February 9, 2000
Students urged to start churches
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___FORT WORTH--You've heard altar calls for salvation. And you've heard altar calls for rededication and for calling out preachers and missionaries. But have you ever heard an altar call seeking commitments from those willing to be church starters?
___If Fred Ater gets his wish, you'll soon be hearing more such calls to commitment for church starting across the state. And you might hear the appeal in some unlikely places.
___Ater, coordinator of the Church Starting Center of the Baptist General Convention ofTexas, wants to raise awareness of the need for new churches within every group he is allowed to address--because he believes it will take all types of people from all walks of life to meet the challenge that lies ahead.
___Last week, he and other members of the Church Starting Center staff made their case before several hundred college students who came with Baptist Student Ministry groups to the Texas Evangelism Conference.
___The message was two-fold: Texas urgently needs more churches to reach a growing and diversifying population, and students are playing a vital role in designing ways to reach their peers through new congregations.
___Bob Craig, a BGCT church starter based in Brenham, told the students about five churches that have been started by students in central Texas in recent years.
___All are vital, growing, innovative congregations, Craig said. And all were born out of the "passionate vision" of a young adult, he added, "the kind of vision that will not be extinguished."
___These student-led congregations are energetic, offer involving worship and relevant preaching and are community-focused, Craig said.
___He was joined by fellow church starting strategist Roy Cotton, who encouraged students in the four seminars offered in Fort Worth Jan. 31 to ask whether God might be calling them to help start a congregation--either as a member, worship leader, pastor or teacher.
___"In 40 years, this state will have seen a complete doubling of the population," Cotton noted. "It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Texas Baptists are going to have to start new churches to keep up with our population growth."
___But that's not even the most important reason to start new churches, he said. Effectiveness in bringing people to faith in Christ is.
___"More people come to know Christ through new churches than through any other method known to the modern world," Cotton reported.
___He outlined the BGCT's plan for this year to help launch 30 congregations in Dallas, 25 in Fort Worth and 30 in Houston, as well as dozens of others around the state.
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