This week as I continue articles on the association, I will address two questions. First, how do associations operate today? Today, both associations and churches remain autonomous and self-governing. The association has no authority over the practices of any member church. Even though churches are independent bodies, they are interdependent by choice through membership in an association. The association is not a church, but it represents the churches working together. As autonomous bodies we understand that we are better together. While we don’t duplicate what churches do, we can expand and multiply that work through partnership efforts.
Secondly, what is the value of the association? Associations guide the collaborative efforts of member churches in a geographic region. For example, in our association we coordinate the efforts of 40 member churches in cross-cultural ministry, urban missions, church revitalization, church planting, and leadership training. Working together, we do more than churches that operate in isolation. Therefore, I encourage you to participate in, contribute to, and join with the efforts of your local association. The CPBA, like most associations, relies on the direct gifts of member churches to accomplish our mission. We do not receive any funds from Cooperative Program giving or other funding mechanisms. We are grateful for your giving and want to be good stewards of what we receive. Let us know how we serve you. Another way we can work together is joining in city wide efforts which leads to my next point…
I am happy to announce a joint effort by the three Baptist Associations in the Kansas City area. CPBA along with Kansas City Blue River and Kansas City Kansas Baptist Associations are working together to bring Dr. Richard Blackaby to our area for the KC Metro Pastors Conference. He and Mark Clifton of NAMB will be leading this conference to empower, equip and encourage our pastors and ministry leaders. This will be on Friday evening, March 4 and Saturday morning March 5 at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Overland Park, Kansas. We will be getting more information and a registration link out soon but wanted you to know about this now so you can get it on your calendar. You won’t want to miss this so mark it down and be watching for the registration link. – Dr. Gary Mathes