SAN ANTONIO (ABP) — Unless associational leaders pray for and work with their churches, they run the risk of becoming “as obsolete as a horse and buggy in a NASCAR world,” Jim Henry of Orlando, Fla., admonished Southern Baptist directors of missions.
Henry, a former Southern Baptist Convention president and pastor emeritus of First Baptist Church in Orlando, was the featured speaker as the Southern Baptist Conference of Associational Directors of Missions celebrated 300 years of associational work in the United States June 10.
The group focused on its history and its future during its annual session, prior to the annual Southern Baptist Convention meeting in San Antonio, Texas.
At the directors of missions' invitation, Woman's Missionary Union launched its own annual meeting by joining the associational celebration, said Wanda Lee, WMU executive director.
“We joined them out of that respect and love for our partnership,” Lee said.
Lee joined a host of agency heads to bring greetings at the celebration held at historic First Baptist Church of San Antonio, and hundreds of WMU members attended the session.
Using Mark 4:35-36 as his text, Henry challenged listeners to look back on associational history with “deep appreciation.”
Then, he noted, directors of missions must evaluate the present. After Jesus finished a long day of teaching, Henry said, he called his disciples to get into a boat and row to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.
“What was on the other side?” Henry asked. It was the Gentile side where Jews didn't go, he explained. “Jesus was challenging his men … to go to a world they had never known. I call on you as [directors] to go to the other side … to our rapidly changing culture.”
Henry reminded directors of missions that churches have choices when dealing with the world: separation from it, assimilation into it or association with each other to reach it.
The church is called to move from “limitation to innovation,” he added. “I call you to … challenge the churches to look at new things. Don't be afraid of innovation. Change can be very powerful for good.”
Associational leaders must move into the future, where Henry said they face “extinction or expansion,” depending on choices they make in ministry to their churches.
Based on his own informal surveys, Henry said younger pastors often see the association as antiquated and unnecessary. They are not interested in institutions, but they do want to know directors of missions on a personal level, he said.
Younger pastors want to cooperate but don't want programs for programs' sake, Henry added. And he encouraged directors of missions to love their ministers as pastors love their churches.
“I believe the director of missions who can work with entrepreneurial churches will find a supply of larger and middle-sized churches ready to work with smaller churches” to help them, Henry said. “My challenge to you is to go over to the other side until our father calls us to be at his side.”
During their annual meeting, the national organization elected Russell Cook, director of missions for Pottawatomie-Lincoln Baptist Association in Oklahoma, as president; Wesley Pitts, director of missions for Long Run Baptist Association in Kentucky, as first vice president; and Ron Davis, director of missions for Greenville Baptist Association in South Carolina, as second vice president.
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— Tony Cartledge contributed to this story.