and coached.


“We have to do things a little bit differently than in the Bible Belt,” he says. “We have to serve our pastors around their schedules if they’re working (in other jobs). Developing leadership and raising the level of lay leaders is one of our major priorities. Jim says the state’s diversity—along with the geographic size of his mission field—is also a big challenge.


In addition to the Native Americans and Anglos, Jim’s mission field includes a large percentage of Hispanics and African Americans. Among U.S. states, New Mexico has the highest percentage—45


percent—of Hispanics. The state has the nation’s third-highest percentage of Native Americans after Alaska and Oklahoma.


“This incredible diversity of people groups in a spread-out geography of a vast territory means you just can’t take a program off the shelf and apply it to every one of our churches,” said Turnbo. “You have to do customized assessment and help our churches where they’re at.”


Rock Springs is a Navajo community about four miles north of Gallup. There, Jim and Peter Cho, a Korean missionary to the Navajo, are revitalizing a Navajo church now running about 27.


38 Spring 2011 • onmission.com


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