Your Voice

Carrying on the tradition of associational fellowships

By Lanell Downs Smith
Alabama-Crenshaw WMU Executive Director-in-training

Associational fellowships seem to be going out of style. In a world where individuals seek connection through social media, few find time to gather with other Christians outside of Sunday morning worship. 

Some struggle to fit Wednesday night Bible study in between work, chores and social obligations. Others attend the occasional missions conference or retreat. But for most Baptists association meetings and events aren’t even on the radar.

It hasn’t always been this way. Back in the early 50s, when my parents were young, church events filled their entire social calendar. They and others like them in rural Crenshaw County churches never missed an association meeting. 

They looked forward with great anticipation to spending time with good friends and learning of the associational missionary’s journeys or hearing a stirring message. 

In an area where few had a telephone and fewer had a television, association meetings provided a primary source of Christian fellowship. 

The Alabama-Crenshaw Baptist Association still conducts quarterly meetings sponsored by Woman’s Missionary Union. Members of all 27 churches in the association are invited for food, fellowship and a missions program. 

While attendance has declined steadily through the generations, these meetings still attract on average 75 guests most of whom are WMU members and their families. 

Planning teams strategize how to attract modern-day church members, employing methods like changing the meeting time and menu offerings or engaging keynote speakers with a fresh and relevant message. We have added senior citizen rallies and Valentine’s Day banquets. 

Still most churchgoers fail to recognize what these meetings have to offer. We are too busy and disinterested. We fail to recognize the potential of these meetings. 

As a church WMU director I began attending these meetings because I was expected to attend. As I continued going I thought of my parents and tradition. I share this precious legacy with them and others in our association. 

The more I participate in planning associational events, the more I understand why my parents found them so important. 

When we gather as Christians with our sister churches we experience the sweet fellowship Hebrews 10:25 warns us not to forsake. As we become acquainted with others who share the bond of Christianity we find encouragement for our daily walk. By visiting churches in our association we lift them up in the work they are doing for our Father. 

We learn from each other and take home wisdom and ideas we can use in our own ministries.

Our modern lives are much different than those of the generations before us. One thing has not changed however — our need for community. Associational events nurture that spirit of community in a place where relationships can flourish in the love of our Savior. 

Join me in praying for our Baptist associations and for the events they offer. And if you aren’t attending your associational events, there’s no better time to start.

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Continual improvement

Change is an inevitable part of our lives. From the time we are born we continually change physically, mentally and emotionally. From our salvation experience until our death we change spiritually. As Christians we recognize this as continual sanctification — daily becoming more and more like Christ is our goal.

The older I get the more I see that disciplines and trials are rooted deep in our sanctification. As we surface from each we have the opportunity to become more and more like the image of our Father that we so desire.  

At Shocco Springs it’s time for growth of our physical campus. We are looking ahead to 2020 and finalizing plans for our new chapel. In August of 2020 we will begin construction. This is something we have long desired for you and our future guests.  

As we prepare for this new project challenges and trials await. Although construction of a building is not the same as personal sanctification our goal is the same — endure and emerge as a reflection of what Christ wants us to be.

Questions? I know you have them. Join us at the Alabama Baptist State Convention in November and I’ll fill in the gaps.

—Russell Klinner

EDITOR’S NOTE — Russell Klinner is executive director of Shocco Springs Conference Center in Talladega.

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Letters to the editor

I just read Allan McConnell’s opinion column “Unintended consequences: Alabama’s new marriage law” in the Oct. 3 issue of TAB. His article condemns valiant efforts to protect marriage in Alabama. While there is injustice “in the halls of power in Montgomery,” it is not because of apathy, ignorance or lack of trust. Christians are suffering in the courts because they cannot serve sin in the same-sex “marriage” requirement. 

A. Eric Johnston
Birmingham, Ala.

In Allan McConnell’s opinion column on Alabama’s new marriage law the next to last paragraph caught my attention: “For most people if something is legal it is looked at as being right and proper. Therefore this new law has great potential to damage the proper moral view for traditional marriage by removing the requirement of a ceremony.”

