What image comes to mind when you think of a Baptist association? Is it a picture of some event from the association’s annual meeting? Is it an image of a building or an office from which the association works? Perhaps you see the likeness of an associational missionary — past or present.
Increasingly the picture that comes to mind for Alabama Baptists when they think about their district association is a scene from a missions project with which they have been associated.
Across the state Alabama Baptists work together through their associations to share the good news of God’s love and to help hurting people.
Sometimes these missions efforts are through ongoing local programs such as thrift shops, crisis pregnancy centers, food ministries, job training sites, prison and jail ministries, literacy programs, medical clinics and much, much more.
A highlight of many associational annual meetings are the passion-driven reports of dedicated men and women who creatively find ways to effectively help hurting people through association-sponsored or -supported ministries.
Sometimes the missions efforts take people to the far-flung reaches of the globe through association-sponsored national and international missions teams. Often association-coordinated teams allow those from smaller-membership churches to participate in activities not possible through their local church.
Frequently, when participants return from serving in other places, they apply their newly acquired training and skills and their enlarged missions vision to discover new opportunities for ministry right where they live.
Meeting needs
Associations have always been about missions. They still are. Just as a pastor knows the needs of the community he serves, the associational director of missions (DOM) knows the needs of the area within the association’s boundaries.
And just as a pastor knows the strength of his members, a DOM knows the strengths of cooperating churches in the association. He has the privilege of helping match strengths with needs. Sometimes the DOM is a catalyst helping a local church begin a church missions project. Sometimes his role is to bring the resources of several churches together to address a specific challenge.
The goal is touching lives with the love of God and sharing the Good News of Jesus in the process. That has not changed in the more than 300 years Baptists in America have worked together through associations.
Did you catch the phrase “worked together”?
Baptists understand that every Baptist church is independent. Every church is totally free from control by any outside group.
But Baptist churches also are interdependent and the association vividly illustrates that fact. In every association there are churches with strengths that other local churches may not have. Some churches have members gifted in a particular ministry while another church may not have the same gifts within its congregation.
Through the association, strengths of churches and skills of individuals are identified, recruited and made available to churches needing extra effort in those areas. For example, how many churches have had Vacation Bible Schools (VBS) because associational VBS teams helped provide leadership for the week?
The same is true for every area of church life. The strength and knowledge of some help others. The result is more effective and efficient work by all the churches.
Cooperation is the method Baptist churches use to illustrate that independent churches can freely choose to cooperate with fellow believers in other churches.
Baptists cooperate in missions and ministries. Baptist cooperate in building up sister churches. Baptists cooperate in teaching and training.
Baptists also cooperate in inspiration and fellowship. Baptist churches do not compete with one another. Churches do not grow by pointing out the shortcomings of other congregations. Every church is a gateway to the kingdom of God and the goal is for God’s kingdom to grow, not a local church’s kingdom.
That is why pastors from various churches can pray together, study together, worship together, plan together and fellowship together. That is why lay leaders can serve together and fellowship together. Baptists understand that one of the joys of being a child of God is being with and learning from others in the Christian family.
The association is at the heart of these efforts to help Baptists grow as Christian disciples through fellowship, inspiration and training.
Providing guidance
Baptist associations also provide guidance. The association is the only Baptist organization which a church officially joins. In that process, the association examines a church’s beliefs and practices. The intent is to affirm that the potential member understands the Bible in ways consistent with historic Baptist beliefs and that the church’s practices reflect Baptist polity based in congregational democracy.
Associational membership is like a seal of approval. It assures other churches of like faith and order.
At crucial times in a church’s life the association is there to offer guidance. It may be over a cup of coffee the DOM talks with a pastor about an important decision in his ministry or for the church. It may be when the DOM leads a training session for a local church about a particular ministry opportunity.
Often when tensions rise in a church, the congregation turns to the DOM for guidance. A DOM’s experience, seasoned wisdom and local knowledge have salvaged countless situations which had all the markings of a congregational tragedy.
Walking alongside churches
Again the DOM or the association has no control at such times. Both are there to walk with the church and offer whatever guidance may be appropriate.
Your association is more than an annual meeting. It is more than an office. It is more than a person or a particular program.
Your local association is a vital part of Baptist life working year-round to strengthen churches and build up the kingdom of God. It deserves your prayers. It deserves your support.
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