WorldVenture

What does global missions look like when the whole church sees itself as part of the mission? Fresh off Millington Baptist Church’s Missions Conference, Pastor Bob sits down with WorldVenture President Jeff Denlinger and Vice President David Love to talk about the changing landscape of global missions, reaching unreached peoples, and why the local church remains central to sending and supporting missionaries.

They also explore WorldVenture’s 360 approach to ministry, how Christians can use their professions and skills for the sake of the gospel, why younger missionaries are increasingly drawn to hard places, and what mission organizations may need to rethink for the next generation. Plus, Tim and Bob recap the conference, reveal a record-setting week in the Great Book War, and preview the return to Ezekiel next week.  

**SUBMIT YOUR QUESTIONS TO THE SHOW HERE**
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FRESH WAVE
https://millingtonbaptist.org/mbc-missions-conference/ 
DISABILITY TRAINING EVENT
https://millingtonbaptist.org/disability-training-event/
CHRISTIANITY EXPLORED
https://millingtonbaptist.org/christianity-explored-2026/

CHAPTERS
00:00:00 - Fresh Wave Is Back
00:00:46 - Missions Conference Weekend Recap
00:05:06 - Disability Ministry Training At MBC
00:05:58 - Meet World Venture Leaders
00:10:48 - What Makes World Venture Distinct
00:14:25 - The 360 Framework And Integrity
00:20:40 - Contextualizing The Gospel For Real People
00:22:50 - Why Younger Workers Choose Hard Places
00:27:00 - Hard Questions Facing Mission Agencies
00:31:50 - How To Get Trained And Sent
00:32:55 - Parting Charge For Millington Baptist
00:33:00 - Christianity Explored Starts This Fall
00:33:40 - Backstage Reactions And Social Media
00:34:29 - Book War Results And Record Votes
00:38:08 - Ezekiel 13 Next Week Preview

Music
"Ventura"
Morgan Taylor
U76EPPNJDYZYU0Y7

Transcript

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Fresh Wave Is Back

Tim 0:00

The Fresh Wave is back with a new season, a new compost, and a fresh approach. Johnny is joined by Annabelle as they take Millington Baptist Church's team podcast in a deeper direction, asking bigger questions, looking beyond surface level answers, and thinking carefully about the things that shape everyday life and faith. New episodes release every week with shorter, produced episodes building towards a longer conversation at the end of the month. And we're starting off with friendships. What actually makes a good friendship? Are all friendships the same? And what can our relationship with other people teach us about our relationship with God? So if you're a teen or have a teen in your life, this is a series you'll want to follow. So check out new episodes of The Fresh Wave each week on the NBC Unhindered YouTube channel, the Rush NJ Instagram page, and wherever you find your podcasts.

Missions Conference Weekend Recap

Bob 0:46

And join us as we learn to think deeper about the things that matter, welcome to Behind the Pulpit for uh October the 6th, 2026. We're so glad you're joining us today. We're gonna have a bit of an abbreviated version today. Um, just me and Tim right here. We're gonna do a little recap on our missions conference from the last week. And then I did an extended interview with uh Jeff Denlinger and uh David Love from World Venture, who were two our two keynote speakers from this last weekend and also preached on Sunday. So hopefully you enjoyed their bringing God's word uh to you this past week. Um but the missions conference itself was was very fruitful. Um I was really pleased with those that came out. The food was delicious, um, lots of really great conversations and stories. We also had um uh presentations from a number of our world partners, uh both locally, and then uh Bo Columbine, who's from Senegal, uh John White in Ukraine. We also got to watch his uh Ukrainian uh uh documentary that one of his colleagues put together, and it was uh very moving. Lots of good questions after that. Thank you to everybody who helped uh put that together. It was uh a wonderful weekend, and I even got questions on whether we can do it, we can do it again. So we're gonna have to look into that. Um so Tim, since you're joining me, what what were some of your uh your highlights and takeaways from the last weekend?

