ATLANTA – Church start representatives from five states and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship national office gathered last month in Nashville, Tenn., to network and share ideas and resources.

The meeting, sponsored by AlabamaCBF and Tennessee Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, was titled "Forging a Church Starts Culture" and was designed to help facilitate the creation of a church starts culture within the Fellowship movement.

"Starting new churches is at the heart of our missional endeavor," said Mike Lewis, new church starts coordinator for AlabamaCBF. "It is the most efficient and effective means of being the presence of Christ in every community, to every ethnic group, and to the next generation. Starting new churches is a future-oriented strategy that makes room within the Fellowship for upcoming generations."

State and regional organizations work together with CBF to support and encourage new church starts. Personnel at the meeting discussed the need for a designated church starts point person within each state and regional organization, making resources available on the Web, increased networking opportunities for church start planters and how CBF organizations at all levels can more effectively support each other in church planting.

Bo Prosser, the Fellowship’s coordinator for congregational life, led discussions on the missional church model and its importance for new church starts.

"Starting new churches is a missional ministry event for an existing church," said Prosser. "Empowering people to be passionate about ministry means that some of them will go across town to their neighborhood and start a new congregation.  We want not only to empower but also to equip the leaders of these new churches.  Our church planting work makes us be intentional in our new work."

For information on AlabamaCBF church starts, visit www.alabamacbf.org/daybreak or contact Mike Lewis at (205) 401-8500. For information on Tennessee CBF church starts, visits http://www.tncbf.org/ or contact Mike Young at missions@tncbf.org.

Visit www.thefellowship.info/CL/ChurchStarts/ for additional information on CBF church starts.

CBF is a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.