"A Living Sacrifice"   - journal entry by Mrs. Donna Hart - May 8, 2020 Two years ago today my new normal began, and I started down a path of hospital stays and tests that would eventually end three months later with a diagnosis of ALS.  It is almost becoming hard to remember the person I was before. I watch people scurrying about and wonder if I really used to be able to do that too...could I really walk out the door, jump in the car, and drive somewhere without giving it a second thought? Could I really just wander all around the house, cook a meal, do the dishes, [...]

In a previous article we explored the Purpose of Partnership as we brought out the New Testament teaching as the foundation of BCP’s philosophy of ministry.  This governs how we view an agency’s relationship with church planters/revitalizers and local churches. In this installment we want to expose the Products and Pieces of Partnership by exploring the New Testament precedent for churches partnering together with church planters in advancing the Gospel. Philippians once again informs our thinking as we consider Paul’s relationship with the Philippian church. Philippians 1:5 and 7 highlight the church’s partnership and in chapter 4 the individual relationship the church adopted in helping Paul by sending Epaphroditus to [...]

We Have Already Received a Heritage, But  We Are Still Writing a Legacy! We have little to say about the heritage we receive, but the legacy we leave is completely up to us. I cannot escape my heritage, that biological tie and identity with my parents and their parents that goes back for generations. I cannot rewrite history with regard to the influences on my life. My connections to family and  history brought both good and bad. I would rather not think of the past in many respects, and I am thankful that by the grace of God I have overcome the bad influences. My legacy, though, is still being [...]

Those of you who regularly read the Connect publication may have recently seen this umbrella which gives a visual representation of how missiology fits under ecclesiology. In the following paragraphs I would like to flesh out what that looks like in real life as BCP, a mission agency, assists churches in fulfilling the Great Commission.  How that commission is fulfilled by churches is rooted in the biblical principles governing the basic practices of the early church as seen in Acts 2:42 – continuing in the apostles’ doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayers. Paul serves as an example to us in the relationships he nurtured for partners in ministry. The [...]