ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP) – A group of more than 60 pastors, wives and other ministry leaders met for a three-day Arabic Church Planting Conference at the North American Mission Board (NAMB) July 10-12 to worship, network and encourage one another in the work of planting churches among Arabic-speaking peoples.
Among those peoples, roughly 40 percent come from nominally Christian communities in other parts of the world, according to Aslam Masih, an ethnic relations coordinator at NAMB.
“The nations are here in North America, and our vision at NAMB is ‘planting churches everywhere for everyone’ through Send Network,” Masih said. “So, our prayer is to see every nation, people and tongue in North America reached for Christ, and that can only happen by making disciples who will make disciples, training leaders who will train leaders, and planting churches that will plant churches.”
Efforts to bring the group together for coordinated training and fellowship started with two men – pastor Amer Safadi of the Arabic Baptist Christian Church of Cincinnati in Ohio and pastor Amgad Beshai of Evangel Church of Troy in Michigan, originally from Jordan and Egypt respectively.
Safadi and Beshai voluntarily serve hundreds of Arab language people through personal visits, internet meetings, phone calls, emails and text messages while each pastors his church and raises his family in the Midwest.
“What started, two years ago, with just over a dozen people in Ohio, erupted this year into a three-day gathering,” said Tony Lynn, director of Send Network Michigan. “The 65 participants are from 20 North American cities in nine different states who originally came from 10 nations from the 10/40 Missions Window.”
A missionary with the International Mission Board serving in an Arabic-speaking nation also participated in this third annual gathering.
“I’ve been so encouraged by the love and concern that this group shows for one another and their desire to support one another in the task to make disciples through planting churches,” said the missionary, who spoke anonymously because of security concerns. “I see in them potential for a great movement of God, reaching Arabic-speaking peoples and many others not only in the U.S. but throughout the world. This potential comes from brothers and sisters from diverse backgrounds and places working together in unity and love for the sake of God’s Kingdom.”
Ramon Osorio, who facilitates Send Network’s efforts to plant churches among various ethnic or language groups throughout North America, addressed the conference.
“I’ve enjoyed getting to know this great group of pastors and leaders that the Lord has raised up among Arabic-speaking people in the United States,” Osorio said. “I am excited about the Kingdom growth we will see in the near future as we continue working together to share the Gospel and plant churches.”
A married couple from the Midwest sharing the Gospel among the largest and densest population of Arabic people in North America said of their experience at the gathering, “We have been challenged to keep God as our focus, including a proper perspective of longevity in our life, our family and to the mission God has called us. Thank you NAMB for hosting the Arabic Church Planting Conference.”
Safadi described the vision of this growing network in English and in Arabic: “We are reaching the Arabic community with the Gospel, making disciples, equipping leaders and sending them to plant healthy, multiplying Arabic churches everywhere for everyone.”
Together, the pastors and church planters have created a group where individuals gather in person annually and monthly through local in-person cohorts as well as through online meetings. These efforts have been made possible through the generosity of the executive directors-treasurers from various Southern Baptist state conventions who financially give and prayerfully support the ministry.
The next annual in-person gathering of this network will take place in Columbus, Ohio, in 2025. Jeremy Westbrook of the State Convention of Baptists in Ohio invited the network, and he will co-host the 2025 event.
