It is 2033. Enrique Hernandez, associational mission strategist for the Southwest Baptist Association, attended a conference for associational leaders.
Returning home, he felt excited, motivated and full of a great sense of accomplishment.
Ready to meet with his local missional imagination team, he was impatient to share about the learning cohort of associational leaders at this conference.
These leaders represented more than two dozen associations that accepted the challenge offered to them eight years earlier: to envision the improbable becoming a reality through Baptist associations.
RELATED: Check out more articles on the impact of Baptist associations.
It called for associations to proactively take on the leading role within Baptist life for the fulfillment of the Great Commission. This journey from 2025 to 2033 involved “discerning next,” “celebrating next” and “launching next.”
Southwest Association’s journey and context
The Southwest Association accepted this challenge. At that time, Hernandez was the pastor of Primera Iglesia Bautista Hispana, located in the largest city within the association.
He was on the associational leadership team and became excited about the opportunities in this diverse, multicultural and multilingual context. It was difficult for national denominational leadership to understand the Southwest context and to effectively support their essential missional ministry.
The associational fellowship area was racially and ethnically diverse, with Hispanic Americans from various countries, African Americans, Anglo Americans and Native Americans.
The area was growing steadily at a rate of more than 3% annually and already had more than 250,000 residents. If the population continued to grow at that rate, the area would have twice as many people in two decades.
The association was composed of 42 congregations. Two-thirds of these had fewer than 100 in attendance. Three-fourths were plateaued or declining. Eight were newer congregations.
To keep pace with the population growth, at least two congregations must be launched each year in new residential communities or among emerging people groups. Three plateaued or declining congregations annually should launch a bold new journey for their future.
During the first year of this great adventure in 2025, the AMS retired. Hernandez was called from his pastorate to assume this leadership role.
Even before the AMS retired, Hernandez felt God wanted him to contribute everything he could to this effort. It was evident to others he was captivated by God’s empowering vision for this journey. He also had an excellent reputation for ministering sacrificially, had a clear Christlike spirit and was an effective leader.
Living into the lead role
Hernandez was eager to share what he heard from associational leaders at the national conference. Many of them — like the Southwest Association — were concluding their sabbatical year and launching their next series of six years of action.
The reports from other associations were both encouraging and challenging. In some associations, their initial launch in 2027 was conducted with great excitement and early progress.
Then something interrupted their new missional actions. They were later able to gain new traction and move forward. It was the stories of Kingdom accomplishments and the challenges presented to them by other associations that kept them going.
For others, once they launched in 2027, it took several years to develop a critical mass of support for a new and passionate movement to emerge. A few vocal pastors posed the greatest challenges. They struggled to see beyond their own congregations and their vitality and vibrancy. The needs of the overall associational context were not a focus of their ministry. For them it was church growth rather than Kingdom growth.
In many associations, the most significant change they experienced was in their relationships with the state, regional and national denomination. The denomination recognized these associations as examples of advanced missional Christianity. They were indeed associations making measurable Kingdom progress.
Rather than promoting the program, products and processes of the denomination, the denomination approached them, saying, “You are in the lead role here. How can we come alongside and help you rather than simply asking you to do the things we want you to do?”
In these associations with great spiritual imagination, their lead role in the denomination was evident. What was imagined in 2025 became true.
(Southwest represents a generic future narrative. It could be your association if you accept the challenge.)
EDITOR’S NOTE — George Bullard spent 45 years in denominational ministry. He served on the staff of three associations, was a key staff person working with associations in two state conventions and served on the association missions division staff of the former Home Mission Board of the SBC. He retired in June 2022 as director of Columbia Metro Baptist Association in South Carolina. He has led strategic planning processes in more than 100 associations and has written extensively in this area. Bullard now serves as a strategic thinking mentor for Christian leaders through his ForthTelling Innovation ministry and a correspondent for The Baptist Paper.
To request permission to republish this article, email news@thebaptistpaper.org.