Tim 2:25

Yeah, what's up, everybody? Got a camera this time. Um there he is, we're in his devil's jersey. Big game today. Uh yeah, I just think the whole thing was cool. Um, you know, obviously we have um what we do world partner interviews on Sundays um every once in a while, where it's cool that we get to see um world partners come in, we get to hear from them, and they get to you know share a little bit about what's going on. But it was cool to have multiple different world partners all together. Uh, I told this to Pastor Bob and a couple of other people. It's like we're obviously here at Millington Baptist Church. This is our local church body, but these world partners are also part of our church body as well. But it was so the event kind of felt like you're having the cousins over for like a like a holiday party, and you're gonna you know you're gonna get to hear from them. Um yeah, I always love hearing um from got to hear from the Stasios, which are great. I got to spend a lot of time um with Bo and Michelle Columbine, uh, which is cool because you know I'm planning on going out to Senegal. So Bo and I clicked pretty pretty quickly. Him and I seem to be kind of cut from the same cloth with a lot of things. He's a he's a he's a cool guy. But yeah, I just meeting everyone and um he did he tell you people always ask if he looks like Russell Crowe. He did not, but he within I had been talking to him for five minutes, maybe not even on Friday night. I had just met him, and he looks at me, he goes, You know, I bet I could take you down. I was like, uh, I bet you could. And then have a Senegalese cage match right there in just uh Yeah, and then he told me of this the story on Sunday that he got into some wrestling match with a professional wrestler who was like half his age or something in in Senegal, and and he took him down in three seconds. So yeah. But yeah, overall it was great. Really enjoyed the event. I I am an advocate for doing it uh consistently.

Bob 4:16

Well, there we go. And uh uh, you know, you put out some good pictures. I'm sure there's more that'll uh that'll go somewhere. So thanks for all the work that you put into it. And uh and also there was there was an unveiling of our 2027 contend conference uh trailer, which will be coming up this coming Sunday. Those of you that missed it will uh we'll get the preview. Um so uh what we'd like to do now is I did spend about I think it was about 25 minutes uh talking with Jeff and David. So I think we're gonna switch over to that now. Maybe Tim will have a little ad spot before we get there. There will be an ad. Um so that's that's coming up in just a minute. So check that out. It was a really good conversation, and then we'll come back uh for uh the results of last week's book war. So indeed, don't don't click ahead, watch the video, then come back and uh and get the results.

Disability Ministry Training At MBC

Tim 5:06

How can the church welcome, care for, and disciple individuals and families affected by disability? On Saturday, October 17th, Millington Baptist Church is hosting a regional disability training event in partnership with Johnny and Friends. The morning will be led by Sarah Bush, regional coordinator with Johnny and Friends, and will offer practical gospel-centered training to help us grow in confidence, awareness, and compassion. You don't need to be an expert or already serve in disability ministry to attend. This event is for anyone who wants to better understand how to welcome and support people with disabilities and their families in the life of the church. The training runs from 8 30 to 11 30 a.m. Breakfast is included, and the event is completely free. Visit the NBC website to register and learn more. And come ready to learn how we can make the church a place where every person is welcomed, valued, and encouraged to grow as a disciple of Jesus.

Bob 5:57

Well,

Meet World Venture Leaders

Bob 5:58

hey everybody, welcome to uh the sermon portion behind the pulpit. Hopefully you've seen Pastor Dave and I uh chatting for a few minutes. Uh, we have some special guests today, because if you were with us uh yesterday or a couple days ago, depending on when you're watching this, uh, you know we had a missions conference this weekend, um, our 175th missions conference where we highlighted all things global missions. Uh, we got to hear from world partners like John White and Bo Columbine and some local partners like Mark Stacio and Ernie Scalabrin, uh Amoon Sharon. But we were really privileged to have uh some folks from uh World Venture, which is uh one of our main mission agencies here, both the president and vice president. So I felt very, very honored. And they're they're actually here with us in studio. I thought we continue the conversation for a few minutes um and add this into those of you that are watching behind the pulpit. So, Jeff and David, we're so glad that you're here today. Thanks for giving us a few minutes before you you hop on a jet plane.

David Love 6:51

Yeah, thank you. Thank you very much.

Bob 6:53

So I thought maybe um to start off for those people that aren't familiar with you, maybe share a little bit about yourself, and then uh secondly, after you share about yourselves, tell us about World Venture. Uh, what is it? How did it start? Um, why is it the best mission missing agency in the world?

