Did you read the Baptist Press story on the survey of local Baptist associations? Survey Weighs Value of Baptist Associations.
Perhaps the most salient quote coming out of this recent study might be this one,
“When asked to describe the most exciting aspect of their local Baptist association, the most popular answer among church leaders was ‘nothing,'” said Jason Lowe, a Kentucky director of missions who led the study that looked into attitudes about the work of local Baptist associations.
“Nothing.”
How’s that for a succinct evaluation of the work of our most historic cooperative organization?
The specific comments are rather painful,
“My association is mediocre, and thus my church is only minimally invested…they’re 20 years behind on everything. Barely have a website and thinks a fax machine is the latest communication…Nothing, it’s a waste of time and money…Not much. Our association does very, very little…Nothing excites me about it…Nothing really. It’s been a good ole boys association…Really honestly, nothing. It’s living and functioning in the past…Our current local association does very little to serve our Churches.”
My experience is that it’s never hard to get pastors complaining about their local association. Sometimes this is justified. Sometimes not.
What church leaders found frustrating according to comments on the survey:
“Pointless annual meetings…Unnecessary expenses in paid staff and buildings…Total lack of function…Little participation and does nothing but take church dollars. Really a gigantic waste of time…Ineffective…We’re not doing the things that need to be done. We’re functioning as we have, but aren’t relevant to the churches…The complete lack of any gospel work…Associations are so outdated. They cater to large churches and are almost exclusively led by small churches. It is not a network of like-minded churches as much as it is a place for bored people to complain about successful people.”
The Directors of Missions who responded to the survey were, unsurprisingly, most concerned about lack of commitment and participation by churches.
One of the most telling results of the survey was the response to the statement, “Church Would Be Negatively Affected If Local Baptist Association Did Not Exist.” Over four of ten church leaders answered negatively, that is, they did not feel the church would be negatively affected if the local association went kaput. Predictably, DOMs almost all agreed with the statement.
One thing that all senior pastors have is an opinion on their local association and the DOM. I’ve always liked the DOMs but only one was what I would call effective in the role and personally helpful to me and my church.
The Baptist association has been very important in our history in some respects. It has been described as “the oldest cooperative unit in Baptist life tracing its existence back over 300 years.” It should be best in helping churches to cooperate in ministry and fellowship although it looks to me like much of the cooperation has been handed off to state and national entities. Associations should be the place where doctrinal standards are most vigorous and scrutinized. I can identify with the comments by survey respondents that the association lacks relevance while slogging along, apparently impelled by institutional and programmatic inertia.
Some erudite Baptist historian can educate me on why the local association was left out of the Cooperative Program distribution nine decades ago. Was it assumed that the local association could easily prove its value to geographically proximate churches and have little difficult in raising any necessary funding? Were there very few paid associational staff, DOMs or Associational Missionaries and no central offices? I’d speculate that when it became fashionable or there arose perceived value in having a paid associational staff with attendant office and administrative expenses that the focus was subtly shifted from serving churches to maintaining the associational staff and budget. I was regularly told that churches should support their association with 3% of their undesignated giving. It wasn’t explained why although budgets showed the DOM, secretary, and building consumed around 80% of all contributions. One DOM brazenly asked for 4%.
Some larger associations have several staff, operate numerous ministries, plant churches and do work that I would value as a pastor. I cannot think of much the smaller associations have to offer now that just about any church administrative assistance is available online. Most associations near me offer some form of church revitalization services but I’m unaware of any such programs that show measurable positive results. DOMs have personally been helpful in specific services but I’m not sure that is worth a full-time staff position.
I’m curious how pastors view their association and, if present, their DOM or AM these days. There are 1,136 associations in the Southern Baptist Convention. The 116 DOMs that responded to this survey might represent 20% or so of these. That’s a pretty good proportion even though the survey was not randomized. Consider that 2 of 3 DOMs are over 60 years of age and 9 of 10 are over fifty. The route for many to the DOM job has been as an experienced, respected pastor moving to the DOM position as their terminal job. Perhaps the psychology involved in that is not conducive to vision and change.
One thing seems sure about our associations. Either the function changes substantially or we drop a lot of staffing, move to part-time or volunteer staffing. I’d be interested in how my colleagues perceive these things.
_____________
I’m not all that confident in any survey where respondents are self-selected but there is a massive amount of data in this one. Probably the most reliable results are from the DOMs since their sample size was rather large. Reported aggregate results are heavily weighted with the disproportionate number of DOMs, although you can view results by the various categories. The survey’s summary tables may be viewed here.
“My association is mediocre, and thus my church is only minimally invested…”
Uh no, your association is mediocre because your church is nominally invested. You get out what you put in to it.
