by Mark Milioni
Church planting has been an important part of my life from the very beginning. My uncle, Gene Milioni, was greatly influenced by the founders of our movement and did what they said. He graduated from Baptist Bible College and started a church. My parents joined him and helped establish Trinity Baptist Church. We were totally committed to church planting. This emphasis on evangelism and church planting is what made the early Baptist Bible Fellowship so successful.
Thirty years later, I moved my young family from an established ministry to plant a church. I learned then a fact to which every church planter can attest — church planting requires everyone to be all in. One of my greatest experiences was to watch my children, at a very young age, do and be responsible for actual ministry. They did it all — planning, set-up, decorating, welcoming, teardown, and follow-up. Today I joyfully watch them serve and lead with great skill in their churches. Their love for the Lord, their ability to help others and to know why they do it attest to what they learned as they helped plant a church.
Church planting continues to influence my family in ways I never imagined. I was asked to teach a church planting class at BBC. I had no idea how that opportunity would lead to my continued involvement with BBC and eventually to serve here as president.
The future of our Fellowship is directly tied to our church planting efforts and our church planting effectiveness is directly tied to the education the church planter receives. That is why BBC is so important. I begin each year praying many of our students will surrender to one of the most difficult tasks God can assign us, church planting.