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UI Connections Articles by Date

11 02 2022

2022 UISBC Pastors’ Conference encourages church leaders to remain true to their calling

Jason McNair Annual Meeting, Article Church Leaders, pastors, Pastors Conference, Preaching, Ray Van Neste, southern baptists, uisbc, uisbc annual meeting, Union University

Layton, UT – The 2022 UISBC Pastor’s Conference featured Dr. Ray Van Neste, dean of the School of Theology and Missions at Union University, as the primary speaker. Dr. Van Neste led pastors through four exhortations based on 1 Corinthians 15 and the book of 2 Timothy. The title of each address encapsulates the thrust of these exhortations: Brothers, Hold Fast; Brothers, Be Bold; Brothers, Seek God’s Approval; Brothers, Fulfill Your Ministry. In addition to the messages, Zach and Andrew Thompson, members of Christ Fellowship Church of Utah County, led the gathering in worship. The conference had over 60 pre-register with even more attending on the day of the event.

The conference also included electing the President of the Pastor’s Conference for 2023 and 2024. Clint Henry, pastor of Central Valley Baptist Church, and Charles Cutrera, pastor of Mountain View Baptist Church, were elected as presidents of the 2023 and 2024 Pastors Conferences respectively. The entirety of the 2022 UISBC Pastor’s Conference can be streamed on demand from Mountain View Baptist Church’s YouTube page or by following this link.

https://tinyurl.com/UISBC2022PC

Article by 2022 Pastors’ Conference President, Timothy O’Day

11 01 2022

In Memoriam for 2022

Jason McNair Annual Meeting, Article In Memoriam, pastors, uisbc annual meeting, Utah Idaho SBC

Draper, UT – An oversight in the scheduling of this year’s Annual Meeting in Layton, we failed to recognize the families of those in our Utah Idaho SBC who have graduated to heaven this past year. We regret that slide failed to be shown and wanted to recognize them here. We pray for the three families of these treasured saints and are thankful for their years of contributions they gave in our convention faithfully serving with grace and dignity.

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07 07 2022

Salt Lake School of Theology has a new class offered in Fall 2022

Jason McNair Article, Strengthening Churches

Salt Lake City, UT- Salt Lake School of Theology is Graduate-level theological training available locally in Utah. Their mission statement is that “We exist to glorify God by training and equipping students spiritually, theologically, and missionally to lead and serve the body of Christ”. It is affiliated with The Rocky Mountain campus of Gateway Theological Seminary and their classes are fully accredited.

This Fall, they are offering New Testament Introduction 1 with Dr. Matt Emadi beginning August 25, 2022. This course will focus on interpreting and understanding the four Gospels. This is a great introduction to Theological Education.

For more information or to apply for this class, visit https://bit.ly/becomestudent

07 07 2022

Responding to the Historic Flooding in Montana

Jason McNair Article, Disaster Relief cooperative program, disaster relief, evangelism, missions

RED LODGE, MT – When the waters of Rock Creek began to surge across its banks into homes and businesses in Red Lodge, Montana, the members of the Church of the Rockies began to respond. At first, it was neighbor helping neighbor, checking on one another and offering aid. Then, the Red Cross arrived. The church family quickly began to volunteer to be the hands and feet for this relief organization. They began preparing and delivering meals, distributing supplies and helping coordinate the response. The church also has a benevolence fund and they too began to meet immediate needs.

Pastor Justin Carter said, “I’m so proud of the way our church has responded. Every day, I’m hearing new stories of how church members have served the people of Red Lodge. It’s amazing. The church immediately reached out to community leaders to offer our facility to be an emergency shelter. We made a few meals, but quickly realized that coordinating with the Red Cross was our niche. Working together, we have had the greatest impact.”