Except that, having invested a year or two of trying to move the association to be more than a holding pattern for activities that outlived their effectiveness a decade ago, that was when we went to minimal investment. Because most of the decision-making is locked in to people who have always made those decisions, who originated those programs in the 80s, and who hamstring even the DoM from doing anything different because change is unacceptable. The nature and structure of associational decision making is even more tradition-locked than the average SB church and the SBC as a whole. The real… Read more »
William, Excellent article brother, and thank you for enlightening me to the Baptist Press article. I was unaware one on this topic had been published. I am fairly new to my association here in Willow Springs, Howell County, MO. Currently we do not have a DOM because the previous one retired and the search committee has yet to find a replacement. Interestingly enough they did due diligence and did an exit interview of the former DOM to see how he thought his tenure went and what could be done better. He(the DOM) said that his work was hindered because churches… Read more »
I’m not sure that you will have a lot of takers when you ask for resumes if they are aware of these strictures. I’m wondering how many pastors would accept a pastorate that had a “probationary period of 3 years under a contract that can either be re-upped each year or canceled due to ineffectiveness”. By the way, many churches see what the association does as a model for their own polity. Therefore, do not be surprised when the next church looking for a pastor in your association adopts these new associational norms for their pastoral candidate. I’m not suggesting… Read more »
Thomas,
I have no ability or authority to make these changes nor am I apart of this process. Like I said I’m new to the association. This is what the search committee is doing and apparently has been doing for the past year(that’s how long the search committee has been together and working on creating a new job description, working with the state convention, and a consulting firm). I don’t know all the particulars but I do know they were advised to consider this model.
Perhaps at your next church, the Pastor Search team will hire you by contract, for three years, and allow you to be canceled or ‘re-upped’ depending on your ‘effectiveness’.
Jerry, While I’m certain you’re being sarcastic and coy I’ll engage you anyway. I actually think pastoral ministry must be evaluated yearly by the church, the deacons, and the elders(if the church has elders). My church has yearly performance reviews that the senior pastor, myself, our children’s director, women’s ministry director, and secretary are submitted to. We the pastors are evaluated for effectiveness in ministry, leadership, and our preaching(whether or not it’s biblical & theologically sound and challenging). This is to hold us as pastors accountable for the ministry we lead, but also challenges us to be better and more… Read more »
Excellent post James F. I have been a part of several Assoc and what you wrote pretty much represents all of those
I have doubted the need for a DOM for at least 3 decades. I think that true missions would be better served with 2-3 churches cooperating together to do church plants etc. that way everything would be more streamlined with greater accountability as well as participation in evangelism which would facilitate those involved in a myriad of ways
JMO
I support the local Baptist Associations and have written in favor of them.
David R. Brumbelow
So do I. But support is slipping. Why? What changes need to be made to address this?
I believe there exists the need to connect locally, regionally and nationally. In my other “kingdom,” I vote in municipal, state and national elections, and try to invest the time necessary to participate at each level of engagement. It makes sense to me that our spiritual work, according to the Acts 1:8 model, is active at all three levels as well. I was intrigued recently when NAMB hired a national employee whose job would be to interpret Southern Baptist life and encourage participation among the 14% of our Pastors who are younger than forty. That’s 7,000 pastors! How can one… Read more »
Sense of unreality here..l When NAMB *was* kicking back millions to the states the state were manipulating the system to fund staff and a world of pet projects. Church planting was not a priority. NAMB once funded one-third of all DOMs (I think but reserve space for faulty memory here) with little to show for it other than “we’ve gotta guy in [wherever]” with no measurable results required. Decades passed in many areas without any net church growth. If state conventions had any kind of record of achievement maybe NAMB wouldn’t do what you call duplication. But I commend your… Read more »
The question is, does NAMB’s mandate need to be changed now that we have state conventions in all fifty states. When it was originally created it was designed to take the Gospel where Southern Baptist were not. Now that we are everywhere maybe its mandate is no longer viable and needs to be reevaluated.
Just a thought.
Excellent article. I had not been aware that the results had been posted. In the Northwest Baptist Convention, though we have 13 or 14 associations, only one currently has a full time DOM. All others were serviced by NAMB personnel until the shift about 7 years ago of NAMB as a church-planting agency. Most of our associations are comprised of just a handful of churches scattered over very wide geographical areas. As a nearly 40 yr veteran of serving churches in the NWBC as an associate pastor and nearly 36 years as a senior pastor (ie single staff pastor for… Read more »
Thanks. Obviously, associations in the legacy southern states are considerably different than in less established areas.
Is a new paradigm shift needed in Southern Baptist life? Establishing new models or patterns of ministry are never easy. In Baptist life, things do not change quickly. Whether it be the local church, an association or the state or national conventions, Southern Baptists are not known for their swiftness in expediting change. Change does of course take place, but our basic credo seems to be, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” The problem is that if it is broke, it takes several committees and a business meeting or two to rectify the problem. I’m not being critical. I’m… Read more »
You’ve given this a lot of thought but I’d rather see you submit an article to the editors here on your ideas than try and cram it all in one long comment. It may be lost here.
Almost all my ministry experience has been in Indiana. My first DOM, Donn Broeker, has become a lifelong friend and mentor. Every DOM I’ve had since has been helpful to my church and to my leadership development. Some of my closest friends are fellow pastors and leaders in my association. Though there’s room for improvement, I’ve had an overall positive experience at the association level.