Jeff Denlinger 7:11

Okay. Sounds good. Go ahead. Well, uh, my name is Jeff, uh Jeff Denlinger, uh originally from South Jersey, so it's kind of fun to be back in northern Jersey, uh reconnecting with my Jersey roots, so to speak. Uh I grew up in the South Jersey area, Christian home, uh actually very strong Christian heritage. Uh my parents, my grandparents, my great-grandparents, so just very privileged in that sense of having great um faith models to follow. Uh met my wife and seminary. She grew up as a missionary kid. Her name's Christine. Her parents are missionaries in Central America. Um she's totally fluent in Spanish. I had to go through language school, it wasn't fair, but that's the way life goes. Uh anyway, we're married uh 40 plus years now, uh two adult kids, five grandkids, and um yeah, what else about me? Um I'm a few months away from retiring from World Ventures, so World Ventures in an active search process, uh, which to me is very exciting. Uh pass the baton to the next uh run uh leader to run the next portion of the race. Uh so that's enough about me.

David Love 8:24

Yeah, so um David and Catherine Love, we've been with World Venture for 25 years now. We both grew up in Oregon. We actually grew up about 20 minutes away from each other, but we didn't meet until we moved to Portland, Oregon, independent of each other to go to university. And so we've been married for 38 years now, and we have two daughters who are married to godly men, and we have three grandchildren. Uh as I said, we've been with World Venture for 25 years. I also had a tenure career in accounting because I studied business administration and accounting. And so uh before I got into missions full-time, I worked as an accountant, a CPA, a controller for a small Christian college, and so I have that in my background as well.

Bob 9:07

Did that provide any uh preparation for missions work? Uh, you know, you had to really evangelize those uh people that were stealing on their taxes or things like that.

David Love 9:19

Uh not in that uh framework, but uh actually no, it has been very beneficial for me having that career in accounting before I went into what you would consider more traditional missions. And uh I've used what I've learned as a CPA and and accounting, I've uh used it multiple times. And in fact, uh a lot of the work that we're doing nowadays around the world is related to business as mission. And so having that background in accounting, having consulted with uh businesses and business owners over the years has really been beneficial for me in the ministry that I've been involved in.

Bob 9:54

Oh, well, that's great. Well, I'd love to come back to that uh business as missions uh discussion in just a minute, but I I want to ask Jeff kind of kind of a fun question here. So, Jeff, you mentioned you talk about South Jersey, North Jersey. Is it true that you subscribe to the two Jersey framework? You were you were you were holding on to pork roll and tail or ham, but that's another big debate out here.

Jeff Denlinger 10:12

Yeah, yeah. So when I grew up, it was South Jersey, near Cherry Hill, that area, anything north of Trenton felt like New York City. Okay. So I do hold to those two. Now I do realize Central Jersey people want to stake their territory, but I don't think they're recognized by either North or South.

Bob 10:29

So I just watched a video about that the other day. I should share this YouTube channel with you. But uh I defin I definitely uh identify with Central Jersey. So I grew up in Mammoth County and now I've been over here for a while. But anyway, that's that's beside the point. Everybody needs Jesus in New Jersey. That's right. All right, so uh regarding world venture, uh maybe let me ask it

What Makes World Venture Distinct

Bob 10:48

this way. Could if somebody asked you to describe world venture in um a sentence, how how would you describe world venture? Let's start there and then maybe you can you can build out from that.

Jeff Denlinger 10:59

Well, we're a nonprofit mission agency that sends workers to make disciples of Jesus in all kinds of contexts.

Bob 11:06

Now you're sounding like the accountant when you say it. Is that right? But that's very clear, yes.

Jeff Denlinger 11:13

So that's a short sentence. Yeah. Yeah.

David Love 11:15

There you go. Yeah. I would say we're a body of believers who are committed to taking the gospel to the ends of the earth.

Bob 11:22

Okay. Very good. So now say more about World Venture. What is it that you do? How are you different than maybe another mission agency that people know about? What's what's exciting at World Venture?

David Love 11:36

Well, I think one of the things that a lot of people don't realize about World Venture is that even though we've been around for 80 years and we've really been known for our church planting and leadership development, uh theological education, we actually are a very innovative mission agency, and uh a significant number of our workers are working among the unreached. And I think that uh a lot of times that kind of gets missed in the other things that we're doing really well.

