COOPERATION NECESSITATES PARTICIPATION

Last Tuesday's annual session saw almost 200 messengers from our 78 member churches. The meal was great, the fellowship was encouraging and the mission tables were a hit. We heard many reports from the ministries of the UBA churches. Our speaker was spot on and the worship time was God honoring. We had a great evening of like-minded churches praising God for what He is doing in our midst and around the world. The new ministries of The Equip Network, in partnership with SEBTS, are kicking off in January. Also, The Residency Project, a partnership with the Baptist State Convention, will commence in the spring. This ministry will seek to develop, resource, connect, and prepare young leaders for ministry. This will also be a great discipleship tool for your church in developing new young leaders. One of our UBA vision points is to develop leadership in our churches, and we believe these two ministries will help us to continue to move forward in this area.  We hope to initiate church plants next year as well as   focus on a greater emphasis on the Nations. Our theme for 2022 is Every Church and Every Nation.

One of the amazing opportunities we have here at the Association is to connect churches and church leaders to each other and to ministry opportunities. We find that we are on the front-end of the process of connections. Sometimes we have even had the privilege of helping to sustain these partnerships that came about from these connections. The UBA is like a clearing-house of sorts where churches can come together and participate in shared ministry vision for the advancement of the Kingdom. This takes on many forms. Some of theses developed ministries we highlighted during our session, but others like friendships, mentoring, prayer partners, sending churches and a host of so many other interactions are the unsung heroes of  associational outworking’s. We don’t always get to see first-hand these ministries unfold, but we realize they were established through associational connections. We are wholly unique in that truism. The UBA plays a unique roll among our churches that you will find nowhere else. The churches that take advantage of shared ministry opportunities we offer know this to be true. The more you participate in cooperating for the Kingdom the more you will find the blessings and strength of associating together for the Gospel. We also believe that the more you put into associational life the more you will get out of it and the reverse is true as well. The Baptist Association was a functional part of Southern Baptist life long before the State and National Convention ever existed. We believe the future of the UBA is bright and enduring because we see God is at work among our member churches. As King Josiah sought to reestablish the Temple and true  worship back to Almighty God the scripture says, “he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.” He did what was right in the sight of the Lord and stayed the course. If we stay the course of sincere cooperation and partnerships we will see God do more than we can ask, think or imagine in the coming days.

Stay the Course,

Eric