STANTON — From Lewis McMullen’s perspective, the city of Stanton and the surrounding region is a massive landscape of spiritual farmland, ready for cultivating.
Over the past year or so, Lewis and other staffers from the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board — along with numerous church leaders from the Stanton area — have been driving metaphorical tractors through the sprawling fields, plowing the ground and scattering seeds in the area that encompasses Blue Oval City, the massive Ford auto plant being constructed in Haywood County.
“Our team is working hard, preparing churches to train and equip other churches to plant when the time comes to launch new churches,” said McMullen, church planting specialist for the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board. “The potential and possibilities are endless.”
Located roughly 40 miles east of Memphis, Blue Oval City will eventually cover approximately 4,100 acres and is expected to employ an estimated 10,000 people.
With the goal of planting at least 40 churches in the Stanton area over the next 10 years, McMullen and his team have made themselves visible and available to church leaders through numerous events during the past several months.
One such activity is an on-going series of workshops — entitled “Churches Planting Churches” — that McMullen and his team have hosted to boost the Blue Oval evangelism efforts.
Lewis McMullen, church planting specialist for the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, speaks to a group of attendees at a workshop — entitled “Churches planting Churches” — that was held at Brownsville Baptist Church, Brownsville.
The first session was held in May at Brownsville Baptist Church and drew representatives from 13 different churches. The event included input and insight from a host of leaders, including three directors of missions and five TBMB staffers. Representatives from five associations — Mid-South, Madison-Chester, Haywood, Hardeman, and Beulah — attended the session. The second seminar was held on Aug. 12 at Charleston Baptist Church in Stanton.
Danny Sinquefield, Harvest Field One Team Leader for the TBMB and coordinator of the TBMB’s Blue Oval City Partnership, said the prospect of a potential spiritual explosion in the Blue Oval City area is creating great energy.
“There is a growing spirit of unity and excitement among the churches in West Tennessee,” said Sinquefield. “Churches are meeting together to discuss ministry plans and how to minister to the workers and share the gospel in the RV parks where they live.” (See story, page 1).
Sinquefield noted that groups of pastors and church leaders are also meeting regularly for prayer and asking for the Lord’s help and direction. “It is a very exciting season to serve the Lord in Harvest Field One,” said Sinquefield.
The population within a 20-minute radius of Blue Oval will grow by an estimated 92,000 people within 10 years, according to reports.
An artist’s rendering of Blue Oval City, the massive Ford auto plant in Stanton, when it is completed.
The projected cost of the plant is $5.6 billion, which would make it the most expensive single investment in Tennessee history, and Ford intends to invest more than $500 million in growth incentives to support infrastructure, roads and schools.
In the meantime, McMullen and his team have continued making inroads of their own. The list of projects/events include:
• Partnering with NAMB for a three-day event in which churches were trained on setting up Church Planting Residencies in the Blue Oval City area.
• Conducting a Church Multiplication Pipeline training session on June 20-21 at Brownsville Baptist, where 12 churches were represented.
• Working with New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary to set up a Multiplication Pipeline Hub in the Blue Oval City area where potential planters and planting teams can receive seminary credit for on-site training.
• Setting up a Blue Oval City church planting introduction training session using an online Multiplication Library that can be accessed through the TBMB website.
• Hosting an upcoming meeting with church planting candidates who will be going through an assessment center in the Memphis area in September.
“It’s a busy time, but it is also rewarding and exciting,” Sinquefield said.
Sinquefield
Throughout the process, the TBMB has worked hand-in-hand with the Blue Oval Coalition — a group of churches in the Stanton area who are committed to reaching the influx of people for Christ. Together, they have hosted many outreach events, including a massive luncheon in April in which the local churches and Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief teamed up to feed 1,000 construction workers.
Sinquefield said the days ahead will feature many more evangelism opportunities, especially as doors begin to open for new churches to develop.
“We are praying for some land to be donated in strategic areas for church plants,” said Sinquefield, “and Tennessee Baptists can join us in praying for godly, generous farmers and land owners to consider making such a gift.”
To that end, Sinquefield noted that several major projects are being explored by the TBMB.
He said there are three properties, in particular, that are being assessed for potential sites for church plants. One is a former Methodist building that has been leased for the past 10 years. This property is currently being refurbished. “We hope to have a church plant meeting there later this year or early in 2024,” Sinquefield said.
He also noted that Calvary Baptist in Brownsville is in the process of taking legal steps to donate their property and assets to the TBMB for a new church plant in that location with hopes of a new church being in place early next year.
Another property — the Cowboy Church in Mason — is for sale. “We have several churches that are prayerfully considering buying that building for a new church plant,” Sinquefield said.
When completed, Blue Oval City will be 40 percent larger than the Saturn plant built by General Motors in Spring Hill. The project is being constructed at the Memphis Regional Megasite, also known as the West Tennessee Megasite, which was designated as an industrial site in September 2009.
McMullen and Sinquefield each said they are optimistic that the momentum surrounding Blue Oval City will continue to build, and they are asking Tennessee Baptists from across the state to do their part to ensure that this happens.
“Everyone can be involved in this,” said Sinquefield. “My request is that our people from all across Tennessee will pray for wisdom and discernment as we seek to strengthen existing churches in the Blue Oval City area and also as we trust the Lord for His guidance in the process of planting new churches.”
Undoubtably, the land is fertile. Now, it’s just a matter of keeping the tractors moving.
“God is bringing the people to us,” Sinquefield said, “and we must do our part to reach them.” B&R
