WRIGHT CITY – Bob Feeler says he believes Baptist associations are a key to churches experiencing turnarounds and new growth, and he’s not alone in feeling this way. His take is that associations should help churches in a geographic region band together to support and encourage each other to help churches attain and maintain strength. In addition to regular pastor fellowship times they should offer pastoral cohorts for theological and ministry strengthening opportunities.
Feeler leads an association with a mixture of older churches and new church plants. He is the associational mission strategist (AMS) for Twin Rivers Baptist Association based in Wright City. Some of his congregations are experiencing new leases on their lives as churches. Feeler said some of the older churches in the association are closing and their buildings are being gifted to the association or nearby churches, who in turn are helping new churches be replanted there. Several other congregations are going though the Resound Network, process where they are recovering their focus and experiencing a new lease on life. Their church life-cycle is being reborn and refreshed. This is sometimes known as the “Bell Curve” life cycle of a church, attributed to authors Robert Dale and George Bullard.
Feeler is the current president of the Missouri Baptist Director of Missions Fellowship. The group of directors of missions (DOM) and associational mission strategists (AMS) meet two times a year to exchange ideas and learn from each other.
This past fall they brought in a guest speaker for a stimulating talk on the relevance of associations. The speaker, Josh Ellis, is the executive director of the Union Baptist Association, Houston, Texas. He shared with the group his enthusiasm for the work of the local association. Ellis says, “Associations cooperate with other churches nearby through the work of the local association. Churches engage their context by working together.”
Another associational leader, Jim Gentry, ministers in the Cane Creek-Stoddard Association in southeast Missouri. He is especially convinced that the value of an association is the building of partnerships between fellow pastors and churches in that region.
Gentry said there is an old saying, “We are better together than we are separately,” which is a biblical concept. He sees it as an outgrowth of I Corinthians 12, where Paul said there are many members but one body. And it also is spoken of in Ephesians 4 and I Peter 2, where the church is looked at as a body with many parts and functions, but all are necessary and important in some way. Associations, like churches, have many functions but they operate best when there is cooperation and mutual encouragement among the member churches.
Gentry said the association is functioning at it’s best when a director of missions pulls together pastors into a partnership to accomplish some gospel function. He listed several roles for an association leader:
• Advocate for the underdog or the underserved
• Catalyst for change
• Partnership champion.
He told of a conversation with a pastor who had not been a Southern Baptist for long and wasn’t sure how cooperation among Baptist churches could work. But he is in conversation with Gentry as he is setting up community ministries and discovering how churches can do collaborative ministry and avoid duplication of efforts.
The Southern Baptist Conference for Associational Leaders (SBCAL) is an organization based in Georgia that advocates for associational mission strategists and provides resources and training opportunities. Ray Gentry is the executive director/CEO of the group.
“The DOM or AMS knows the churches better than anyone else in the denominational structure,” Gentry says. He doesn’t discount the ministry of state or national convention partners, but he said the church that cooperates with their association has a built-in advocate for them who knows and understands them. The associational leader can be more relational than a specialist in a state or national convention.
Buddy Funk, of the Missouri Baptist Convention, agrees. He is the point person for associational ministry in the MBC. Funk said, “Churches partnering with other churches is biblical, and the convention values the associational structures we have in Missouri. It allows for a natural place for churches to partner together for the gospel.”
Feeler described a recent meeting where some pastors who had not been together much in associational meetings were in the same room and pretty soon the room was full of laughter and stories. The isolation was melting away.
Jim Gentry likes to send texts to his pastors to let them know they are being prayed for. He said a key role for the association is communication and exchange of information.
Gentry also noted that associations are primarily supported by financial gifts from churches. Associations do not regularly receive Cooperative Program funds. Sometimes the MBC or SBC may provide grants for specific items, but generally churches put the association in their budgets. Many associations in Missouri are struggling financially. Those that are doing the best are clearly advocating for partnerships and revitalization, he added.
In Missouri, there are 56 associations. Some have full-time DOM or AMS leaders. Others have part-time or bivocational leaders. Some are moderator-led, but all are a valuable part of the ministry of Baptists. Associational leaders encourage churches and pastors to reach out to their fellow associational partners and to be strengthened as they work together.
What are the functions of a Southern Baptist associational leader?
Missouri DOM Jim Gentry suggests the following functions of an association leader:
• Communication with pastors and churches;
• Prayer support—to let people know of prayer needs and to let them know that others are praying for them;
• Visits to a church or with a pastor, including pulpit supply and field visits;
• Help pastors become life-long learners, studying books and classes together;
• Setting up coffee/meal fellowship times with pastors;
• Associational board and annual meetings where business is conducted and celebration of ministries are highlighted;
• Resources and encouragement for pastors and churches ministries;
• Missions support for ministry partners and collegiate ministries;
• Interpret the SBC and the MBC ministries to churches.