“Each has its own flavor of worship and ministry.”
This month we are praying for the churches and ministries in the Eastern association which serves both US and Canada. Here’s a little overview of the vast region from Regional Minister Dana Goodnough.
God continues to work through the 34 churches that make up the NAB Eastern Association. Of those churches, seven are Hispanic (including two church plants), one is an African-American congregation, and another is made up of believers from various Caribbean island countries. Each has its own flavor of worship and ministry.
For example, New Jerusalem Tabernacle in Kitchener, Ontario (Taber Kitchener) has helped launch a new church in Burlington, Ontario (Taber Burlington). Both churches have a vision for reaching not only Hispanics in their communities but expanding into English-language outreach to help reach the next generation.
Another church, The Well in Buffalo, recently expanded its building to accommodate gatherings of over 500 people and is close to filling that new space in both of its Sunday morning worship services. In addition, The Well has a satellite location that reaches a different community in the Buffalo area.
Many of our smaller churches are served by co-vocational pastors who, through personal sacrifice and faithfulness, are making a difference in their communities and in the lives of those who call these churches home. One village church made the courageous choice a couple of years ago to reinvigorate its members rather than close its doors. Under new vision and new pastoral leadership, that church is again thriving. In a similar way, a rural church near Buffalo is seeing new families, including teens, come from the community in a fresh work of God.
Certainly, there are challenges, and some churches are finding the tough spiritual soil of the Northeast to be resistant to fresh growth. But God is faithfully sustaining and blessing every church, often in unseen ways. God is at work, and it’s our role as believers to discover His work and join Him for the sake of His purposes in this world.
Rev. Dr. Dana Goodnough
Visiting NAB Churches in New York
Our visit was a very packed 3-day trip! We started in New York City where Igor consulted a church on their ongoing project. We walked the property and gave advice on what the next steps should be to save costs and move the project along. We then drove across the State, spending a day in the greater Rochester area, before driving to Buffalo and spending a day there.
In Victor, NY we had the opportunity to sponsor a Pastors Luncheon. Victor is about 20 minutes south of Rochester and, fun fact, was named after a war hero from the War of 1812. It was a great time to connect, learn more about the churches in Upstate New York and to share what is going on at Church Investors Fund. We are thankful to Regional Minister Dana Goodnough, Pastor Chris Arcadi from Pittsford Community Church, Pastor Steve Lamarco and Mark Turner from Victory Community Church, Pastor Chris Kelley from Canal Town Baptist Church, and Pastor Brian Warner from Greystone Church for making the time to visit with us!
After lunch, Pastor Steve Lamarco showed us around the premises of Victor Community Church. In 2015-2016 the church bought and renovated the new property and sold the property they had purchased previously in 2012. In 2018 they bought adjacent property next to the church. Overall, the church has about 10 acres that can serve the needs of the community.
A lot has happened at Victory Community Church since 2018! Pastor Steve showed us their expansion plans which will be rolled out in a few phases. New offices and a conference room are currently being constructed to accommodate the church staff. The next phase will be to expand Sunday School rooms for their fast-growing kid’s ministry. The final phase will be to expand the worship space. They are also using the 10 acres they are blessed with to develop a soccer field and later a field for diamond sports and games as part of a sports ministry. The idea came from asking around the church and seeing what the needs are in the community. The cost of youth sports for families can add-up very quickly. The church can serve and help families by giving kids a place to learn valuable life skills, how to compete, how to make friends and do all that in a Christian environment.
We had the privilege of visiting with Siegfried and Liane Bartsch. We had a wonderful time with this lovely couple. Siegfried faithfully served as the Treasurer for the Eastern Association for 36 years. Bob Mayforth was the president of CIF during Siegfried’s tenure. They had a great relationship and worked together in partnering ministry and funding churches.
On Sunday, we were scheduled to share the ministry at theWell. We recently funded their building expansion. Pastor Darrick gave us a tour of the church premises which includes the original building of what was formerly Bethel Baptist Church. Bethel Baptist got their first loan from CIF in 1990 (Bob Mayford, Siegfried Bartsch and David Ewing would have worked together on funding church projects for Bethel Baptist in those days) and again in 2014 when the two churches merged. The premises currently serve as the “Bethel Campus” since theWEll now has two locations with which they serve the city of Buffalo, NY.
We also visited with Pastor Emeritus and Regional Minister Emeritus David Ewing and his wonderful wife Jean. David Ewing pastored Bethel Baptist for a long time before becoming the Regional Minister of the Eastern Association. It’s been a few years since he retired from being a Regional Minister, but he still serves as an Elder at theWell, shows up early, greets the congregation as they come in and visits with people before the service starts. His wife Jean serves in the NAB’s Women’s Connection Leadership Team. In his honor they named the older sanctuary, turned fellowship hall, after him – it’s called “The Ewing”.
We will have more on a ministry update from theWell in our next story. A lot of exciting things have happened since the last time we partnered in ministry with them! Stay tuned…
