Ater said, explaining that the emphasis began earlier in the year, with a special commitment day when Texas churches were asked to pray about the need for new congregations and to consider sponsoring new work.
___A significant percentage of the new churches are Hispanic, and a large number are in South Texas, where there is a great openness to the gospel of Jesus Christ, Ater said.
___The 104 churches started through Light Up Texas are among 1,418 congregations started during the Texas 2000 mission and ministry emphasis of the BGCT.
___That means Texas Baptists already have surpassed their goal of starting 1,400 congregations during the span of Texas 2000, which still has three months remaining until its conclusion.
___Of those 1,418 church starts, almost half (603) have been Hispanic congregations. Others are Anglo, 365, African-American, 160 and Korean, 31.
___Congregations also have been launched to serve Cambodian, Congolese, Chinese, Ethiopian, Filipino, Vietnamese, Arabic, Brazilian, Kenyan, Iranian, Kurdish, Liberian, Native American, Romanian, Russian and Sudanese people groups.
___The Church Starting Center worked with 656 new churches from May 1999 to April 2000, Ater said. Those congregations received $1.5 million in funding through the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas missions.
___"Those new churches had an average weekly attendance of 49; average monthly offerings of $2,424; total professions of faith of 10,410, and a total membership of 33,353," Ater said.

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