Over the years I have worked at all levels of Southern Baptist life and even served as the Director of Mission of one of those mega-associations (400+ churches) advocated by David K. There are a number of things I would like to say, but I am not sure there is enough space or time to say them all in this forum. Therefore, I will say a few and then see where the conversation takes us. By the way, as a foundation for my comments let me say, I think that the association (in some form) is essential to the future… Read more »
I am grateful that we have an excellent association in Birmingham, Alabama. The staff members coordinate numerous ministries between our churches and the local community. I have been personally encouraged by the fellowship with other pastors and the wise counsel of our DOM, Mike McLemore. The association is aggressive in developing partnerships with church planting efforts, especially in minority communities. Currently, they are working on a plan to become more streamlined and efficient in the face of tightening budgets. I don’t doubt the very real problems other associations are experiencing, but there are some that are performing a vital ministry.… Read more »
Well stated, Steve.
Your association is one of the best in the SBC.
When I hear or read of DOMs who say their association is not effective because their member churches are “not involved in the work of the association,” I say, “Well there is your problem.” Too many associations had fallen victim to the “Church Model Paradigm/Structure.” They call on churches to come “help do the work of the association.” That’s wrong. The work of a local association in Baptist life was to be a resource to the local affiliated churches to help them fulfill the Great Commission. Too many associations add to the work of the local church in a burdensome… Read more »
The church I attend is part of a metro Atlanta association that, I am told, planted more churches than the state convention. It seems to be doing well. The connection with my church is not geographical but based on affinity. My last pastorate had an outstanding DOM who was very helpful to me and interested in my church. He’s gone and a series of retirees and others have come and gone. Irrelevance understates the matter. I know of nothing to interest me going on in this association. DOMs, according to the survey, are frustrated by lack of participation and finances.… Read more »
About fifteen years ago I was a bi-vocational pastor in Kentucky, while teaching at Southern Seminary. Our DOM retired (at age 85!), and the Executive Committee of our association invited a state convention staff member to help us draw up a job description. We met on a Saturday, and we spent the morning discussing the purpose of a Baptist association. Just before lunch I asked, “If our associational office closed today, how long would it be before someone noticed?” There was a long pause, and then a pastor said, “About two weeks.” Everyone sighed, and then we went to lunch… Read more »
I am blessed to be a part of what I regard as a very effective association of three counties in south Mississippi. In sponsoring our new Hispanic church start, providing continuing pastoral education, coordinating association-wide mission trips to Indonesia, Mexico, etc., helping churches find pastors and staff, music ministry training, ministry assistant conferences, etc., they more than give back to the churches in our Tri-County Association than what we churches put into it. This was one of my most pleasant surprises when we returned to the States after 36 years with the IMB. It has been really easy to teach… Read more »
I served in an awesome association when I pastored in Johnstown, PA. Doug Pilot the best heart for missions DOM (or whatever name they go by now) was the best. Roxboro, NC tried to be agreeable to every pastor, even when there were polar problems. Kannapolis, NC, great guy, but seemed disconnected. El Paso – good guy, tough ministry – great harvest potential. Migrant ministry absorbed so much energy time and resources. It seemed where I served, the larger churches who pulled out left the Assoc. struggling financially. This seemed to coincide with churches being hit financially. Made it tough… Read more »
Other than an annual youth and children’s camp, I have no idea what our association does, although they accept checks from us. We haven’t seen the DOM in probably close to a decade. He did help us make contact with our current pastor.
I serve as a pastor in Wichita, KS. Our church is heavily involved in the association and we consider it a worthy kingdom investment. Our local association has been through some periods of streamlining organizationally and tightening things up in terms of vision and purpose. We have an excellent DOM (Glenn Davis) who has facilitated partnerships for church planting, established pastor clusters for growth and fellowship, and seeks to resource churches in creative ways. We have revised our associational constitution and by-laws to emphasize both church planting and church health. Some of the organizational changes in NAMB and our state… Read more »
William, Thank you for the great post. I have not been associated with Southern Baptists all my Christian life but since I have been I have nothing but good things to say about the Director of Missions that we have had. From my previous exposure to other denominations it seems to me that the DOM is the major factor in cultivating SBC identity at the grassroots. Few pastors/churches communicate regularly with the state entity on the other hand the DOM ( Associational Missionary) does the great work of pulling us together for the sake of Gospel unity. From where I… Read more »
I am fortunate to be a part of a good Association with a strong, mission minded, DOM. We are constantly challenged by our DOM, not to support the Association more, but to be a Kingdom focused church. I gladly ask our Church to support the local Association because it helps us be about our task.
Steve Young
Pray for victims of Hurricane Harvey.
Pray for Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, Samaritan’s Purse and others.
This will be a great example of local Baptist Associations being very helpful to those affected by Harvey.
David R. Brumbelow
William,
You might find some of your answers in two writers/researchers/professors who wrote on Baptist associations: Walter (Buddy) Shurden wrote on the development from 1707 to 1814 and Russell Bennett did a great work on the development from 1814 to 1963 in his published dissertation, A Fellowship of Kindred Minds. Ancient history…perhaps…revealing, I think so.