Now is the time to give your associational context something to talk about — but not like the song popularized by singer Bonnie Raitt that talks about romantic love.
The answer to the growth dilemma is obvious. When it is shared with congregations, they often reject it in favor of doing things to help existing congregations remain or become vital and vibrant.
The Year of Jubilee for your association in 2026 presents an excellent opportunity to replace a decades old approach to revitalizing and replanting congregations. We
Are there locations in your context that lack sufficient gospel ministry? Which people groups are being neglected or underserved?
Is your association ready to announce a jubilee year for 2026?
Building a bold missional strategy begins by seeing your associational context as an unentered missions field with unreached people groups.
“Associational mission strategists tend to come from pastorates or from church or denominational staff. Thus, they may believe the key to deep, meaningful fellowship is people like them. It is not,” writes George Bullard.
Baptist associations should commit to “discern next” in 2025 to achieve the lead role within Baptist life and fulfill the Great Commission.
In the world of Southern Baptists, Baptist associations are advanced Christianity. For them to thrive, you’ve gotta want them bad, ‘cause it’s gonna be a challenging journey.
This is the first of a series of columns that will explain various strategies that could be used to experience the next wave of Kingdom progress.
Our mission is to serve the Church through trustworthy journalism.
As a nonprofit Christian news ministry, we seek to provide grace-filled, trustworthy reporting from a Christian worldview while keeping our content freely accessible online.
Support from readers and ministry partners allows us to continue equipping churches, informing individuals, and providing ministry resources at affordable rates. Would you prayerfully consider supporting this work?
