Rev. Dr. Donald R. Rasmussen
Interim Executive Minister
In 1968, our first year in Rhode Island, we attended the ”annual gathering” of the 80 some churches that made up that region. The main item of business was the abolition of the associations. There were four but since the region is so small and transportation so much easier since the invention of the automobile it was decided that associations were no longer necessary.
Here in New York the situation is very different because of the distances that separate us. Associations are, or should be, vital to the health and support of the local church. Some of our associations are doing well, others hardly ever meet. Historically associations offered many of the resources that are now supplied by regional offices, they: offered a basis of fellowship; started new churches; united a mission focus; offered conflict management; education; pastoral training and support; affirmed and strengthened ministry; and church discipline.
Might our associations here in New York find renewal in discussing together the 5 common expectations of ABC churches?
They are:
- Affirm the ABC identity statement entitled, “We are American Baptists” as descriptive of our faith and practice;
http://www.abc-usa.org/WhoWeAre/Identity/IdentityStatement/tabid/78/Default.aspx
- Affirm the mission/purpose of the region and ABCUSA;
- Participate in the life and mission of American Baptist Churches at associational, regional, national and international levels.
- Support the mission of the ABC-NYS and ABC-USA financially at a responsible level.
- Share with the family the impact of the church’s ministries in reaching the community and world for Christ by reporting annually on forms supplied by the region and ABCUSA. (ABC Standing Rule 5.1.1)
Over 40 years ago Winthrop Hudson wrote an article about associations that he titled “Stumbling into Disorder.” Things have not improved at al since then. William McNutt said it best 50 years ago… “The association is not an organization to be set over against the churches or to be added as an extra to the churches. It is just the life of the churches together. As the life of the family derives from the attitudes, actions, spirit of each member of the family, so the association is strong or weak, enriched or diminished by the manner in which each church shares the common life. The churches are members together in the Body of Christ and the Association is one mode of expressing and experiencing this togetherness. This is our need. This is our obligation. It is as vital today as in the past.”
Gratefully in Him,
Don
Hudson, Wintrop, Baptists in Transition, Foundations, p. 83
Mc, Nutt, Polity and Practice in Baptist churches, Judson Press, 1959, p. 150
