MIAMI -- The Southern Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board (NAMB) is launching an all-out effort to reach the unchurched in Miami, a gateway to Latin America.
Miami is the seventh in a series of major cities to become the object of NAMB's Strategic Focus Cities outreach efforts, according to the Baptist Press.
Since 2000, the initiative has brought concentrated Southern Baptist church planting and evangelism resources and volunteers to Chicago, Phoenix, Boston, Las Vegas, Seattle and Philadelphia. A similar effort in New York, called New Hope New York, is expected to be implemented in late 2003.
"For You Miami" will plant churches as one of its primary strategies for reaching the city's estimated 3.5 million locals.
"We're looking to start 100 intentional, staffed and reproducing congregations over the course of five years, from 2002 to 2006," said Harry Watkins, For You Miami's project coordinator. "This first year we started 11, and we're looking to start 20 in 2003, 10 of which will be on Easter Sunday."
Nearly 2,000 volunteers from across the country have agreed to work in Miami during 2003, and another 1,500 are expected. The project will include prayer, evangelism and leadership development in addition to the church planting, Watkins said.
A survey conducted by the NAMB found that 78 percent of Miami residents had not been contacted by any church during the last six months. Twenty-five percent of the population attends church weekly, according to the report, and another 25 percent never go to church.
According to the NAMB:
- While Miami/Dade County's population, according to the U.S. Census, is about 2.3 million, undocumented immigrants swell that figure to 3.5 million or higher.
- People from more than 160 countries in Miami speak more than 140 languages. Of the 266 churches in the Miami Baptist Association, 82 are Spanish-speaking, 70 are Haitian-Creole and 102 are English speaking. Other language groups represented by churches include Portuguese, Korean, Chinese, Russian, Persian and Filipino.
