Morgan County and Kauai, Hawaii, have had a close relationship for the last four years.
As the two Baptist associations prepare to bring their partnership to a close, Morgan Baptist Association Director of Missions Jere Patterson wants to make sure the work begun will be sustained.
The states of Alabama and Hawaii formed a five-year partnership in 1994 in which they would support each other in evangelism and other ministry efforts. At that time, the Morgan Association declined to participate.
According to Patterson, “I thought it was too expensive to go to Hawaii, and our people wouldn’t do it.
“Instead, we set up a three-year partnership with the Upper Ohio Valley Association in West Virginia,” he explained.
By the time that partnership ended in 1997, Patterson felt the people of Morgan County had been introduced to the partnership concept and were ready for the challenge. To his delight, they were.
“I got a lot more people to go to Hawaii than I ever got to go to West Virginia,” Patterson said with a smile.
“First Baptist, Decatur, took 48 over there, then brought 43 Hawaiians here,” he said. “Pleasant Hill took 46 this summer to help Pastor Don [Gentry] have Vacation Bible School.
“First, Decatur, has sent a young man to work as a summer youth director. I took 23 senior adults over there last fall for a Senior Adult Chautauqua,” Patterson said.
Many other churches in the Morgan Association have participated in one or more of the numerous activities resulting from the partnership.
Don Gentry, a retired Morgan County pastor, recently returned for a second stint as interim pastor for one of the churches on Kauai.
What changes have resulted from the partnership? One of the pastors in Hawaii remarked to Patterson that his senior adults had “learned that they can do something” after being paired with senior adults from Morgan County.
When asked if they needed help with Vacation Bible School this year, a pastor replied, “No, we can do it now.”
A Korean Mission has been started on the island, as well as a Bible study for Filipinos. “We can’t take credit for all of this, but I believe that our encouragement has helped them to step out,” Patterson said. “I believe our impact will last.”
Intensifying efforts
With the five-year partnership ending next year, Patterson felt a need to intensify efforts to prepare the churches in the Garden Island Association. He took a team of five to present a LifeLift Conference in conjunction with a special pastors conference he developed to complement the LifeLift training.
The LifeLift program, developed by Edwin Jenkins, director of the office of leadership and church growth at the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions, emphasizes the idea that every member in the New Testament church should be a minister. The program helps participants discover, then apply, their spiritual gifts in service to the church.
Jenkins and his wife, Joan; Barry Cosper, pastor of Canaan Baptist Church, Bessemer; and Patterson’s wife, Jody, teamed up to lead the Hawaiian people in the study. The curriculum provides pastors with the organizational and leadership skills needed to manage churches with active lay leadership.
“The program trains ministers to be role models, mentors, and conflict managers,” Patterson said. ”Life Lift develops the spiritual gifts, and it promotes the active priesthood of the believer.
“The minister has to teach the boundaries of God’s laws, contextual boundaries — who we’re ministering to, a vision for the church and the resources that are available,” he said. “When the boundaries have been set, the individual is free to exercise his gifts anywhere within those boundaries.
“I got the idea from the title of a book, ‘Leadership Jazz,’” Patterson noted. “The leader of a band designates the songs, the keys, and the he sets the time. Within that framework, the musicians can go anywhere they want to go. That’s jazz.”
That can also be a Baptist church, Patterson said. “Somebody runs outside those boundaries, gets their spiritual hand slapped, then draws their gift back in and won’t use it anymore. This program trains the ministers to identify the boundaries.”
First, Decatur, is taking a revival team in October, and a group is going to lead the January Bible Study emphasis in February. Other activities may also take place.
Patterson expects the bonds between the people of Morgan County and Kauai to remain strong even after the partnership ends.
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