Despite planting more than 3,200 churches from Bryant to Gulf Shores, Alabama Baptists need to join forces at times to reach the 4.5 million residents across the state. Similarly national and international missions trips may never be an option for many missions-minded Baptists without affiliations with other churches.
To help congregations perform missions and ministry projects in their areas of influence, the state convention offers assistance in each region through 75 associational offices.
“An association is made up of churches that voluntarily unite because of common beliefs and goals,” said Gary Swafford, director of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions office of associational missions and church planting. “They give churches the avenues to be a part of something bigger than them. The leaders of the association are available as a sounding board for questions or issues that may arise.”
According to Swafford, associations help churches in many different ways:
Ministry partnerships
“If churches work together, they can get a comprehensive response and meet the human needs together and much more efficiently,” Swafford said. “A church of any size can pray for missions and give to missions through the Cooperative Program and actually be a part of sending missionaries to more than 130 countries around the world.
“Every Christian has the opportunity and responsibility to be a part of participating in worldwide missions. Our associations and convention provide the methods through which all Christians in churches of any size can be a vital part of that missions outreach.”
Charles Stroud, Shelby Baptist Association director of missions (DOM), describes associations as missions-enabling agencies that help churches carry out the Great Commission in their own Jerusalem.
“Our missions statement, ‘serving Christ together to help churches in Shelby County,’ meets people’s needs, and, of course, their greatest need is for Christ in their lives,” he said. “We enable the churches to have an extension of their ministry beyond the four walls of their church building to all of Shelby County.” He added that churches in his area have come to see the association as part of their ministry.
“I think they see it as something that is not optional but vital to their carrying out of the Great Commission,” he noted.
Franklin Baptist Association DOM Larry Dover knows firsthand the importance of ministry partnerships.
“We’ve got a building team that’s been doing church construction for 25 years,” he said. “This year, we are going to upstate New York to construct a building. We typically have over 100 people from our churches and other places.”
Checks and balances on common beliefs and practices
“Associations are a guide that can be used as a standard to keep the church focused and mutually accountable,” Swafford noted.
Fellowship
“The other major ingredient is to offer the occasion for fellowship by having joint events that provide a Christian influence on the community,” Swafford said. “The leaders of an association are the natural body for community leaders to turn to when there is need for community celebration or response to disaster.”
Dicky McAllister, DOM for Geneva Baptist Association for the past 24 years, said churches desire strong fellowship with the association.
“They want to know that they are helping the association and the association is helping them,” he said. “It’s a two-way street. We minister with and through each other.
“We seek to find their needs and help them meet those needs whether it’s strengthening them from within or helping them to accomplish their community and worldwide missions goals.”
Community involvement
“An association is not just an ecclesiastical body,” Swafford said. “It helps lead churches to be active and facilitate the method of community involvement.”
Training
“Even going back to the 1700s, when associations came on the scene, churches have joined together for fellowship, training and doctrine,” Dover said. “We provide a lot of benefits to churches through our office, including materials and equipment that churches can borrow from us. We do a lot of advertising materials like revival fliers, church histories and special projects for our churches.”
Tom Boone, pastor of Mineola Baptist Church, Uriah, has received a great deal of information and help from Bethlehem Baptist Association as his church reorganizes its Sunday School program.
“We’ve had two Sunday School meetings at the association office where we meet with other pastors and Sunday School directors,” he said. “We brainstorm about what someone else is doing, what is working or what is not working, and it helps us to chart a course for our program.”
Encouragement
Joe Godfrey, immediate past president of state convention and pastor of First Baptist Church, Pleasant Grove in Birmingham Baptist Association, believes associations encourage churches to realize they are not alone in their spiritual battles.
“It benefits our church in that we are teaming up with brothers and sisters in Christ all over the association,” he said. “When we cooperate with other churches, we are able to multiply our resources of people, finances, expertise and even location.”
Boone has also received much encouragement from the Bethlehem associational office.
“Our director, Wayne McMillian, is an extremely good encourager,” he said. “We both have the same mind-set as far as evangelism, and we both want to see souls saved. We are looking to start some new ministries to do that very thing.”
Financial assistance
“Some associations even offer the opportunity for group health benefits and retirement plans because they are working together,” Swafford said.
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