Perry Brindley, associational mission strategist of Buncombe Baptist Association, Asheville, North Carolina, has been named AMS of the Year by the Southern Baptist Conference of Associational Leaders.
The announcement was made during the group’s annual pre-SBC meeting, held this year in Dallas, and was the first installment of the award. SBCAL is made up of associational mission strategists (also known as directors of missions and associational missionaries) along with other associational leaders and partners. Membership has swelled to 750 this year, the largest in the group’s 65-year history.
‘Collaborator and encourager’
Ray Gentry, SBCAL executive director, said Brindley “is a humble, wise, model associational leader.” Brindley, a native of Fort Payne, Alabama, has lived and served in the Carolinas for 30 years and has served Buncombe Association for the last 12. His family moved to Asheville, North Carolina, when he was 9, and he was saved in a mission church soon after moving there. He was educated at Fruitland Baptist Bible College in Hendersonville, North Carolina, and did further study at Luther Rice Seminary.
Ron Blankenship, AMS for Montgomery Baptist Association in Gaithersburg, Maryland, nominated Brindley and Wesley Smith, AMS for Three Forks Association in Boone, North Carolina, endorsed the recommendation.
“If Perry were to be awarded AMS of the Year, he would represent us well as the kind of AMS we should all aspire to be,” Smith said. He is a “collaborator and an encourager.”
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Brindley is grateful to his wife of 44 years, Della. She serves as the communication assistant for the association office. They have two adult children: Rickey, who is a coach in Pisgah, North Carolina, and Shannon, who is a military wife living in Germany. The Brindleys have nine grandchildren.
Brindley also mentioned his appreciation for all members of the associational staff and noted they make a great team to serve the churches well.
Buncombe Association has 118 churches, missions and satellite locations, all in the mountains of western North Carolina in the county surrounding Asheville.
Working together
Last fall Hurricane Helene swept up from the Gulf Coast and flooded many of the rivers and creeks in the area. Landslides, floods, wind damage and then wildfires have hit the region hard in the past nine months.
The North Carolina Disaster Relief group, known as Baptists on Mission, partnered with Buncombe Association to help families and churches impacted by the severe weather.
Brindley said they expect it will take five to seven years to rebuild all the damaged homes. There have been 283 repairs and rebuilds accomplished so far, and 302 are still in process. They’ve recorded 1,100 requests for help so far.
The missions dollars that flowed into the association have helped churches who had damaged buildings, pastors who had property damage, the Baptists on Mission crews and their expenses and individuals in churches who had losses.
“It was massive devastation” Brindley said, noting the tremendous impact of the DR teams and volunteers from across the nation who have driven in to help with the relief efforts.
“It’s a big network,” he said. “It restores your faith in people who want to come and help.”
RELATED: Click here for George Bullard’s series of columns on associational ministry
As Brindley reflected on the award, he emphasized the need for associational missionaries to work hard to build relationships with believers and unbelievers alike.
He encourages associational leaders to share the gospel with lost people and to have a passion for evangelism that will become the passion of the churches served.
He said the association is built around the priorities of church revitalization, church planting and church strengthening. Because of the churches — and for the churches — they are engaged in missions and equipping the saints for ministry.
Those concepts and more were developed during the plenary and breakout sessions that took place at the June 8–9 meeting where 400 of the group’s 750 members were present.
Along with celebrating SBCAL’s 65th anniversary, Gentry, along with his daughter, Allison, were honored for their 10th anniversary with SBCAL. Gentry serves as president and Allison as director of communications. Gentry’s wife, Debra, who serves alongside Ray and Allison as SBCAL’s financial assistant and membership coordinator, also was recognized.
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EDITOR’S NOTE — Richard Nations is a recently retired associational mission strategist from Sandy Creek Baptist Association in Murrayville, Illinois.
