I once recommended to a Baptist state convention that the financial support they send to ministry organizations such as colleges and universities, retirement homes, children ministries and news journals be disrupted.
Instead of financial support for the core programs of ministry organizations, funds should go to efforts by these organizations that directly empower churches.
Churches are the foundational building block for Christian ministry. Everything else should complement and support church ministry.
The leaders of the ministry organizations were not happy with my recommendation. It was too radical. It never happened. But it should have.
Think about it. Ministry organizations of Baptist state conventions typically have a staff person focused on relationships with churches. Too often these people are housed in the financial development office.
The ministry wants more resources from churches. They want more than money. They want volunteers to serve as board members, physical work crews and spiritual mentors for people served by their organization.
Why? Because the focus of ministry organizations is on what churches can do for the ministries rather than on what these ministries can do for churches.
I contend that associations can play an important role in brokering the resources of ministry organizations to empower churches. When empowered, these churches often return the favor in ways not known until the benefits of the ministry are understood.
It must be a two-way street
Recently, I read the annual report of a Baptist compassion ministry. I was intrigued by its list of the top financially contributing churches along with churches that had sent volunteers to support its ministry.
This is great. It is important to publicly thank church groups that help further the mission of the ministry organization.
Nowhere, however, was there any indication of how the resources of the compassion ministry were being used to impact the ministry of churches. It was more of a “what-have-churches-done-for-us-lately?” situation.
This must be a two-way street.
Retirement ministries are one example. They can help churches address the issues of their aging membership. This is not just about senior adults. The greatest gap in age-related church ministry is with empty nesters.
Churches need assistance helping these households understand how to engage in the next seasons of their lives and preparing them for the active, inactive and dependent years. They need to be shown how their Christian discipleship can continue, be enhanced and add value to the work of God’s Kingdom.
In the same way, children ministry organizations have a lot to say to churches about quality ministry, from developmental issues; trauma in the home, community and schools; and faith development for children.
Children ministries have expertise with which they can help churches nurture healthy families. They can help with adoption and foster parenting. Many churches need these crucial, compassionate ministries.
Colleges and universities can provide educational opportunities that create numerous two-way streets. They can offer key credit and noncredit courses for laity either virtually or in person to supplement the Bible teaching, discipleship training and missional engagement for churches.
Faculty can learn about and interact with churches in ways that help them understand churches more deeply. Through this they become increasingly relevant to the movement and transitions taking place in churches.
News journals, as they continue to write stories about grassroots ministries in churches, can deepen their connection with what God is doing locally and globally. They can help churches learn how to tell their own story in inspiring ways.
Resource brokers
A caution: Doing this may take some reeducation for ministry organizations. They have focused so long on what they do institutionally that they do not think about the priority of church ministry. But they must.
Brokering resources to enhance the ministry of churches is a key role for associations. Associations are the best connection point between churches and the resources denominations have the capacity to provide.
They know churches better than the state convention or its ministries. They know the resources the state convention and its ministries can offer.
Better yet, they should help the state convention and its ministries know the resources not yet developed that bring added value to churches.
Best yet, they should sponsor gatherings and ongoing processes that bring ministries and churches together with everyone learning and benefiting.
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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