americaninterimpastors.com

The February issue of Missionscene, a magazine produced by the Mission Department of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, includes an article by John and Jan Ward. See page 6 at: http://www.baptist.org.uk/resources-events/missionscene.html

John and Jan, members of First Baptist Church, Lake Jackson, Texas, have served in two UK Baptist churches, St. Paul’s Baptist Church in Skegness in Lincolnshire and Henley-in-Arden Baptist Church in Warwickshire. They were asked to write an article that the BUGB mission department might use to highlight the dual challenge and opportunity that Baby Boomers present.

The year 2011 marked the year that a large number of those of the Baby Boomer generation, born between 1946 and 1964, would begin to retire. The challenge is to reach those people with the Gospel. The opportunity is to use people in their retirement years to help spread the Gospel. It is well known that this generation has a very large popluation and represents a huge field for harvest and a vast amount of resources for advancing the kingdom of God.

American Interim Pastor Ministries, Inc. (nonprofit) is pleased to have retirees such as the Ward’s serve in British churches. We have had 31 interim pastors from America serve in 15 UK Bapitst churches. The best news is that 35 have been baptized by those American interim pastors.

We are continually looking in the USA for suitable candidates for service in Great Britain. Retired pastors and other church staff members as well as laypersons that God would call into pastoral ministry are good candidates. We have had nine laypersons serve and four of those nine have since been ordained to the Gospel ministry.

We are also continually looking in the UK for places for AIPM candidates to serve. This ministry has been demonstrated to work well and while it is perhaps not appropriate for some situations, it has done well in a varitety of church situations. Our goal is to try to help the British church grow until it can both afford and locate a suitable British pastor. At that point, it is our desire to leave and go help elsewhere.