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CBNE SYNERGY – The Power of Partnership
A Ministry Publication of CBMissionNortheast December 2007
IN THIS ISSUE: v The Power of a Personal Invite v Celebration and Challenge v Working Together for the Gospel v Unadilla Flood Recovery	The Power of a Personal Invite
	Those of us who have been in the church for a long time may have some misconceptions about the unchurched around us. We wonder about their perceptions of church and often fear the worst. The Rainer Research team however discovered these fears are unfounded. “Surprisingly, many people who are not currently attending a church are receptive to going. In fact, about 38% of the unchurched are receptive or highly receptive to attending church. The reason they do not attend is that they have yet to be invited. If invited and escorted, 82% of the unchurched we surveyed are open to attending church with a friend or acquaintance. Unfortunately, only 21% of active church-going Christians invited someone to church last year.” (Read the entire article online by clicking here). As Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few” (Matthew 9:37 NIV). To help their congregation invite others to their church this Christmas, Pastor Alan St. George & Lynbrook Baptist Church, Lynbrook NY, have prepared 150 red
	gift bags for their members to share with their acquaintances. Inside the gift bags are 4 items:The Nativity Story DVD, The Case for Christmas by Lee Strobel, a children’s Christmas sticker book, & an invitation to their Christmas Eve Candlelight Service. Pastor St. George is encouraging everyone to share these gift bags with their neighbors, postman, hairdresser, bank teller, & others they know.
Printer Friendly Versions: Single Page Color Acrobat File Color Bulletin Insert Acrobat File B/W Bulletin Insert Acrobat File [TOP]	Celebration and Challenge
	CBMNE churches are growing in all parts of our region and in various community contexts. Growing churches were large and small, young and old, and in nearly every type of community. Over the past ten years, the average number of baptisms increased from 6 to 9 per year, as well as a 15% increase in average worship attendance. These are a few of the findings presented by our Executive Director at our Annual Gathering at Word of Life in October. 17 new churches were planted by our association over the past 10 years with another 10 churches planted by CB churches during that time. Several challenges were also presented: The percentage of Millenials (5-24 yrs old) and Survivors (25-45 yrs old.) is greater in the general population than in our churches. The percentage of Anglo Americans is also greater in our churches than in the general population. The percentage of transfer growth (47%) was greater than the percentage of conversion growth (29%). The percentage of the population attending church decreased in each state during the first 5 years of this century. Our region is now the most unchurched section of the country. If church and population trends continue in our nation, the percentage of population attending church in 2050 in the United States will be almost half of what it was in 1990. Although there are tremendous reasons for celebration in CBMNE, there are also many challenges we face in faithfully fulfilling Christ’s mandate to make disciples of all nations. As churches, our faithfulness to this calling will be marked by our fruitfulness seen in conversion, baptism, teaching, and enfolding people into the church. The role of CBMNE is to assist the church to accomplish this mission. Therefore, as a region, we must focus on three priorities:
	Change in population attending church from 2000-2005		1. encourage, equip, and challenge churches to be healthy, missional, communities making disciples and multiplying churches to advance the kingdom of God. 2. support and develop healthy pastors to be transformational leaders in their churches. 3. discover an associational structure to facilitate the connecting of churches to each other and to the other resources that will accomplish the first two priorities. For the complete report including graphs and charts, download a copy of our Executive Director’s report from our website at www.MissionNortheast.org
[TOP]	Working Together for the Gospel
	Cassville Baptist (New York) was blessed to have a mission team from the Falmouth Baptist (Massachusetts) assist them in presenting the Gospel in exciting ways. A dozen teens, along with adult chaperones enthusiastically led their VBS. They were also busy during the day cleaning, painting, repairing & fixing up portions of their church buildings & other projects. Pastor Wilton Rose of Cassville encourages our CB family to send or receive a team of young people to assist with outreach events. “It was a simple matter to pull together. Tim Rogers, the Youth Pastor of Falmouth Church called & offered to bring his group. They raised the money & provided the VBS materials as well as for the work projects. We just provided a place for them to sleep! What a blessing… and what an encouragement to our own young people!”
	Unadilla Flood Recovery
	Following the June 2006 flood in Central New York, Unadilla Baptist completely gutted & rebuilt their lower level. It took a year to finish the project. Pastor Brian Cutting writes, “We want to thank those who helped us accomplish this project. It would have been impossible without help from other churches & the CB Family. Extra special thanks to Pastor Paul Furniss & his church in Levittown, NY for their donations & the gift of a new heating system. Other large gifts came from CB America, Grace Community Church in Washingtonville, NY, & Main Street Baptist in Oneonta, along with many other donations of money & labor from many other churches & individuals. We thank God that we have a loving body of Christ that came alongside & assisted us in our time of need.”
CB Mission Northeast PO Box 441, Nassau, NY 12123 Phone: 518.935.4619 www.MissionNortheast.org
	Synergy is published by CB Mission Northeast for our member churches and those who partner with us in the ministry of planting and growing healthy churches in the Northeast. To sign up, remove, or change your subscription please send an email to KathyKeeley@MissionNortheast.org. Be sure to include the email address you want removed or changed as well as any new information.
If you have articles, ministry tips or resources to pass along send them to KathyKeeley@MissionNortheast.org. All information in the SYNERGY newsletter is copyrighted by CBMissionNortheast. CB Churches are given permission to reproduce all information in this newsletter for their own church and/or personal use. “SYNERGY – The POWER of PARTNERSHIP” and the SYNERGY graphic are © copyright 2001 Michael A. Biolsi.