United States
I’m an experienced multimedia communications leader who works well under deadline pressure, is detail-oriented and possesses outstanding organizational skills and creativity. Over the past four years, I have served as the communications director for multi-congregational and multicampus Southern Baptist churches in Louisiana and Tennessee.
Sharing your faith with people who look and talk like you can be intimidating. Sharing your faith with people who are overwhelmingly different from you can seem downright impossible. Two Converge missionaries who are helping reach the nations here and abroad say that doesn't have to be the case.
Distraught over a failed nine-year relationship with his girlfriend, Suresh Gaikwad finally decided to surrender his life to God in fall 2013. The first thing the Lord told him to do was to leave India and go to America. Suresh had tried to come to the United States in 2001, but his visa application was rejected.
When Adam and Megan Sisk met in December 2015, they immediately felt a connection. After knowing her for only a few days, Adam, the tech director at Woodlands Community Church in Homewood, Illinois, texted Megan and asked her if she was a Christian.
Dana Larkin was ready to give up on life in the summer of 2017. Suffering through depression, she had contemplated suicide. "I was so incredibly lost," Dana said. Then, one day in Homewood, Illinois, the Chicago suburb where she lived, John Dewey came back into her life.
During more than 30 years as pastor of Bethany Community Church, Laurel, Maryland, Kevin McGhee saw many people make large financial contributions to his church. But it's one relatively small gift that's made the biggest impact on him. That gift of $17.10 came from Garrett, an inmate serving a long sentence at Jessup Correctional Institution (JCI) in Maryland.
A beautiful picture of racial unity around the gospel has emerged in Oakland, California. The Way Church, planted by Bernard Emerson in September 2014, was a Converge PacWest congregation of about 30 people - predominantly African-American families - in East Oakland.
Growing up in the central Wisconsin town of Wausau, Charlie Salamone wanted nothing to do with Christianity. "From an early age, I believed that all religions were good and whatever you believed was good as long as you were sincere and trying your best to be a good, kind and decent person," he said.
Mellen, Wisconsin, population 690, sits nestled alone in the state's uppermost region. Bad River flows through it, and Copper Falls State Park is located on the northern edge of town. Travel by snowmobile north about 45 miles and you're likely to plunge right into Lake Superior. Mellen is an outdoor adventurer's paradise.
Christ calls his followers to be his hands and feet - in their communities and around the world. During the COVID-19 global pandemic, churches from throughout the Converge movement are answering that call by stepping up and sharing Jesus' love with people in tangible and practical ways.
Alaska is a place of great extremes and contrasts, from amazing beauty to amazing harshness. The state's per capita income is among the nation's highest, thanks to a diverse economy dominated by fishing, natural gas and oil. But it also has some of the highest negative statistics in the nation, including suicide, alcohol abuse and domestic violence.