Going out into all the world!

When you think of the Bahamas, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Beautiful beaches? Crystal blue water? Relaxation?

While most view the Bahamas as a place for fun vacation getaways, did you know that Converge has been planting churches here for more than 31 years? Some of their primary established churches are Heavenly View Ministries, Best Life Faith Center, World of Life Ministry International, and many more. Most of these churches were affiliated with Converge before the 2019 hurricane, with one additional church added during the hurricane and the hope to affiliate another six congregations soon.

After the island of Grand Bahama was devastated by Hurricane Maria in 2019, many houses, hotels, businesses, and churches are still in need of repair. The Covid-19 pandemic further weakened the island due to a tremendous drop in tourism, which is the primary driver of their economy. Many Converge Churches, along with non-Converge churches, helped through the very dark days of the hurricane. They provided a hurricane relief fund that supplied food, shelter, medical help, and rebuilt houses and churches. The pandemic has slowed their work because of lockdown and restricted travel. Things are slowly starting to open again and one of the churches, Word of Life Ministry International, just made enough repairs to open up live services in their building. They still have much to rebuild, but they are open for in-person services and are reaching new people each week.

On Converge’s recent trip to the Bahamas, Gary Rohrmayer, Bryan Moak, Danny Parmelee, Ernie Cabrera, and Raoul Armbrister held a training conference to help support and encourage the local pastors. This was held at Raoul’s training center at Karazim Ministries International in Freeport, Grand Bahamas. The training center was full and the pastors were eager to learn and grow. We were able to preach at five of these churches during their Sunday services and had over ten churches represented at the training.

Currently, Converge has nine affiliated churches in the Bahamas with the hope to affiliate six more. Converge leaders are now planning a vision trip with key pastors who are interested in their churches helping with the ongoing work in the Bahamas. One of the goals of this vision trip is to set up mission trips with these churches that will involve partnering with the established churches in the Bahamas. They will rebuild church buildings, hold VBS for children, offer training for pastors and their leaders, evangelize among the communities, and more. These trips will be customized to match the time, talent, and treasure of the short term missionaries with the need and opportunities available so that these trips are mutually beneficial for all involved.

Please pray for each of the churches who have been severely impacted due to the hurricane and still haven’t been able to rebuild completely. Please also pray for the partner churches who have the resources to help them rebuild and impact their communities. The possibilities of expansion in the Bahamas are good. Converge has the opportunity to affiliate a number of churches there and help them grow and plant churches on different islands in the greater Caribbean area and beyond.

Defining Moments…Examples to Follow

Twenty years ago this fall, Converge MidAmerica experienced a breakthrough moment in launching four church plants within five weeks of the attacks at the World Trade Center on 9-11. Up to that point, this had never happened in the history of Converge MidAmerica.

NorthBridge Church in Antioch, IL, launched September 16th under the leadership of Mark & Michelle Albrecht. Christ’s Church of Wrigleyville, in Chicago, IL, celebrated the restart of this historic church on September 16th under the leadership of Dave & Tiffany Gwartney. Both churches celebrated their starts just 5 days after the attacks. Dave told me that they opened the doors of this historic church blocks from Wrigley Field, and people came in just to pray throughout the week.

On October 14th, Heartland Church in Fishers, IN, was launched under the leadership of Darryn & Loree Scheske and Crosswinds Community Church by Mark and Jill Savage in Bloomington, IL.

Three of these churches are still strong, healthy, and engaged in missions and church multiplication. Crosswinds had a tremendous ten-year run but had a difficult transition after the founding pastor left, which eventually led to the church closing its doors in December 2020.

NorthBridge Church is a daughter church of Faith Baptist Church in Grayslake, IL. It grew quickly. Within six months, they commissioned Richard Wollard to start Meadowland Church in Johnsburg, IL. Mark Albrecht became a leader in our church planting movement. He was involved in coaching, training, and leading our multiplication efforts in Northern Illinois. Northbridge Church started three daughter churches: Meadowland (2002), New Hope (2009), and Connection (2016). They have been a part of starting two granddaughter churches in helping Meadowland launch Redemption Church in 2015 and New Hope launch Casa de Oracion the same year. All of this happened along with adopting Real Hope Church in 2019 and Anchor Church in 2020.

Christ’s Church of Wrigleyville (the first Swedish Baptist Church in Chicago) started strong. It transitioned from the leadership of Dave Gwartney to Josh Taylor in 2008. They instantly became a multi-site church as Josh, their daughter church’s pastor, became their pastor and joined the two churches together to form Missio Dei. Missio Dei is now a unique multi-congregational model with four locations and is working on its fifth this year. They have also adopted and funded many church planters and mission partners over the years.

Heartland Church was pioneered by the Scheske’s who moved their family to Fishers not knowing a soul before they stepped out on faith to follow God’s calling. Through the hard work of community networking and personal evangelism, they saw many people come to Christ and gathered this group together in a small bible study in February of 2001. They held their first baptism service before they held any public worship service. Together with the assistance from our regional office and a generous business owner, they launched full-service daycare before they held their first public worship service. They grew quickly through their evangelistic efforts and community involvement. Darryn Scheske also became a movement leader through coaching, training, and leading multiplication efforts in Indiana. Heartland helped start Indy Metro (2004) by sending people and finances to launch this church in downtown Indianapolis. They have adopted and funded most of our Indiana church plants. They have most recently come alongside our first Ethiopian Congregation planted by Pastor Getachew Tegegne.

For 20 years, I have watched Mark and Darryn grow solid and vibrant churches with a thankful heart. They see lives changed in their communities, churches planted in our region, and the world touched through their extensive mission efforts. Each of these churches has given millions to church planting, church strengthening, and mission work. They each, as pastors, have given their time to serve in significant roles on both our regional and national boards. Their churches have become modern-day examples of the ancient church of Antioch. Their churches not only reached their communities (Acts 11:21) but became key players in reaching the world through church planting (Acts 13:1-3).

These men and their churches serve as great examples to emulate and strive for because “The Lord’s hand was (and is) with them…” (Acts 11:21).