Celebrating 20 Years Of Ministry

Sunday, January 6, 2002 Heartland Baptist Fellowship held its first Sunday Worship service in Harrisonville, Missouri. The first service was held at the same location as our Tuesday night Bible Study at 1202 S. Commercial Street. This was the former Weast campus of the Harrisonville Christian School and Bohl Activity Center. 

That first service was the culmination of a couple years of Bible studies and years of collective preparation by the church plant team. God had been working in each of our team members lives in various ways for years to bring us all together to join him in "building his church" (Matthew 16:18). We all clearly understood that the task ahead was daunting, even impossible by man's estimation, but we were full of faith and hope as we trusted God to use us to reach the souls of men and make disciples in Cass county so we could fulfill the mission of God for the glory of God by the grace of God. 

From that initial seed plant, turned church plant, God birthed a local New Testament Church with nine baptized a few months following our first service. In April of 2002 the church was by commissioned and I was  ordained at Kansas City Baptist Temple, our sending church in Kansas City. We held our charter service in June of 2002 and never looked back as God added daily as such as should be saved and the disciples multiplied as we faith it invested God's word and our lives into faithful men and women. Many who joined with us in those early days and were discipled are still serving at HBF today. Many have been sent to multiply the work around the metro or around the world while some left in the course of time, trained and equipped in the word of God, and serve in other local church ministries as members, ministers and leaders. 

After twenty years, a lot has changed but the word of God and the mission of God stay the same. The planting pastor is now 51 not 31. The ministry has grown and multiplied in many ways. We have seen tremendous victories in the lives of hundreds of people and we have lamented tragedy aided by the comfort of the Holy Ghost, the word of God and the loving care of the body of Christ.

Two decades of investing in faithful men who teach others also, has expanded our fellowship to the utter most parts of the earth. Partnership with likeminded ministers, churches and missionaries have impacted our congregation, and by God's grace, allowed us to aid in the advance of the gospel in every continent with the exception of Antarctica (to our knowledge). 

After twenty years we are left with a treasure trove of memories of saints still serving and saints who have been promoted to glory. Like any great endeavor, the advance of a God's mission is bigger than one person, one church or one generation, however, we who have had a part in seeing what God is doing through HBF count it a privilege blessing to be part of a God's remarkable work of redeeming mankind from the curse of sin and death and making disciples, one soul at a time. 

The thing that is special about HBF from the first day until now is Jesus. He is present in the hearts of the redeemed, he is active through the impact of his word and his indwelling Spirit thanks in his body, and he is powerful in continuing his work through the faithfulness of his saints. 

The list of things Jesus is credited for through the ministry of HBF is so significant, it is hard to summarize it and do justice to God's remarkable work as it is the story of hundreds of faithful saints woven into a tapestry of God's grace and glory. As I prepared for our 20th anniversary celebration it occurred to me that after twenty years of ministry in Cass County, HBF is now responsible for a portion of church history. Twenty years has gone by in a flash but it accounts for one percent of the church age. That may not seem like a lot on its face, but if you meditate in the magnitude of God's work on this earth from the day of Pentecost until now, to be responsible for even a portion one percent of church history is a sobering cognition. 

I cannot articulate how grateful I am to the Lord to be part of a local church that has been faithful to the word and God's mission from the first day, until now. What is so exciting is knowing that in so many respects, we are young and still have so much more ahead even if the Lord returns today. If he doesn't return today, we are still pressing on in faith in the same grace that was delivered to the church by our Lord Jesus Christ in the first century. Our vision is still fixed from Philippians 2:12-16

“Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.” Philippians‬ ‭2:12-16‬ ‭

The mission of equipping the saints of God in the word of God to accomplish the mission of God in the power of God for the glory of God by the grace of God, has not and will not change until the Lord catches us away. 

The work of the church seems impossible because it is supernatural. Only eternity will be able to reveal the incredible work God is doing through the church but until we get there, we can rest in the fact that Jesus is building his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. One thing we know for sure is the work and the war, the suffering and the sorrow, the comfort and the joy will redound to the glory of God for eternity in ways we can scarcely comprehend leaving us to say, to God be the glory both now and evermore. 

“Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.”‭‭ 1 Thessalonians‬ ‭5:24‬ ‭