Jeff Denlinger 12:05

Yeah, I think another unique factor, right? So every agency does very similar work making disciples of Jesus. For us, our founding coming uh as a as a missional movement, if you will, that's theologically grounded. So theology is a big deal to us. Now it's true for many others, but for us it's a baptistic theology. Um we're not a Presbyterian or you know, Methodist or anything like that. We're not against that. We partner with a lot of different groups, but that that theological founding is a core piece of our identity as a group. So as we partner with churches around the world, particularly church associations, uh that that theological foundation is a common thread that knits us together. Um so that's a that's another significant piece of our journey. Um though that said, the uh theological training that's required for for missionaries varies. So if you're gonna be a Bible translator, you pretty much have to know Greek and Hebrew and all of that good stuff, right? If you're and that's not to say that's more important, it's just a different uh preparation track. Yeah. If you're working with street kids in Sao Paulo, Brazil, you probably don't need all the Greek and Hebrew, but you probably need to have a clear understanding of some of the urban dynamics or social uh like um you know how what are the systems these kids are living in in addition to sharing the gospel and being able to play soccer.

Bob 13:33

Yeah. So being able to contextualize that theology to that ministry that you're into, definitely.

David Love 13:38

Right. Yeah. I think another distinctive for us is that um we really believe in partnering with the church, whether that's the sending churches here in America or the local church if it exists in a place, but we also believe in places where there isn't a local church in establishing the church. And so that's a very important part for us that uh we're not just an organization that's focused on evangelism only. We want to see the church established around the world because we do believe that it is the body of Christ. We do believe that uh it is what Jesus is using in the world uh to establish his kingdom.

Bob 14:18

Yeah. Now you talked, you you specifically talked yesterday about your kind of your what you call your 360 framework,

The 360 Framework And Integrity

Bob 14:25

this idea of businesses, missions, but not just bit but not just business, uh all these different sectors. Can you say just kind of capture that pretty quickly for people that might have missed your talk? And why is that is that unique to you guys? Well, it's not really unique to us, honestly. But maybe you have you popularized it better than others?

David Love 14:42

Well, I I think that uh we've enculturated it as an organization. Okay. That's a good word. So there's lots and lots of organizations that do 360 ministry. So uh we send out people who are from business backgrounds, engineering backgrounds, people who are attorneys and artists, and a wide variety of people, ethnomusicology. And we recognize that's a big word. Jesus musicology. That's a great missions word. Yeah, I think it's a good idea. Uh and so we believe in sending out a variety of people because each person's unique gifting and ability, training and background gives them unique ways to be able to reach people on the field. And so we really do believe in what we call contextualized disciple making, where World Venture doesn't tell our workers how to do ministry on the field. We expect them to learn the language, we expect them to learn the culture, uh, and to be able to contextualize what they know in a way that people can understand locally.

Jeff Denlinger 15:47

Let me give a good example of that. Please. Years ago in one of our trainings uh that I went through, it haunt this question haunted me for years. We Christine and I were church planners in Caracas. We had a well-known um seminary type guy. At one of our trainings, he said, What makes the good news good news to the people you're trying to reach? And if it takes you more than 13 words, you're guessing. And it made me realize uh this idea of contextualizing um Paul's approach uh in the New Testament to Jewish communities was very different than when he went to Athens. Why? Because they needed to hear the gospel in ways that they could engage. So the same challenges for us, but it'd be really easy to translate and rip replicate, but that's not contextual, right? It's just a translation. So what makes the good news really good news of the gospel to the different peoples that we work with?

Bob 16:44

Yeah. That's great. So uh your your both your examples. Um you you kind of went around the room yesterday and you were asking people to uh stump you, I think, about these different areas and what people were doing. Give me some examples about different sectors that people are working in. Um I don't want to say missionaries under the guise of being a business person, but but they're using that as a touch point to get into a culture and then uh for of course wanting to share Jesus with people. But what are some examples of how that's playing out?

David Love 17:16

Well, uh one of the things that I've really noticed is that over the last 20, 25 years, as we've encouraged people to be innovative in regard to 360, recognizing that uh they can do a wide variety of things to develop relationships with people. And so even if it's just a part-time kind of role that people are doing, uh people are actually involved in this. And so we've had artists who have written Christian poetry in different countries and and worked with other Christian artists to be able to express the gospel through art. Um, we've had attorneys who have been involved in anti-sex trafficking laws at the governmental level in a country, and so some things like that where people are able to use their background uh even beyond just business's mission uh in a broad gathering.

Bob 18:09

So using their background to bring in the kingdom of God as well as sharing about the salvation through Jesus.

