The 2022 CMBA Annual Meeting was held October 6 at Winnsboro First Baptist Church. Attendees met to conduct business and experience an evening of worship and celebration for how God is at work through the CMBA Family of Churches. Of note during the meeting, messengers voted to approve the 2023 CMBA budget and new bylaws, as affirmed by the Visionary Leadership Community in September.
“Meetings like this are so valuable,” said Associational Missions Strategist Jamie Rogers during his first annual address in his role. “This is a time for us to meet each other and line up opportunities to be together. We are working to assess the needs in our association to know how to best serve you. The goal is to help churches do the best they can do to reach those outside the walls of the church with the gospel.”
Moderator Craig Bailey, pastor of Winnsboro First, led the business session which also included the election of officers. For the 2023 term, North Point Community Church Pastor Freddy Johnson will serve as Moderator and Bill Crews, pastor of GraceChurch of Columbia, will be Vice Moderator. Greetings were brought by members of the South Carolina Baptist Convention staff and representatives from The Baptist Foundation of South Carolina, North Greenville University, Charleston Southern University, and Connie Maxwell Children’s Ministries.
Rev. Jarrian “JayWill” Wilson, pastor of City of Refuge Church, shared challenges to reaching lost communities throughout the CMBA area, including those deemed “the most dangerous areas” across the Midlands.
“These places are what we call ‘dark parts’ of our city. I see everything going on in our city but I say, ‘that’s His,’” Wilson said of his attitude to reaching the lost. “Church family – what are you longing for right now? What are you longing to see God do right now in your church? We long to see God’s glory spread throughout our state and to the ends of the earth.”
For his part, Rogers challenged messengers to continually pray for the estimated 400,000 lost people living within the CMBA footprint because “God wants us to be seeking to reach every one of these people, and that is a vast mission field. The good news is you’re not alone, I’m not alone, and we are not alone.”