Anyone who doubts the importance of the local association in Baptist life should have spent the month of October visiting the annual meetings of the 75 associations in Alabama. He or she would have come away with a fresh appreciation for the ministries and missions made possible by churches working together locally.
We did not personally visit all 75 associations, but we did participate in annual meetings of associations in every part of the state and metropolitan areas as well as rural areas. In all, the state Baptist paper was represented in 50 of the annual meetings. From such insights, it is possible to declare without fear of contradiction that Alabama Baptist associations are active partners in fulfilling the call of the Great Commission.
A number of associations sponsor ministries to area jails. Associational reports related witnessing opportunities as well as ministry opportunities. Reports shared about relationships that reached beyond the jail to help inmates and their families once a sentence had been served. This was true for both men and women.
Through the distribution of Bibles, tracts and other helps, volunteers shared Christ’s love. At the annual meetings, stories were told about people who accepted Christ as Lord and Savior and lives that are healing because of God’s love seen in the actions of His people.
Many associations sponsor benevolence centers, where help is provided in the form of food, clothes, counseling and other resources. Some even operate thrift shops, which generate funds that are channeled back into ministries. When clients come to these places, they are given more than something physical. They are given a witness about God’s love. Most volunteers do this verbally as they share Christ. All do it through their respect and care for those they serve.
Some associations partner with national Woman’s Missionary Union to sponsor Christian Women’s Job Corps and, more recently, Christian Men’s Job Corps. Through these programs, people learn job skills and more. Each person is partnered with a Christian mentor who walks with him or her as he or she prepares to enter the job market. More importantly, the support of a Christian mentor helps him or her learn more about himself or herself, which often results in major changes in the way he or she relates to others.
Many of the people who go through these programs accept Christ as Lord and Savior or renew their faith commitment from an earlier time in life. Meeting some of these men and women and hearing their stories was nothing short of inspiring.
Associations are sponsoring medical and dental clinics. Some are done in cooperation with Baptist hospitals or Samford University’s school of nursing. Associations are helping people learn to read and write through literacy programs.
It seems ministry opportunities are limited only by vision.
Many associations sponsor some kind of event evangelism. Association-sponsored block parties are popular, we learned. So are backyard Bible clubs. A few associations use major events such as races at the Talladega Superspeedway to provide an evangelistic witness to spectators.
Some associations coordinate evangelistic visitation for all their churches. Most offer trained volunteers to help smaller membership churches do Vacation Bible Schools.
All of this focuses on one goal — sharing the good news of Jesus Christ.
Associations help with international missions as well. Time after time, we heard reports of associations organizing or facilitating international missions trips for local Baptists. Sometimes this was helping churches or individuals get in touch with others. Sometimes it was a missions trip sponsored by the association in behalf of its member churches. Whichever the case, participants expressed appreciation and support for the work of their association.
There were reports about disaster relief efforts by teams organized by the associations, efforts to reach various language groups becoming more prominent in Alabama, lives changed through association-sponsored camps and retreat centers.
Training conferences for pastors, church staff members and key volunteers cannot be ignored. Helping church leaders do a better job of sharing Christ and making disciples is an invaluable contribution made by associations.
It should not be surprising that Alabama Baptist associations are practically synonymous with missions and ministries. After all, the most frequently used title for the association’s chief officer is director of missions, while most consider themselves an associational missionary.
Nor should it be surprising that those who lead associational work are dedicated to missions and ministries. In more than one annual meeting, the association’s budget reflected cuts in financial support for associational staff, and more than once, we heard staff had agreed to the cuts in order to keep funding for missions and ministries.
These are difficult economic times, times when the witness and ministries of associations are desperately needed. But it is not right to balance the associational budget on the backs of staff members just as it is not right for a church to balance its budget on the backs of the pastor and other church staff.
But the tight economic conditions cannot detract from the basic truth. Associations in Alabama are a vital part of sharing God’s love in their local area. It is not a stretch to say the more vitally committed to missions and ministries an association is, the more vitality is reflected in its corporate life.
The association does not exist for itself. It exists to serve. Associations do more than missions and ministries. They promote fellowship. They encourage member churches. They provide counsel about the Baptist way. They contend for Baptist understandings.
But Alabama Baptist associations are also about missions and ministries. They are about fulfilling the Great Commission of sharing the saving message of Jesus Christ and making disciples beginning in their local area and reaching to the ends of the earth.
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