David Love 18:15

Right, because every person has a unique sphere of influence, right? And so if if you're an accountant, you're interacting with accountants and business people on a daily basis that a pastor like yourself uh doesn't get to do necessarily Monday through Friday, right? And so we recognize that every single person is relating with different people in a community, and that's really valuable for the sake of the gospel.

Bob 18:43

Yeah, yeah.

Jeff Denlinger 18:43

Yeah, I would just add to that is uh uh undergirding this whole thing of a 360, which simply is a 360 circle with different components that represents the whole uh sphere of life and society. Um underlying that whole thing is integrity. Right. So a teacher in a public school has uh the teaching credentials to be there, but when they bring their faith in Jesus into that environment, they are who they are. And so we're not looking for platforms to somehow trick the government to give us a visa. No, we're Christians who have these professional skills. Now that's a slight variation from how traditional missions have operated the last hundred plus years, where we're looking for full-time, if you will, Christian workers, and the work isn't my teaching, it's my ability to share the gospel. So it's really this recapturing, if you will, the whole body of Christ has opportunity to be engaged in mission. Yeah, using the skills, the education, the professional degrees that they have. And when you operate with that integrity, there's no separation from my professional life and my spiritual life, and that is wedded together. It's a powerful witness for people. That's really cool.

Bob 19:59

To me, that sounds like whether you choose to do that overseas or whether you choose to do that locally, the framework is similar, right?

Jeff Denlinger 20:05

That's right. Yeah, you know, and honestly, from our perspective, churches that practice that kind of a discipleship are the easiest churches to find new recruits in. Uh right, because it's already part of their DNA of their thinking. So it's not a platform to hide, it's a it's an entree into a a sphere.

Bob 20:24

Yeah. Well, why don't we stick with that for a second? Because my next question was going to be um where do you see uh kind of the momentum in missions right now? And and I'll uh just add a story to that. Uh back in January when I was there for the board meeting, you guys

Contextualizing The Gospel For Real People

Bob 20:40

were uh training, uh preparing people to go out on the field. And as part of the board meeting, you had how how many, how many did you send out?

Jeff Denlinger 20:48

Uh that was about twenty. Twenty, twenty.

Bob 20:50

And everybody came in and shared their story of how they're they came to Jesus and then how God called them at a mission. And there was some really powerful stories in there. Um I was I left super encouraged. Um where do you see this momentum? Like what we're what are what are what's pulling people into missions right now?

David Love 21:09

Surprisingly, the younger generation, people in their 20s, college graduates, um they they're kind of getting a bad rap right in American society right now. And what we're finding though is that a number of them are very passionate about taking the gospel to the ends of the earth, to frontier missions work, to very difficult places. They're willing to sacrifice to go to hard places that perhaps people haven't been willing to go to in the past. And to me, that is a really encouraging but also surprising phenomenon that we're experiencing about how many people really want to go to hard places and do are willing to do hard things for the sake of the gospel.

Jeff Denlinger 21:55

Yeah, I would add to what David said it's it isn't only about the hard place, it's about People who have never heard and have no access. Yeah. Right. So that whole unreached movement.

Bob 22:04

Okay, can you c if people don't know that? Can you just define what that is?

Jeff Denlinger 22:07

Yeah. So non-Christians are non-Christians, right? They just don't believe in Jesus. Well, around here, many people have heard the gospel, at least the concepts of the gospel. There are people in the world who have never even heard the name of Jesus. They have no idea who He is. Yeah. So unreached means they don't really have access to the gospel, even if they wanted to believe, there's nowhere to go. So access is a huge differentiator. It's not to say we don't care about Europe or you know South America or whatever. No, we do, because there are lost people there. But there are whole peoples that have never heard even once. So this younger generation has captured, been captured by that vision. How do we make disciples among unreached peoples? Which is I mean, it's it's

Why Younger Workers Choose Hard Places

Jeff Denlinger 22:50

it's inspiring, it's challenging, and I'm like, wow, God. But I also think it's a generational thing. And uh as baby boomers continue to move off the scene uh in their different generations, this younger set of uh colleagues are really compelled for unreached peoples. So the challenge that we have is how do we gear our structures, our systems to accommodate and move in those same directions, not just out on the field, how do we accommodate those kinds of partnerships and churches from the US?

