Pro skateboarder, Jud Heald, a special guest at a One Day skate park activity in Silver City, talks with three skateboarders about competing for prizes. Heald also shared his testimony and invited skateboarders to trust and follow Jesus. (Kevin Parker/BNM)
TUCUMCARI/SILVER CITY, N.M. – The One Day Acts 1:8 Missions Experience provides an annual opportunity for Arkansas Baptists to impact lostness in a specific area within the state.
Last year, the Arkansas event saw hundreds saved in north Pulaski County. This year, they saw at least 453 come to know Christ while ministering in Jonesboro.
During the 2024 Annual Meeting of the Baptist Convention of New Mexico (BCNM), their executive director challenged the Convention churches to further proclaim God’s word that every New Mexican might have an opportunity to hear and respond to the Gospel. In his message, he shared their state missions offering theme of “That All May Hear” as not just a fundraising campaign, but an evangelistic campaign.
That sermon stirred the heart of one of the BCNM’s associational directors of missions to action. He read an article about the One Day experience of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention (ABSC) and began a conversation with the BCNM office about hosting a similar event.
Baptist Convention of New Mexico Church Missions Team Leader Matt Thackerson said that is when they reached out to Clint Ritchie of the ABSC Missions Team. They set up a Zoom call, and he shared the experience and vision of the ABSC One Day event.
Through the years, other state conventions have reached out to celebrate the results of One Day, but New Mexico was different, Ritchie said. “Several of their convention leaders and pastors immediately discussed together the possibility of hosting a One Day, so from our first conversation, they were already asking questions about logistics and organization,” he said.
On Saturday, Sept. 27, BCNM hosted its own One Day, similar to the event in Arkansas. It took place in two cities, Silver City and Tucumcari. Their goal was to “unify and mobilize New Mexico Baptists to saturate two communities in the state with the Gospel.” Seventy BCNM churches were involved, and five of their Christian Challenge (Baptist Student Union) helped as well. They had almost 600 total laborers, planted more than 1,000 Gospel seeds, and reported 18 salvations.
“What stands out to me is that they did not try to duplicate what we do but tailored it to their context. … Throughout our conversations, it was obvious to me that they were following the leadership of the Holy Spirit, not just trying to force our method and structure,” Ritchie said. “There is a lot of organization that goes into One Day, but it is reproduceable in other states and in a local context, as we see each year with Serve Local. It’s a simple strategy: meet needs and share Jesus. God blesses our obedience.”
The day was comprised of No Sale Yard Sales, block parties, free laundry at laundromats, door to door surveys and Gospel sharing, prayer walking, a tailgate party at Western New Mexico University, VBS in the park, free haircuts at a block party and more.
“The impact we’re seeing, or the immediate fruit we’re seeing is disciples being made, disciples being trained in proclaiming the Gospel, disciples proclaiming the Gospel, disciples going on their first mission trip, churches cooperating together to proclaim the good news of Jesus, cities prayed for, people reached. For some the impact is eternal, for others we’re hoping the Lord of the harvest sends more laborers to water the seeds planted that God might bring the growth and more salvations happen,” Thackerson said.
“We are planning for next year’s One Day and looking forward to the BCNM being frontline partners with churches to collaborate together to fulfill the great commission, That All May Hear.”
