Franklin Baptist Association takes 72 workers to Crossover

By Brian Koonce

Staff Writer

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Seven Missouri churches were among the 3,000 Southern Baptists that braved the 100-degree heat for Crossover, the evangelistic thrust preceding each year’s Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) annual meeting.

Seventy-two people from six churches in Franklin Baptist Association helped host “Festival Familiar para toda la Familia” (Family Festival for the Whole Family) for more than 1,100 people June 20, and saw 115 people accept Christ. It was just one of 95 events, including door-to-door community visits by 109 local SBC churches and 1,200 volunteers from out of town. Reports are still coming in, but more than 1,000 people accepted Christ over the weekend.

Lee Whitley, pastor of Faith Baptist Church in Washington and his wife Tina have participated in Crossover for the past four years.

“We’ve had some great trips in years past, but I think this was one of the best,” he said. “There was sweet spirit and we saw a big impact.”

The Franklin Association team ranged from two years old to 80, and included 30 that had never been on any type of mission trip before.

The team joined with eight local Hispanic congregations, the local association, the Kentucky Baptist Convention, and the North American Mission Board to put on the festival. It included free Mexican and Cuban food, clowns, games, inflatables and a roving mariachi band. Door prizes ranging from soccer balls to HD TVs helped draw in the crowds.

“It was almost a cross-cultural trip only five hours from home,” Whitley said.

Since soccer is such a popular pastime in the Hispanic world, the team used the “ball of many colors” in their witnessing. The soccer ball is colored like a beaded witnessing bracelet, black representing sin, red the blood of Jesus, etc.

“The Hispanic pastors and lay people really got into it,” Tina said. “They were going to town using the soccer balls. We asked one man in Spanish if he was going to become a pastor and he said ‘maybe so’ because he was so excited to see what God was doing.”

Another success was seeing the level of Kingdom cooperation among the churches of Franklin Association, Whitley said.

“I liked seeing our churches coming together to share the Gospel,” he said. “It was nice to get to know some of them and really fellowship around the Gospel. All the churches are going to come back home excited to see what God did in Louisville done here at home.”

The seven churches involved were Faith Baptist, First Baptist in Union, First Baptist in St. Clair, Temple Baptist in Sullvan, Shilo Baptist in Robertsville, First Baptist in Villa Ridge, and Virginia Mines Baptist in Lonedale.

The trip was not without its challenges, however. On the way there the team suffered flat tires, blown brake lines, hours sitting in traffic, mix ups at the hotel and more.

“Even the snow cone juice we ordered burst in the FedEx truck,” Tina said. “You name it, Satan threw every fiery dart at us. But it just got the team more and more pumped. We knew God was going to make something big happen.”

Jim Plymale, director of missions for Franklin Association said he was disappointed there was not more Missouri participation in Crossover.

“It’s been a tremendous and easy way to get involved in missions,” he said. “Everybody can do it. I’d tell any other church or association that you can do it.”

Plymale said interest among this year’s participants is high for a trip to Crossover 2010, just before the SBC meets in Orlando next June.

“Every year it just gets better and better,” he said.