Bob 23:23

Good. So flip question What is uh the hardest question facing mission organizations right now? And you can use more than one if you want, but I I'll jump in.

Jeff Denlinger 23:36

I I think it's a similar question that most churches are asking. Are we able and willing to change? Right? So if we have a missionary model that's dependent on, you know, three, four years of seminary, raise support, you're in it for this 30 or 40 year commitment, that's probably not gonna help us uh reach unreached peoples today because those values have shifted in a younger generation. So are we able to change our models of mission, how we do mission, how do we function as an organization? Well, similarly, similarly in churches, I think COVID revealed a lot of uh strengths and weaknesses in local churches. But people aren't just gonna naturally come. So how do we figure out how to go to our communities uh and make disciples rather than have this attractional model? COVID kind of shut a lot of that down. So I think the biggest challenge, this sounds uh kind of crazy, but are we able and willing to change our thinking about what is missions and what are my expectations then of the agency to send me?

David Love 24:42

Yeah, I would say a a correlation to that is uh thinking in terms of as North American sending mission agencies, what is our role going forward in the global church? So when you recognize the the size of the global church in the global south, in Asia, and the fact that people all around the world are sending mission aid uh sending missionaries out. So uh in this day and age, how do we as North Americans partner with the global church? So for a long time, we were kind of the tip of the spear going out and and setting the the strategy and the tone of what was happening in global missions, but that ship has sailed a long time ago, and it has taken us a long time to come to the realization about that. And so that means then that we have to change our mission strategies, how we function, how we partner with others, and uh and just even preparing our workers to go out with a global humility, recognizing that as North Americans, we still have a role to play, but it's probably a different role than it was even 25 years ago, let alone 100 years ago. Yeah. It's a good word.

Bob 26:04

All right. I have one last question, and then I'll let you guys make a closing statement and closing arguments. Um so kind of piggybacking off of what you just said, uh, if somebody was listening to this or somebody came this weekend, and this was one of our hopes, that maybe somebody would catch the vision of going, of being mobilized, of being Catherine used a different word, she didn't like mobilization. What was that? Training, training, training. If somebody wanted to be trained to go out and they they feel called to be a missionary, what are the next steps they could take? You know, how could they get connected with world venture? Um, and how can churches come alongside to help uh folks like you?

David Love 26:42

Well, I would say that um the church is actually central to that. We there are a lot of mission agencies who will just take whoever is interested in going, but world venture requires you to be sent by a local church. And and so

Hard Questions Facing Mission Agencies

David Love 27:00

increasingly we want to um affirm that and have the local church really be mentoring and guiding and directing them toward their missionary service, right? So that uh so that people don't get to the point where they're like, hey, I'm gonna go to country X. They come to you as a pastor and are like, hey, we want, I want you to support me to go to this country, and you've never heard anything about it, right? The church really needs to be integral in that process. And so we actually oftentimes will direct people back to their church and say, hey, spend some time working with your church, figuring out what it is that God's calling you to do and have that conversation with your church first before you come to us as a mission organization, right? But we do intentionally disciple and mentor people through the process of becoming a worker. And uh, but a lot of that pre-work before you apply to a mission agency needs to happen at the church level.

Bob 27:57

How do you find churches that are doing that well? How are they cultivating that within their people?

David Love 28:02

Well, I think is it a class?

Bob 28:04

Is it more mission trips? Like what is it?

David Love 28:06

Yeah, I think it's a combination of things. Yeah. So uh some of the churches that are sending the most people, they really have an intentional plan to develop missionaries in their midst, right? Okay. So they will have um, they will get people involved in short-term mission trips, which can be an impetus for that. And but then also having intentional courses to help people learn about it. And and actually perspectives on the world Christian movement. Uh well, it may not be called that anymore, just perspectives. Perspectives. They just call it perspectives now, yeah. That that dates me. Um, so perspective is is a really great opportunity for somebody to learn about the needs of the world and how somebody can go.

