The Baptist State Convention of North Carolina (BSCNC) is sponsoring a series of public forums across the state for N.C. Baptists to provide feedback on the state convention’s “impacting lostness through disciple-making” strategy as part of the convention’s formal evaluation of the strategy.
The public forums are open to all N.C. Baptists and will be moderated by trained facilitators who are not employees of the BSCNC.
“The public forums are not the traditional ‘listening sessions’ that many folks are accustomed to attending,”said Brian Davis, BSCNC Associate Executive Director-Treasurer. “Rather, participants are asked to come to the forums prepared to provide feedback on seven specific questions.”
Following are the questions that will be discussed during the forums:
1. How are the members of your church sharing the gospel differently now compared to five years ago?
2. How has the BSCNC’s strategy emphasis on pockets of lostness helped members of your church identify the lost people living in your community?
3. How has the BSCNC strategy helped members of your church share the Gospel with people from different ethnic and cultural groups with the gospel?
4. How has the BSCNC strategy emphasis on disciple-making helped members of your church become more intentional in fulfillment of the Great Commission?
5. How has the BSCNC helped your congregation develop a disciple-making culture during the last five years?
6. How has the BSCNC been effective in the fulfillment of its strategy titled, “Impacting Lostness through Disciple-making” in your area?
7. What do you suggest the BSCNC do to become more effective in the fulfillment of its strategy titled, “Impacting Lostness through Disciple-making”?
“The facilitators will not be answering questions about the strategy, nor defending the strategy, but simply guiding the conversation in order that responses to these seven questions may be received,” Davis said.
The public forums are one of three methods the convention is using to evaluate the strategy. The evaluation also includes surveys being sent to all pastors and associational mission strategists across the state and personal interviews with associational mission strategists serving in the eight population centers across the state where the top 100 most concentrated pockets of lostness are located. Those population centers are the Blue Ridge, Coastal, Fayetteville, Greenville, Metro Charlotte, Triad, Triangle and Unifour regions.
If N.C. Baptists are unable to attend one of the scheduled public forums, they may send their responses to the questions to the convention at a special email address designated for the strategy evaluation at strategyevaluation@ncbaptist.org.
A formal report based on data and information collected from the strategy evaluation will be made to the BSCNC’s Board of Directors this fall and to messengers attending the BSCNC’s Annual Meeting in Greensboro, N.C. this November.
The “impacting lostness through disciple-making” strategy was approved by the BSCNC’s Board of Directors in 2013 and implementation began in January 2014. When approved in 2013, the Board of Director’s instructed convention staff to conduct a formal evaluation of the strategy after five years to determine its effectiveness.
The complete strategy is available at ncbaptist.org/strategy.
Questions about the strategy or the evaluation may be directed to Brian Davis by email at bdavis@ncbaptist.org or by calling 1-800-395-5102 ext. 5506.