William Burton, TBMB’s ethnic church planting & evangelism specialist, shares some really good news about the explosive growth we’ve seen in ethnic church ministry here in Tennessee.
Chris Turner:
Hello, and welcome into this edition of Radio B&R. I’m your host Chris Turner, director of communications at the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board. And today’s guest that will be talking about some really great news happening in Tennessee is William Burton. William, give us your title because it’s a little long.
William Burton
William Burton:
Yeah, Chris, it’s good to be with you. Thanks for inviting me. I am the new churches team leader and the ethnic church planting and evangelism specialist for the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board. I am your missionary in Tennessee.
Chris Turner:
Well, and that’s why your business card is actually a 5×8 notecard.
William Burton:
Exactly.
Chris Turner:
So, well, we are really excited to be talking about, in this particular podcast, the explosive growth we’ve seen in ethnic church ministry here in Tennessee with some really good news. Let’s save the good news for just a moment, but give us kind of an overview of where we are as Tennessee Baptists dealing with the opportunity of reaching people from all nations and around the world.
William Burton:
Sure. Well, if you remember, we’ll go back a few years. In 2014, our messengers at that convention gave us the mandate with those five objectives, and objective number three was a thousand new churches to be planted and strategically engaged with our convention by 2024. We really kind of had a paradigm shift about mid-2014, 2015, where the emphasis changed from not so much on the church planter, but the mother church or the sending churches or the group of churches. So, number one that really, really helped us get back to the basics of where we are as Baptists and really New Testament church planting. We want to have a good strong mother church that has the DNA of multiplication, that has a good relationship with our denominational identity. We are Baptist, by the way.
Chris Turner:
Yeah, absolutely.
William Burton:
And then obviously with the new church plant and the planter, there will be a good strong mentoring relationship. With those three emphasis right there, that increases our probability of a successful church plant. And I can say since 2014, there’s just under 500 churches that have been planted and strategically engaged with our convention. That is a record number. If you look at that same time period, our best has been we’ve averaged around 35 a year, or less, prior to that. And so, you can do the math, we’re around 60-some churches a year right now. So that’s pretty exciting. Chris, everyone knows it’s not a secret man, the growth in Tennessee, the population growth is absolutely incredible.
Chris Turner:
Crazy.
William Burton:
I live just south of here and the number of people that are moving into our small neighborhood is incredible. And they’re all outside of the state of Tennessee. Most of the people that are moving in. And not only that, my neighbors around me, for example, I have a neighbor that is from Columbia, South America. Her husband is from Mexico. Just the next house over, he’s from Italy, she’s from Mexico. And I have a neighbor who… A couple other neighbors that are from Puerto Rico. So there’s just a plethora of people that are moving in. So that gives us opportunities as Baptists, as Christians. So let’s start that#, as Christians to engage the nations, to reach the nations and change our world and change our state.
Chris Turner:
Well, we’ve been talking a long time about how God is moving the nations, not only to United States, but certainly to Tennessee. So we look at just the number of people that are here that are peoples from other countries. I mean, last I remember we were like 145-plus or something like that. I forget what the number.
William Burton:
Yeah, there are 144, actually, different people groups here in Tennessee. We’ve engaged roughly half of those in some shape, form or fashion with the gospel. Maybe a little bit more than that. We have churches on any given Sunday that are worshiping in 38 different languages and these are Tennessee Baptist churches. We’re starting to look a lot like Walmart.
Chris Turner:
Well, that’s interesting because, when we think about what that looks like, and then you turn to R and start reading, like in 5:9 and 7:9, where it talks about someone from every tribe, tongue and nation gathered around the throne. I mean, we really are seeing that body of believers develop here in Tennessee. And so, when we look at that, I mean, throw that number out; 144 different people groups. There is a significant number of those people groups, are there not, that are from some of the world’s most unreached countries where it would be difficult for us to get into that country to share gospel.
William Burton:
Sure, approximately 40 of those 144 that we’ve mentioned are less… 40 of those people groups are less than 2% evangelized worldwide.
Chris Turner:
Wow.
