To pursue the HPBC vision of seeing every church working together to be leaders in impacting God’s Kingdom throughout the Pacific and Asia, we have exciting news to share.
In 2021, your HPBC Executive Board researched, developed, and approved new initiatives to strengthen Hawaii Pacific Baptist Churches in theological, leadership, and missional development. With your HPBC staff team alongside, you can explore and utilize these opportunities, beginning January 1, 2022.
Your Cooperative Program gifts will fund these initiatives supplemented by additional resources through your contributions to the Sue Nishikawa Offering for Hawaii Pacific Missions. The HPBC Programs Committee will oversee the process of application, approval, and evaluation to strengthen accountability and integrity for our cooperative work.
As funds from the North American Mission Board (NAMB) will provide for evangelistic ministries, we will focus HPBC resources on these three areas:
1 – Theological Development Initiatives
In the area of theological development, your executive board developed student support pathways for the six SBC seminaries through on-campus, on-island, and online courses, with other seminary engagements for alumni and students. These pathways provide essential resources to call out those God calls to serve and equip them for the ministries He has prepared.
Deepening our relationships with all the SBC seminaries enhances your efforts in recruiting and developing the coming generations of pastors, missionaries, and ministry leaders. More opportunities spring from these relationships that will strengthen your service and your church’s ministry for the coming years.
Hawaii Pacific Baptists are so thankful for the support that many of our students and current ministry leaders have received through Seminary scholarships from the Shiraki Memorial Foundation. We encourage you to explore their website (shirakifoundation.org) for more information on their support for seminary training for Hawaii students who plan to serve in Hawaii churches.
2 – Leadership Development Initiatives
From the leadership development initiatives, interns and apprentice positions for your ministry are back, in coordination with Cooperative Program support for entry-level ministry positions. These initiatives will serve those of you who have expressed the desire to train leaders in the field, shaped better to comprehend the contextualized nature of our
ministry areas.
Semester and summer term ministry support, brought through the intern and apprentice programs, is designed to assist leaders in equipping others through practical service. Those individuals trained can continue to grow
through the entry-level ministry opportunities within HPBC churches. If churches explore new ministry roles or seek first-year support for a church-approved position, these initiatives provide an onramp for leadership and service.
Through these opportunities, coupled with IMB Journeyman and NAMB GenSend roles, your church can experience the growth of new leaders for the future. In addition, the options continue through the SBC seminary
connections, bringing increased leadership development to the HPBC.
3 – Missional Development Initiatives
Your church can empower and mobilize more members for gospel engagement locally and globally through missional development initiatives than ever before. Scholarships and subsidies, provided through Cooperative Program gifts, enable pastors and mission leaders to participate in mission trips or lead church teams to engage a new mission field. These initiatives
will expand your missional reach to engage fresh mission efforts, whether at home or across the globe.
For pastors that have never led teams from their church or for ministers that lack engagement in the field for many years, these opportunities bring training, practical assistance, and financial support to bring a new missional vision into reach. As many small churches cannot coordinate an entire team, these initiatives also allow church members from different congregations
to collaborate on a mission trip. Under the leadership of your HPBC staff team, mission teams from multiple churches can begin to develop a new plan through training, mobilization, and evaluation with others. Every church can be on mission through our cooperative work in the HPBC.
These plans allow for continued development to strengthen and start HPBC-supported churches and missions, locally and globally, through the
praying, giving, and sending of Hawaii Pacific Baptists.
In coordination with the SBC seminaries, the North American Mission Board, and the International Mission Board, God is preparing Hawaii Pacific Baptists to lead the way forward in reaching the world for Christ, beginning in our regions. Prayerfully consider how your church can benefit from these initiatives in developing leaders for God’s Kingdom work ahead.
Your HPBC staff team is equipped and ready to serve you in preparing the coming generations of HPBC life to live out the mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ. In addition, the HPBC’s relationships throughout the SBC network of entities and agencies are robust and healthy so that you can easily access the best resources for your ministry.