KENNEWICK, Wash. – The small village of Tablón, Ecuador, sits on a tabletop mountain about 12,000 feet high in the Andes. It’s 32 miles south of the equator and an hour’s drive from the capital in Quito.
People are born, live and die in this village without ever leaving. So El Buen Pastor in a Quito suburb, in connection with Kennewick Baptist Church, reached out to them many years ago.
“They go up there every week, year-round, bringing people, food and other supplies,” Kennewick Pastor Dustin Hall told Baptist Press. “Through the faithfulness of that church over many, many years, they have started a church in Tablón, and a man from that congregation has become its pastor.
“Tablón,” Hall shook his head in amazement. “You’d never know it was there, but God knows it’s there, and He’s doing good work there.”
Kennewick Baptist, where about 225 people attend Sunday services, has sent mission teams every summer (except during COVID) to Quito suburbs Pifo and Checasince 2012, and has an even longer missions history in East Asia.
“We desire to be a missional people by actually going to share the truth and love of Christ with those who still need to know and treasure the name of Christ,” Hall said. “We rejoice to partner with our brothers and sisters in other countries because we believe the Gospel is Good News to all peoples, tribes and nations.
“It’s also because we believe Jesus deserves to be worshipped and enjoyed in those places just as He is in our hearts here,” the pastor continued. “It’s a joy to be part of what God is doing around the globe for the glory of His Name.”
Kennewick also partners with the 35 churches of Columbia Basin Baptist Association; with the more than 500 churches in the Northwest Baptist Convention, which includes Washington, Oregon and northern Idaho; and with the nearly 47,000 churches of the Southern Baptist Convention.
“We say it because we believe it,” Hall said. “We’re better together, doing as much as we can to partner together. We do not have the resources to provide for a family of five in East Asia ourselves, but together with other Southern Baptist churches we can, and we think that is a good thing.”
Kennewick Baptists allocate 14 percent of undesignated offerings for missions through the Cooperative Program, the way Southern Baptists work together to reach people with the good news of God’s unconditional love for them, a percentage that fluctuates a bit each year depending on the budget. KBC members’ generosity is because of Southern Baptists’ mission emphasis, seminary tuition assistance, and because “we’re family,” the pastor said.
The church allocates about another 6 percent for other missions needs and is consistently generous in Southern Baptist seasonal offerings.
“Being generous is its own blessing,” Hall said. “There is a joy in giving and in partnership. We’re family. We may not know all the other tens of thousands of other Southern Baptist churches, but we are brothers and sisters in Christ. There’s an intrinsic joy in working together as a family.”
Kennewick Baptist’s primary community outreach for the last 10 years is Upward Basketball. When the season starts in January, there are expected to be at least 16 teams, 16 coaches, and 125 boys and girls between kindergarten and fifth grade.
Other churches in Kennewick do other children’s ministries, such as VBS and Awana, but because Kennewick Baptist has a gym, it serves the sports niche and reaches children from Christian as well as agnostic secular, and non-Christian families.
“We’ve had a number of these families we’ve developed relationships with,” Hall said. “This gives us an opportunity to share the Gospel, and we’re grateful for that.”
There’s also a long-standing food ministry the third Thursday of the month at the church. Three community groups – AA and NA – meet at the church each week, as does Bible Study Fellowship. A Spanish and a Burmese church both use the building for their services each week.
“We desire the blessing of our city, and we want to be used by God toward that end,” Hall said. “The greatest way we can be a blessing is to hold out the hope of the Gospel.”
Kennewick Baptist also wants to be “a source of grace,” the pastor said, in its association and state convention, and with other like-minded churches in the community. He meets weekly with other pastors for mutual encouragement, is involved in church planting across the Columbia Basin Baptist Association, and joins with other churches in Kennewick and the Tri-Cities area for major Christian events such as Christmas Eve and Good Friday services.
Kennewick Baptist sent out about 40 members in 2020 to start Sola [Southern Baptist] Church in a new area in south Kennewick, and 2.5 years ago it partnered with other churches in planting Grace [Southern Baptist] Church in an actively growing area of nearby north Pasco, Wash.
While close partnership with other Southern Baptist churches is a priority, Hall said, “We realize Southern Baptists aren’t the only ones who love Jesus and who love the Word of God. The Christian faith is a big family and as much as we can partner with other churches, we want to be faithful to do that.”
Kennewick Baptist leans on the side of simplicity. Its goal is to do what it does well and to faithfully do what God has called this church to do.
“We really want to be focused on the Gospel each and every time we gather, not just evangelistically,” the pastor continued. “The Gospel is not just Good News for the lost but for the saints as well. For example, if we are talking about generosity, our focus is not ‘give more money’ but ‘we know how to be generous because God has been generous with us.’
“Also, ‘we are difficult people and God is eternally patient with us so we can be patient with others.’ We want to apply the Gospel to people’s lives. We want that to be true in every corner of our church. That’s our hope within our church.”
Faithful is a word that came up repeatedly in Hall’s conversation. He leads the church to be faithful as it serves God and faithful to “hold out the Good News of Christ to those around us” in the town of Kennewick, population: about 88,000.
“Just being present as a local church in a community that is primarily lost is wonderful opportunity to give a reason for the hope we have in us,” Hall said. “I’m encouraged things don’t have to be complicated. If we keep our eyes on Christ, it’s enough.”
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