Jeff Denlinger 28:48

Yeah, I think in addition, uh so it's that church environment, right? So from the pulpit all the way through all the ministries of the church, there's this uh a biblical view of mission. It's not simply an activity of the church or a small group of the church, the whole of the church is on mission, and it gets voiced in different ways uh by the service. Well, you take that environment and then you say it's a you know typical 20-something that's interested, thinks God may have a call in their life. Um so worldentry.com about us, you can find stuff. There's how to you know, learn more. You can fill out an application, just general information, name, phone number, that kind of stuff that begins this conversation with us. But as David said, one of our first calls is to the pastor or missions team where are you guys at in this journey with them? Um so that's that's pretty crucial for us. Uh we're always open for new workers. In fact, uh I would say this way churches that are intentional about developing and sending people um well I'll I'll let me phrase it differently. I believe in every healthy church, God is always sending people out of that church. Could be into their community, could be in you know, New York City across the river, or across the world. That's just a sign of organizational health within the church. The systems are working, people are being developed, God's equipping them. So a long and short answer how can you learn more? Worldventure.com is pretty easy. Um uh like a lot of agencies, a lot of our initial steps are through the website.

Bob 30:29

That's wonderful. Tim, by the way, I think maybe you should do an ad where I hear your voice saying worldventure.com. Sponsor for today. Check out worldventure.com. Well, it was so it was such a blessing to have you guys here this weekend. We'd love to have you back uh if you're ever in New Jersey. Um, but if you don't come back, I'll understand. Um maybe you could give us some parting words. What's the last thing you would say to the audience uh before you head out?

Jeff Denlinger 30:55

Well, let me just jump on you you guys are celebrating your 175th anniversary. Yeah, that means multiple generations had a vision for the future. So as you guys look to the next 25 or whatever the goal is, right, for the church, uh don't lose sight of God's bigger picture for Millington Baptist Church.

Bob 31:14

Yeah.

Jeff Denlinger 31:15

He's not done with the church, and you can't just rest on your laurels, so to speak. So what is next? And that that conversation is very exciting. Uh you know, the partnership. Well, I'll just back up and say as we think differently about mission, we also have to think differently where does mission occur? Uh-huh. And for a long time, I believed, as we heard this weekend, the world has moved to New Jersey. It's moved to New York City. And so we've got to get past geography to say, wait a minute, what would it look like to reach the unreached peoples that have moved here? And how do we do that in partnership with churches in the greater New

How To Get Trained And Sent

Jeff Denlinger 31:50

York City area?

David Love 31:51

That's a great question. Summing up, I'd say in my sermon this morning, I talked about that Jesus is building his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And so we need to be encouraged by the fact that Jesus is building his church. At the same time, we have to be reminded that Jesus told us to go and make disciples, right? So we're not just passively sitting back while Jesus is building his church. He has called us to actively be involved in that. And whether that's here locally or globally, the mission moves forward through people who are faithful and responsive to the call of Jesus to make a difference in their sphere of influence, to actually go and cross barriers to be able to reach people. And so it doesn't give us an excuse to say, oh, well, Jesus is building his church, so I'm all good, right? No, we have to be involved. He's commanded us to go.

Bob 32:47

Jesus is building his church through you.

David Love 32:50

That's right.

Bob 32:50

That's a good word. Jeff, David, thank you so much for being here this weekend. It was a pleasure. And

Parting Charge For Millington Baptist

Bob 32:55

uh, I guess we're back to behind the pulpit.

Tim 32:57

All right. Thank you. Thanks.

Christianity Explored Starts This Fall

Tim 33:00

Chances are if there's someone in your life who has questions about Christianity. Maybe they're curious about Jesus, unsure what they believe, or simply looking for a place where they can ask honest questions without pressure. Christianity Explored is designed for exactly that. Over seven relaxed informal sessions, participants walk through Mark's gospel and explore the person at the center of the Christian faith, Jesus Christ. There's time to read the Bible, hear a short talk, discuss what it means, and wrestle with the big questions of life and faith. So as Christianity Explored begins this fall, think about who you could invite, or even attend alongside. For details, dates, and registration, visit the Christianity Explored page on the NBC website.

Backstage Reactions And Social Media

Bob 33:40

Alright, well, that was uh a riveting interview uh uh there. Uh so thank you so much for watching that. Jeff and David, just uh great guys. World Venture is doing um wonderful work around the globe, and uh people are coming to Jesus and God's kingdom is being built. So that's that's what it's all about, and we are glad to partner with them and uh and and have good relationships uh with our missionaries.

Tim 34:04

They uh reposted, whoa, they reposted our uh Instagram post from the weekend.

Bob 34:09

Ooh, okay, all right. So we we even have social media uh connections uh going on right there.