William Burton:
Many of them do not have the gospel in their native language, and God has brought those people’s to Tennessee, and placed them in the place where the Bible belt buckles. what a great opportunity we have as Tennessee Baptists to impact the world and the next generations, because the children that are being born of those people groups… They’re going to school with your children and grandchildren, they’re playing on sports teams, and they may marry your son or your daughter or grandson or granddaughter. And I want them to be saved.
Chris Turner:
Absolutely.
William Burton:
You want them to be saved. And what an amazing opportunity we have.
Chris Turner:
And the other thing about that is a lot of those people still have family back in the country where they came from. And so not only is it an opportunity for us to reach them, but we might be able to reach a nation through them.
William Burton:
Absolutely.
Chris Turner:
By them being able to have access to their family and friends back in Yemen or somewhere that we will never get a North American missionary into. So as we just kind of talk about that, one of the groups that we really have had work among the most, and we’ve seen the growth, is among Hispanic peoples here in Tennessee. And that’s really where our greatest news regarding ethnic work at this point is coming in, so just tell us a little bit about the milestone that’s been reached among Tennessee Baptist and Tennessee Baptist convention here in Tennessee, among Spanish speaking people.
William Burton:
Sure. Well, when you think about people groups, and you think Hispanics, well, they’re all the same people group. But actually there are dozens of different people groups that we would classify as Hispanic. They may share the same language. Some of them have another language, an indigenous language that they speak. Tennessee Baptist have had work among the Hispanic migrants and transplants that have moved into Tennessee probably for 40 years.
Chris Turner:
Wow.
William Burton:
We’ve been working in different facets of ministry. I would guess around 30 years ago, we planted our first church, first Hispanic church, in the state, for Hispanics, Baptist Church in the state. And so that growth of church plants was fairly consistent around 2010. I believe we had around 30, 33 Hispanic churches in the state that were a part of the Tennessee Baptist convention. Well, since our emphasis on new church plants and especially our objective number three, a thousand new churches, that number has increased by 300%. Just last month, we celebrated the 100th Hispanic church that was planted and became strategically engaged with the Tennessee Baptist convention and the Tennessee Baptist mission board.
Chris Turner:
That’s great. And as I understand it, I mean, there’s not one pocket in Tennessee where we’re seeing that ministry among Spanish speaking peoples. I mean, this really is a Memphis to Mountain City type of geographic dispersion among Spanish speaking people.
William Burton:
Absolutely. You know, you think about Memphis, Nashville, our major metropolitan areas, Clarksville, with large numbers of Hispanic population, Lenore City, Loudon County, Hamlin County, those areas over in east Tennessee have large, large Hispanic populations as well. But small communities like Paris, Tennessee, Union City, are places where we have Hispanic churches that have been planted recently. And they’re in small communities as well. It’s not just limited to our major metropolitan areas. So I would just encourage pastors and church leaders of all different size of churches, and different settings, be it rural, urban or metropolitan to be sensitive to the demographics in your neighborhood.
Chris Turner:
And that’s actually something we can help them with. Correct?
William Burton:
Absolutely. Louis McMullen is on our new church’s team and he has become our resident expert in demographic studies. We have a couple of programs that we can actually bore down to your zip code and neighborhoods and kind of help you identify places where you can start. There’s nothing better than boots on the ground. But we can at least give you some idea, some reconnaissance information that will help you decide where you need to start working.
Chris Turner:
Yeah. Lewis is a data junkie. Just being able to get that… And one of the things that really helps with is a lot of people in churches and pastors might want to do something, but wouldn’t know where to start. That’s something we can help them with.
William Burton:
Absolutely. Not just with Hispanic work, but real soon, hopefully I’m looking forward to this in the very near future. We will see a Southeast Asian congregation being planted. I was up in east Tennessee a couple of weeks ago and talked with the director of missions there at Holston. And they’re sensitive of that need of the Southeast Asian population as well. So yeah, we can really be very specific as far as the people groups, and target those people groups that are in your communities, in your neighborhoods, and then help you with some cultural understanding, some approaches to church planting may be a good, good way to start.
