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Our World Wide Ministry

From our buildings in the Northwest Valley, our church conducts a worldwide ministry.

Hands on mission activity, mission education and prayer, and giving form the centerpieces of the church's worldwide ministry. Two maps, the church budget, and a newsletter help to visualize the church's heart for the world.

One map is titled "Our Mission Fields." On it, one sees the nations beyond the United States where we support missionaries through the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. The map also contains photographs of missionaries with special ties to the church and to whom the church provides some direct support.

Our second map is that of the Baptist World Alliance. The church partners in ministry with 122 Baptist fellowships around the globe through the BWA. In January 2009, Dr. Denton Lotz, Executive Director Emeritus of the world-wide organization, will lead a Bible Conference in our church. Each November women of the church observe the Baptist Women's World Day of Prayer.

The church budget tells another part of the story. Ten percent of our undesignated budget receipts go to the worldwide ministry of Southern Baptists through the Arizona Southern Baptist Convention. An additional percent is invested in the regional work of Arizona Southern Baptists through the Central Baptist Association.

We fund other mission, evangelism, and ministry projects as part of the church budget.

The Richard Jackson Center for Evangelism and the Mission Assist Team - both located in Texas - are two such ministries. The Jackson Center conducts evangelism events throughout the country and distributes Bibles in strategic settings such as prisons. The Mission Assist Team connects volunteers with mission needs in Mexico, Central and South America, and West Africa.

But the church's investment of money in missions, evangelism, and ministry tells only part of the story. Many of our men and women are involved personally. In 1999, eight took part in a mission trip to Australia and New Zealand. In 2000, eight worked for a month in Prague, the Czech Republic. In 2001, a team of men built a garage on a mission pastor's home in West Fargo, North Dakota. During the same year, a couple worked with missionary families in London for a week. In late April 2008, eight of our church family spent a week in Kaplan, Louisiana, working on a Baptist World Alliance/ Habitat for Humanity project through which they helped build homes for victims of Hurricane Rita.

Regularly, members of the church conduct ministries closer to home - with a women’s crisis center, West Side Food Bank, Del Webb Hospital Nursery, and a local public school..

Another part of the church's mission to the world is told through its newsletter, The Upbeat. The church gives generously to special mission offerings - for international missions through the Lottie Moon Offering for World missions; for "home" missions through the Annie Armstrong Offering for North American Missions; for Gideons International; and for special mission activities in Arizona through the Willis J. Ray Offering for state missions. In 2005 we added the resort ministry of Desert Pines Baptist Association in the White Mountains of Arizona.

During recent years, the church has taken part in other ministries: the start of a new Baptist church in Surprise; the launch of a new church in the Village of Oak Creek, Arizona; a scholarship for a Romanian ministerial student; and special offerings for the Living Hope Baptist Church, West Fargo, North Dakota; and Linden Hills Family Fellowship in Linden, Arizona.

Partners on Mission fills a significant role in the worldwide ministry of the church.

Like Baptists in England supported its pioneer missionary, William Carey, this vital organization "holds the ropes" of support for missionaries and their work around the world. Partners On Mission keeps Christian missions in the minds and on the hearts of the church.

Month-by-month, missionary guests speak or members focus attention on specific mission needs. The group maintains ties with missionaries who have special ties to the church and leads the entire church in prayer support for those persons. Regularly, Partners On Mission makes available printed materials related to missions. Annually, the group encourages members of the church to participate in the Lottie Moon Offering for World Missions and the Annie Armstrong Offering for North American Missions.

Membership is composed of men and women committed to the cause of Christian missions. The group meets monthly during the months of October through April.