DULUTH — It’s no surprise to Georgia Baptists that the Peach State’s culture has changed radically in the past 50 years. Since the fall of Vietnam and the massive influx of refugees from South Asia, America has, more than ever before, become a nation of immigrants.

But instead of just coming from European nations whose immigrants were largely responsible for founding the nation, today’s new residents come from around the world, speaking a variety of languages and dialects from Asia to Africa to formerly Soviet bloc nations and beyond.

Add the new residents who have migrated on their own from the Rust Belt up north to the mix and Georgia looks more international than at anytime in its history.

That’s why the state needs more churches, and why Georgia Baptists continue to collect a special State Missions Offering each fall. This year’s emphasis, titled “Planting the Gospel” and focuses on church planting.

“The Georgia Baptist State Missions Season of Prayer and Offering falls in September each year as we focus on reaching our state for Jesus Christ. The recommended dates this year are September 15-19, however, churches are encouraged to focus on state missions at a time that best fits their schedule and calendar,” said State Missionary Allen Hill, who oversees Cooperative Program and Stewardship Ministries for the state convention.

“Resources and state missionary speakers are available and will add impact to any presentation a church may be planning. Feel free contact the State Missions Office at the Baptist Missions and Ministry Center if you have any needs or questions related to this emphasis.”

While stressing church planting efforts statewide, this year’s emphasis will spotlight six ministries in the various geographic regions of the state.

• New Heaven Korean Baptist Mission in LaGrange began in 2007 in partnership with First Baptist Church on the Square. State Missionary An Van Pham, in a story on page 12 of this issue, explains the need for a church start to reach the Korean population moving into the area to work at the new KIA automobile plant.

In this story by Index Special Assignment Reporter Sherri Brown, Pastor James Daijun Yu explains how he caught the vision for a new church and felt the call to move to the area.

• Asian Indian Community Church in Lilburn has become an ethnically diverse community during the past few years. In response, First Baptist Church has opened its doors and hearts and now partners with eight ethnic congregations. One of these is the Asian Indian Community Church under the leadership of pastor Raj Nagi.

• Whitewater Baptist Church in Oglethorpe, a predominantly African-American congregation under the leadership of Pastor Chris Hall, has supported new church plants in north Georgia and a church start in Jones County. Now they are focusing on their home area in Macon County and the huge mission field just beyond the doors of their building.

Macon County, where Whitewater is located, has only two African-American churches that meet every Sunday and those are led by pastors who drive in from other communities. With an African-American population of nearly 70 percent and no Southern Baptist church for them to attend, the church saw that situation as unacceptable and decided to plant a church to meet that need.

• True North Church in Calhoun has been launched through the ministry of church planter James Wisener. The new congregation focuses on reaching young married unchurched and “dechurched” couples, he says.

In 2008 Wisener planted the new congregation with 60 individuals in the core group. When True North held its first public Sunday worship service, 138 attended. The congregation now meets in Calhoun’s Harris Arts Center.

• New Mercy Baptist Church in Griffin was birthed in response to there being no African-African congregation to reach children who came to Christ through an inner-city Vacation Bible School. New Salem Baptist Church and Flint River Association partnered to launch a new church in the Anne Street/Meriwether area of the city.

By last summer, more than 300 children had accepted Christ through the ministry. The growing congregation is now led by Pastor Gray Collins, who previously served as assistant pastor at Zion Baptist Church in Hampton.

• Journey Church in Tifton is noteworthy because it is the first known intentional church plant – meaning it was not launched through a church split – in 42 years. The congregation is led by Benji Rowland, who with his wife Britni and then-year-old son Brayden moved to the area in January 2009 to help start the church.

By April of this year the congregation had grown to nearly 400 in worship attendance in two services each Sunday.

Journey Church, one of Georgia Baptists’ newest – and fastest growing – church plants, has surprised the couple and their team as much as anyone in the immediate community. And, Benji Rowland says, it would not have happened without the generosity of givers to the state missions offering.

“The Georgia Baptist Convention, through gifts to the state missions offering and the Cooperative Program, provided tremendous help to us as we laid the groundwork for this ministry. They helped us with startup costs and provided us with free resources to move this church from vision to reality,” he explained.

The congregation meets in the former location used by Northside Baptist Church before it outgrew the location. Journey has already outgrown the sanctuary and has moved into the gymnasium for additional space.

The building, which is being rented by the congregation, had been sold to a construction company that planned to demolish the structure, which has not yet occurred. The structure had been empty for two years when Journey launched at the site earlier this year.

The Waycross native and his wife, a native of Brooks County, say the eight-month-old church is the opposite of most Baptist churches in that it has far more attendees than actual members.

“We only have 75 members but average nearly 400 in our morning worship services, and I think that’s the way it should be. All those visitors mean that our members are busy inviting their unchurched friends and others are discovering us through word of mouth.

“We take membership very seriously and expect a commitment to discipleship and tithing from every member. We don’t ask members to tithe a set percentage of their income, but to commit to financially support the church as they are able. We bring that and other expectations of membership into focus in the new members class that each prospective member attends before joining our fellowship,” he explains.

Rowland attributes the growth of the new church to the fact that “it was a brand new start from scratch. We just parachuted into the community with no history of a split from another church and no baggage from past relationships.

“It’s really crazy how God has blessed this ministry and allowed it to grow. As I tell our members, it’s God’s wave and we’re just riding it to see where it takes us.”

Church planting has taken on many forms and expressions in Georgia. As some churches age they, like many individuals, find it hard to accept change. That can’t be said for the congregation at First Baptist Church of Lilburn. If anything, the member’s views of reaching their rapidly-changing community defeats the saying “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”

Case in point: in February the Gwinnett County church celebrated its 170th anniversary but it’s no longer the primarily Anglo congregation that characterized much of its history. Where some congregations decided to move out of their changing community or decline to the point of closing their doors, First Lilburn embraced the change and today is a model of an ethically mixed house of worship.

Today, under the leadership of Pastor Ken Hall and missions administrator Elaine Brown, the church looks more different than at any time in its history. Since Hall began his ministry at the church seven years ago the congregation’s makeup has constantly morphed to reflect that of its ever-changing community.

In those seven years the church has added eight ethnic congregations and is considering a ninth language group, Brown says. The congregations were profiled in a May 8, 2008 feature story in The Index, and can be viewed online at www.christianindex.org/4399.article.