Tim 34:15

I didn't realize we weren't following them, so we're now we're following them. We are now following them. They were already following us, and then they I tagged them in the one picture of Jeff Deadlinger and they reposted it. Okay.

Bob 34:25

Well, shame on us for not following World Venture. Now we've rectified that.

Book War Results And Record Votes

Bob 34:29

Yes. All right, so uh Tim, uh, what's due the results of the book war? Because people that that weathered that interview are now wondering uh what happened last week. And you told me before we started recording that we had a record number of votes. Indeed, we have did somebody vote more than once.

Tim 34:46

Uh I don't think so. I feel like when that has happened, someone will reach out. Hopefully nobody's creating dark web accounts. But for whatever reason, we had the most votes in the history of the book war. I believe it's we got 14 votes. Fourteen votes. And I don't know if I guess if it was the new scoring format that people are excited about. Maybe your vote has a little more weight now. Um, but yeah, so it's it feels like a hard week to not have a book war. You know, we can't carry the voting momentum. So you guys are just gonna have to sit and be excited for next time. But here's the score that we are looking at uh from last week. Pastor Bob took over the lead at 10 to 7, and this week's winner was Pastor Dave with the Apostolic Fathers in English by Michael W. Holmes, and we can see the pie chart here. 14 responses, eight to six. So that means that Pastor Bob, you still have the lead. Still the lead, but only by one. You I'll tell you what. Um, this is we had I think nine votes.

Bob 35:50

Yeah, it had to like in most games, you have to win by two.

Tim 35:52

Yeah, we can we can figure that out. Uh I think you gotta keep playing. Yeah, so this was this was my bad. I don't know why our podcast platform didn't post. It went out on YouTube, I had it all set to go, and then I realized it never posted. So I think I made I got it out yesterday or the day before, and there was an extra five votes that came in um between yesterday and today um of people listening. So thank you for listening. I apologize for it not going out. I don't think it was my fault, um, actually, but I think it was the software.

Bob 36:22

It wasn't me. Wasn't me.

Tim 36:23

It wasn't me. But uh yeah, we're looking forward. You guys have a week off of voting, but uh come back next time.

Bob 36:28

There you go. Very good. Uh one of the things I forgot to mention about the missions conference is Tim put together an epic cahoot. Can you tell the people at home who don't know what a Kahoot is? What it is, describe it to them.

Tim 36:42

Yes, uh so a Kahoot Um is it's essentially a quiz. Uh Kahoot was this really cool software and they've grown. Um, where it started out being it's a really good education tool where they have different levels, so you can use it at home for games, you could use it you know in the classroom, but essentially people connect to their phone or device um and then they show the questions on the screen, and then you respond on your phone. Um it's really fun because it you gain points by answering the questions correctly, but also answering them quickly. So there's a good amount of like point disparity. Um but yeah, it was it was a lot, it's a lot of fun. Uh, we do it will make another appearance because we now have a Kahoot account uh that we can have at up to 100 people do that Kahoot or any other Kahoot. So you'll probably be seeing more cahoots around the NBC campus in the various ministries that you participate in. But it's a lot of fun.

Bob 37:34

It's gonna be a cahootathon here pretty soon. Uh but you you put together one on missions, our world partners, global missions, world venture. It was really well done. Um so if you want to take that cahoot, you said it's available, right?

Tim 37:46

Ask your uh it would have to be, yeah, it would have to be. You'd have to take we'd have to do it again sometime.

Bob 37:53

Well, um maybe we should.

Tim 37:55

Yeah. Special shout out to Samuel Kang, uh, who beat us.

Bob 37:58

To beat the bronze, right?

Tim 38:00

He took the bronze, but he also beat both the president and the vice president of World Venture that you just saw in the in the video.

Bob 38:06

Good job, Samuel. Good job.

Ezekiel 13 Next Week Preview

Bob 38:08

Well, upcoming this week, we are kid, we are back at our series in Ezekiel. We're gonna be looking at Ezekiel chapter 13 and what it means to uh combat spiritual identity thieves. So make sure you've been reading along, especially spend some time reading and meditating Ezekiel 13 this week. Um, I'll be up preaching and it's gonna be a good, good Sunday. Uh, Pastor Dave and I will be back next week to recap that sermon and uh recommend some more books and answer your questions. So thanks so much for joining us for this abbreviated behind the pulpit. Uh have a wonderful week, and we will see you soon.