RICHMOND — If you are one of those people who likes to decipher custom license plates, here’s one for you: KOH2RVA. It’s an acronym for “Kingdom of Heaven to Richmond, Virginia” and if you happen to spot this plate you’re in close proximity to Jim Somerville, senior pastor of Richmond’s First Baptist Church.
One of the things that initially impressed him about First Baptist was its involvement in missions, Somerville said. In 2008 when he was called as its senior pastor, there were 18 mission trips listed on its website; he was one of 75 members from First Baptist who traveled to Slovakia to work at an orphanage that year.
Jim Somerville’s license plate describes his church’s mission in Richmond. (Photo by Janet Chase)
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Somerville recalls when the bus arrived at the orphanage, every team member found a project they were good at doing or enjoyed doing and pitched in. “I have said repeatedly that I believe — as children of the Heavenly Father and with the help of the Holy Spirit — we are called to ‘labor alongside the Lord Jesus in the joyful work of bringing heaven to earth,’ ” said Somerville.
“A mission trip is something that engages your emotions more than any other thing that you do in the church,” said Lynn Turner, First Baptist’s senior associate pastor, and a veteran of many mission trips. “It’s not so much what happens over there. It’s what happens when you get back.”
This idea surfaced later during a staff retreat when Turner queried: Why not take a mission trip to Richmond, Virginia? Staff members considered: What would happen if every member at First Baptist Church had this kind of mission experience and what impact would it have on the city? It was the impetus for KOH2RVA — “Bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to Richmond, Virginia.”
The year-long, every-member mission trip began on ONE Sunday in September 2012, as the congregation gathered at a single service after the summer break. Somerville challenged members to imagine they had boarded a bus for a mission trip and it had stopped at the corner of Monument and Boulevard with the mission field spreading outward in every direction. “How will we step off the bus onto the mission field? What kind of work will we do to make a difference?” he asked.
Midway through the project Somerville said he knows that KOH2RVA is making an impact in Richmond, but “what it’s doing for the members of my church is immeasurable,” he admits. People of all ages have identified hundreds of ways to share the love of Christ with those in the metropolitan area. Partnerships have been formed with community organizations to provide members opportunities to “get off the bus” and into hands-on missions. Somerville writes a blog nearly every day telling KOH2RVA stories of people’s experiences, reporting results and presenting new ideas.
Motivated by tragedy
Karen Grizzard is a First Baptist member that Somerville acknowledges had a little trouble finding her way of bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to Richmond. But after the tragic shooting in Newtown, Conn., Grizzard decided to do whatever she could for Glen Lea Elementary School, which partners with First Baptist. She took the principal a small gift bag and made a promise to visit the school once a month and pray for it every day.
In his blog on March 13 Somerville shared a letter from Grizzard which captures the essence of joy she’s finding in this ministry. “I am so glad that I got off the bus,” she writes. “Today I read to Ms. Caison’s second graders at Glen Lea. They were so attentive, displayed their best manners and clapped after each story! The cute girl in pigtails to my left grabbed me by the waist and asked me to come back again to read. You know my answer! Regards, Karen.”
Karen Grizzard reads to second graders at Glen Lea Elementary School as her KOH2RVA project.
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How do you measure the success of a year-long, every member mission trip? By the number of converts, said Somerville, and he considers Joyce Clemmons a convert. In his blog on April 9 he wrote, “I don’t mean that she has been converted to Christianity. She became a Christian years ago. I only mean that she has been converted by the joy and excitement of bringing heaven to earth. I wish you could have heard her make the announcement [about a carnival at the Anna Julia Cooper Episcopal School, an independent, faith-based middle school for students of limited resources] on Sunday. Her enthusiasm was contagious.
“She wasn’t talking about a lovely mission trip to St. Croix,” wrote Somerville. “She was excited about helping kids from the housing projects in Church Hill and how every member of First Baptist can join together and make a difference.” He added that “for a pastor that’s very exciting to see.”
Somerville reports that he and church staff are still working on how to measure success. “You could have a church full of people and offering plates full of money without ever doing the things Jesus told you to do,” he blogged Jan. 31. “The institution would be successful, but the mission would not.”
“On the other hand, you could have a church so radically committed to the mission that members never came to church or put their money in the plates. They would all be out there on the mission field, bringing heaven to earth. The mission would be successful, but the institution would not.”
Ideally, he said, “there would be a balance between institutional and missional success.”
Somerville doesn’t know if every church member has taken the challenge, but many describe what they’re doing. He’s noticed a shift to thinking about themselves more as missionaries and less as spectators who just attend church.
Measuring sticks
Somerville said pastors have frequently asked: “Have you seen an increase in attendance?” and “Have you seen an increase in giving?” The answer he gave was “no,” but those are the only ways ministers have learned to measure success, he noted.
Somerville said he wouldn’t be surprised if attendance and offerings do indeed grow as church members become more engaged, but he finds nowhere in Scripture where success is measured by how many people come to church on Sunday and how much they give.
“I’ll keep looking, but so far I’m finding things like loving God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength; things like caring for ‘the least of these ’— Jesus’ brothers and sisters,” he wrote. “That’s how success is measured in the kingdom and it shouldn’t surprise us. Jesus told us a long time ago that in God’s kingdom, the yardstick is turned upside-down — the last are first and the least are great.”
In September the congregation will gather on ONE Sunday to celebrate its year of bringing heaven closer to Richmond. There will be singing and recognition of people who have done an outstanding job and those whose lives have been changed by what they’ve done, said Somerville.
“I’ve been overwhelmed by the response and hope that every member will be involved in missions before it’s over,” he said. “Most people think of the kingdom of heaven as something above us, but many are beginning to believe that the kingdom of heaven can be all around us as well.”
Barbara Francis ([email protected]) is on the staff of the Religious Herald.