Is your association ready to announce a jubilee year for 2026? It could be if it uses 2025 to engage in the actions suggested in previous columns.
First, establish a spiritual foundation among pastors, staff and their congregations. Second, foster a stronger sense of community among lay leaders in your member congregations. Third, conduct research to develop a new missions approach unique to your associational context.
The year of jubilee draws inspiration from Leviticus 25, but it is not meant to replicate it. Instead, it aims to convey the power of the concept, to embrace the spirit of jubilee and to initiate a new journey for your association.
How could it work?
Up to now in this series of columns, the approach suggested for transforming the association has occurred outside the congregations. Now it’s time to move inside every possible congregation.
Here are five experiences, processes or features of your jubilee year:
Convocation: Gather the pastors, church staff and lay leaders who participated in the spiritual and fellowship processes throughout 2025. Create an engaging and interactive presentation on the research on missiology within the associational context. Inspire and inform a group of at least seven people from each congregation, likely on a Friday evening and Saturday.
Bring to the convocation the first draft of a future story that describes the potential ministry of your family of congregations at the end of 2032.
This story seeks to address the following question: If your commitment to faithfulness, effectiveness and innovation aligns with God’s call upon your family of congregations, what will the fruitfulness of ministry be seven years from now?
Convening: Following the convocation, gather clusters of congregations, individuals and affinity groups for discussion about key opportunities of greatest interest to them that were highlighted during the convocation. Each cluster should have representatives from at least three congregations.
Commission and commandment: Infuse the convocation and clusters with a focus on fulfilling the Great Commission in the spirit of the great commandment. What key initiatives are necessary in your context that your congregations possess gifts and talents to accomplish? Are there new skills you would like to develop to tackle these initiatives?
Challenge: The greatest challenge may be shifting leaders and congregations from a focus on success to a missions perspective. It’s not about congregational growth; it’s about the growth of the Kingdom. This requires transitioning from success to significance and ultimately to complete surrender to God’s leadership.
Commitment: Emerging from the year of jubilee is a need for a sustainable commitment to a seven-year effort that brings to life the vision of missional ministry arising from the year of jubilee. This year is not meant to be just an event or a short-term experience. It signifies a turning point, a transformation, a new beginning for the family of congregations. It marks a shift from superficial, repetitive church work to a lifelong commitment to Kingdom ministry. In an earlier era of Baptist life, this was referred to as empowering Kingdom growth.
Staying focused and dealing with distractions
A key outcome of “discern next” in 2025 to prepare for 2026 is to obtain an assurance from congregations that they will focus on this transformational journey during 2026. Help them believe in the promise of what this radical and revolutionary journey could mean for Christian ministry in their context.
It should not be seen as merely another denominational program. It must be embraced as a new movement of God if that is what truly unfolds during the “discern next” year.
The celebration in 2026 marks a jubilee for what God is doing among the family of congregations to reveal a growing passion for sharing the good news of Jesus.
An aspect that makes this year special is that the associational organization and the member congregations clear their calendars of major events and set aside other key projects. Consultation with the regional and national denomination is crucial so their events do not overlap with what the association is doing.
Your denominational partners can prayerfully support this jubilee. Plus, they can begin considering how they can support and provide resources for the association’s new direction.
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.
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