William Burton:
We think, “Oh, we need to have a place to meet. We need to have a church building. We’re having a piano and organ, and we’ve got to have a preacher.” That’s not always what you need to get started. I think the first thing you need is a passion. And a call. And then you need to see the people that God is calling you to. And then after that, obviously the other things will fall into place as God guides and directs and provides.
Chris Turner:
Yeah. One of the great things about working cross-culturally is getting to learn about that other culture. We kind of tend to be in a bit of a bubble, but as we start to get introduced to customs and food and some of those other things, there’s some great relationships waiting to be had. Is there not?
William Burton:
Yeah. And you know, I would encourage you, if there’s an Arabic restaurant in your neighborhood, go to that Arabic restaurant and find out who those folks, where they’re from, learn a little bit about them. They want to know you.
Chris Turner:
Yeah, absolutely.
William Burton:
You know, it’s interesting. In the Nashville area, I was talking to one of our missionaries, that’s working with Somalians, and he told me this, a stat that I could not believe. He said every nine days, there is a Somali in the middle of Tennessee that dies without ever having a meaningful gospel conversation with a Christian here in Tennessee, where the Bible belt buckles. And a lot of times we, as Anglos, as English speakers, we feel like that, “Oh, I can’t talk to them because I’m not going to understand them. They’re not going to understand me.”
William Burton:
I would just tell you, man, a smile, a handshake, a pat on the shoulder, some way of reaching out to that person will open a door for you to share the love of Christ in some tangible fashion. You know, one of the ministries that some of our churches have found great success at, involves teaching English as a second language. Now, I want to emphasize this, Chris, that the goal is not to teach English. That’s the bait on the hook.
Chris Turner:
Right. That’s the hook, yeah. That’s right.
William Burton:
We really want to engage them and introduce them to Christ. But if their need is English, then that would be way to do that. Other churches and ministries use a clothing ministry or a food pantry. Beth Moore can help you with compassion ministry. She’s an incredible resource to help you get something like that set up. And then you can be sensitive to the demographic in your community and provide literature in a language that would be needed to be accessible for them.
Chris Turner:
It really comes down to, it’s like every other ministry a church has where they connect with their community, those same ministries work connecting with internationals because there is a need there. Part of their need is the need for a relationship and build those bridges. And they want those, they’re afraid to approach us. So when we go and go with humility and looking and having a desire to meet them, the receptiveness of receiving us is off the chart.
Chris Turner:
There are all kinds of ways that the TBMB can help a church get started in reaching cross-culturally here in Tennessee. Our executive director, president Randy Davis, has been saying for years, “Any way you slice it, Tennessee is a mission field.”
William Burton:
That’s right.
Chris Turner:
“And any way you slice the definition of mission field, we are a mission field.”
William Burton:
We are a mission field.
Chris Turner:
So if you have any questions, if anyone has any questions about how they might get more information, how can they get in contact?
William Burton:
Sure. There’s three different ways you can do that. You can obviously visit our website. That’s at www.tnbaptist.org. Also, you can shoot me an email that’s wburton@tnbaptist.org. W Burton, B-U-R-T-O-N, @tnbaptist.org. Or, you can give me a call on my cell phone, send me a text. My phone number is area code (423) 231-6113. And if I don’t answer, you should give me a text and I will call you back as soon as I possibly can.
Chris Turner:
Absolutely. Well, there’s plenty of opportunity. The fields are definitely white for harvest. We need the workers.
William Burton:
Yeah. You know, the apostle Paul, in Romans, he said my prayer to God and my hearts cry is that Israel would be saved. And I would say that my prayer and my heart cry to God is that Tennessee would be saved. And it’s amazing that 2000 years after the gospel, there are still people lost, and they’re lost, Paul goes on to say, they’ve not heard. They haven’t believed because they haven’t heard. And they haven’t heard because there’s not been a preacher that’s been sent. So I know God’s calling people out to be the proclaimers of the good news. We look forward to hearing from you.
Chris Turner:
Absolutely. William, thanks for taking some time to be with us this morning. And if you have any questions, be sure to get in contact with us. And we would be glad to help. At Tennessee Baptists Mission Board, we serve churches.