In the next few days, coordination with the Disaster Relief Unit of the Utah Idaho Convention and our Missouri Baptist partners began to take place. A Missouri shower unit that had been assigned to Lee Merck for summer ministry in Bozeman was redeployed. Then, a team from Utah Idaho arrived to coordinate “mud out” crews. As basements have been cleaned out, the team offers to spray them with “Shockwave” to kill bacteria and mitigate against mold forming. As these homes dry out, they will be ready to rebuild. The team has had opportunity to pray with flood victims, exchange stories, and be a source of hope and encouragement.

This is excerpted from a longer article by Darren Hales, Church Strengthening Team Leader for the Montana Southern Baptist Convention. Here is the link to the complete article published 6/30/2022

Utah Idaho Disaster Relief Team in Montana

Homeowner in Red Lodge Montana were grateful for the hard work of DR Volunteers from Utah and Idaho

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Most of the work centered on the basements, removing wet sheetrock, spraying “shockwave” and preparing it to mold free installation in the future.

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Following a day of work, the DR Team prayed with the homeowner

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Thank you, Russel Hohmann, for coordinating and organizing this mobilization

07 07 2022

May 2022 Cooperative Giving Report

Jason McNair Article, Stewardship/Prayer cooperative program, cp giving, giving report

06 01 2022

Feeding Mouths. Reaching Souls.

Jason McNair Article, Sharing Christ Aaron Scott, church planting, Eastside Baptist Church, evangelism, Feeding Ministry, idaho, magic valley, missions, Sharing Christ, southern baptists, Twin Falls

TWIN FALLS, ID – “You’re going to want to sit down for what I’m about to tell you.” When you’re a church planter and Mike Palmer, Send Utah-Idaho Network Coordinator uses that sentence to begin a conversation with you, you know God is about to do something big. And that’s just what happened in November and December of 2021. For the next six weeks, the UISBC helped Twin Falls Community Church serve 10,800 boxes of food filled with produce, milk, and yogurt to the Magic Valley Community in Idaho.

Though our conversation happened in the second week of November, the people of Twin Falls Community Church had been praying for several months that God would open doors to help us reach three local people groups: Refugees, the Foster Care System, and the Public School System. When I received the phone call from Mike, I knew immediately that God was answering our corporate prayer requests. Mike explained that an anonymous donor had given 1800 boxes of food to be delivered every Monday from November 22 to the end of the year. Though we were not yet a year old and only had 17 members of our baby church, I knew that God was going to take our “five loaves and two fish” to literally feed five thousand…10,800 to be precise.

Since we were a baby church, I reached out to Pastor Paul Thompson of Eastside Baptist Church and a handful of other pastors in our area to ask them if they would join us in serving our community. I explained that our goal was not just to fill bellies but to feed souls. Every pastor I asked was eager to jump on board, including a handful of pastors who are not a part of the Southern Baptist Convention. I asked 9Marks ministries to donate tracts to hand out and asked the UISBC to help us with funding to be able to support such a missions endeavor. God answered prayer after prayer.

Through the collaborative work of six local churches (SBC and non-SBC), God gave us the opportunity to reach our three target people groups mentioned above, as well as hundreds more in the Magic Valley. While food distribution is not our mission as a church, it is a part of our function as a church as we are called to love our neighbors as ourselves…to be the hands and feet of Jesus in this broken world.

We praise God for what He accomplished this last year and look forward to seeing HIM yield more fruit for His glory in the coming days, weeks, months, and years. We also thank the churches of the UISBC that helped Twin Falls Community Church pull off such a large operation. We pray that God will continue to water the seeds of the gospel that were planted at the end of 2021 and that those seeds will yield fruit for His glory for all eternity.

Aaron Scott is the planting pastor of Twin Falls Community Church in the Magic Valley Association of Idaho.

If you or your church would like to be a part of stories like this, reach out to one of our UISBC Missionary staff and we would be happy to brainstorm ways in which we can assist you in your mission to reach your community. Funding may be available from our State Missions Offering accounts, as well as through our national network partnerships.