What got me thinking was the phrase “traditional marriage.” All wedding ceremonies are steeped in tradition. 

What the church needs to be concerned about is not the new law or the tradition but the covenant of marriage. 

Unless the marriage is a covenant between a man and a woman sealed by God it’s not a true marriage at all. It doesn’t matter much what, if any, tradition you follow. Those who want to have the tradition can still do so with or without the new law. Those who want to just live together can still do so with or without the law. And those who want a covenant marriage never needed a law one way or another.

The Church needs to be in the covenant business and not the tradition business. Jesus said that we are to “render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s” (Luke 20:25).

Render to Caesar the weddings and unto God the marriage.

Danny Cotton
Lincoln, Ala.

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When the harvest comes, if we’re not ready, it’s going to be too late.

Claude King
Co-author of “Experiencing God” and “The Mind of Christ”

Whatever you may be going through God can and will use it. Even in tough times financially, physically or spiritually, God can impart knowledge and wisdom that will make you better able to minister to others. 

Pastor Tony Barber
Church on the Bluff, Hoover

Somewhere in the magical life of a toddler, a child is able to walk only if they can hold on to someone. They are not leaning on their own strength for support. If they want to get where they are going, they must lean upon someone else. This need to lean often comes full circle in the later stages of life when we are forced to rely upon walkers, wheelchairs and canes.

Between these two stages, we often believe we are capable of handling things on our own. What a tragically dangerous thought. “I’ve got this” is as false a sentiment today as it was when Satan first uttered it falling from the sky. It is prideful, presumptuous and wrong. We reach our destination by replacing our self-sufficiency with God’s all-sufficiency as we lean upon His everlasting arms.

Pastor Rick Patrick
FBC Sylacauga

News from Secretaries Pompeo and Ross [Oct. 8 announcing new U.S. restrictions placed on Chinese officials and organizations responsible for religious persecution] is welcome and sorely needed. … The persecuted people there do not bear the image of the Chinese Communist Party membership card, nor do they bear the image of a bar code for international commerce. They bear the image of a Creator above the reach of any state, no matter that it pretends to be a god.

Russell Moore
President, ERLC

The Cooperative Program is consistent with the call God has placed on us to go and make disciples all over the world. The efficiency and ability to make an impact for the gospel through the Cooperative Program is far greater than what we can create on our own.

Pastor Jeff Rasnick
FBC Shelbyville, Tenn.

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From the Twitterverse

@ricklance

During this Minister Appreciation Month, I am praying for a deeper sense of gratitude for ministers and their families as they serve the Lord. Additionally, I thank God for our churches, where people worship the Lord, witness for Him and do His work in our world.

@BillyGraham

“Man seeks to excuse himself from sin, but God seeks to convict him of it and to save him from it.”

@DianeLangberg

We cannot foster true repentance in the lives of others unless it is a reality in our own. How can we expect to recognize superficial repentance or nurture true repentance if we have never bowed the knee and allowed God to do that work in our own hearts?

@JennMGreenberg

God doesn’t redeem based on how popular, powerful, rich, or happy we are. God doesn’t love us because we are good. He loves us because He is good. How can shame hold sway over me when such honor is mine? Daughter of God. Heir of Heaven. Survivor of the Valley. Soli Deo Gloria.

@deaninserra

The best way to raise kids who do not become cultural Christians is to be parents who are not cultural Christians. Be Christians by conviction not by culture.

@ERLC

 “Southern Baptists will not have a future if we do not confront our tendency to protect the system over survivors.” — @pbethancourt #CaringWell

@MichaelCatt

Every #pastor needs a pastor. Someone he can call [and] trust. A person who will listen [and] pray as he shares his hurts [and] fears. Find your someone. I would not have survived in ministry [without] some of these kind of people in my life.

@ThomRainer

Ministry does not happen on a set schedule.

@sPeytonHill

Jonah loved the grace that the Lord poured out on him. Jonah hated the grace that the Lord poured out on Nineveh. We are in a dangerous place when we think we deserve grace but others deserve judgment. We have missed the essence of grace altogether.