My house was raided…wait, that’s not right. My pantry was raided by my hungry seven-month-old. Who knew kids that small could be bottomless pits?
A Surprising Use of a Saturday Morning
Two Saturdays ago, I attended a District Association meeting. This immediately places one in a tiny category of human beings who did such a thing on a perfectly good Saturday morning.
What perhaps makes my visit especially unusual is that it wasn’t my own association’s meeting. Nor was I the preacher for the day. Yes, I got up on a Saturday morning, put on some reasonably nice clothes, and drove 17 miles to attend a meeting that I didn’t have to attend.
Let me hasten to say that I’m not one of those psychologically disturbed people who just love being in meetings all the time. Such people should be institutionalized, or worse.
I had two primary reasons for attending. First, a new youth pastor who serves with a friend of mine in this neighboring association was going to preach, and I wanted to hear him. I figured it wouldn’t just be informative, but also a way to support a young man God had brought to our state.
Second, I know quite a few of the people who I expected to be in attendance, so I thought it would be a good chance for some fellowship.
I had other secondary reasons I went, too. I serve as the Moderator of our association, and I’m often curious as to how other associations handle their meetings. I’m also an officer in our State Association (Assistant Moderator), so I think there’s some value to being among various churches and districts. And finally, I must admit, the host church was known for serving good food.
The Lay of the Land
As I was reflecting recently over the few hours I spent in Desoto, I chuckled because I realized how goofy this would appear to so many people. To put it nicely, association meetings haven’t been known as being especially appealing for many. Associational participation and engagement have declined rapidly in recent decades. Indeed, some districts are on life support.
This state of affairs can be attributed to numerous factors. Healthy associational life has always been challenging in areas where churches are spread out and sparse. Many churches are afflicted by a radical individualism that deters thick associationalism. Sometimes the format of meetings makes little sense and doesn’t express a clear sense of biblical purpose. Sometimes those conducting the meetings don’t do so wisely. And an anti-institutional mindset is pervasive in many quarters of the West. This is just to name a few reasons.
Perhaps most fundamentally, though, we’ve forgotten the purpose and value of associating ourselves intentionally with other like-minded churches.
There’s been a growing sentiment among many Free Will Baptist pastors, especially younger ones, that associational life needs significant reform and renewal. Pastors and lay leaders in numerous places have been attempting this. Such efforts include changing of meeting times and frequency, more continuing education like seminars in the place of worship services, and trying to streamline business or avoid it when it’s not absolutely necessary.
I applaud and join with these efforts to reengage pastors and laymen in the historical purposes and spiritual benefits of a strong association. It won’t be easy. When we leave our fences untended for too long, they accumulate mold, get dilapidated, and before long we’re deciding to tear them down because we forgot why they were built in the first place. This is not a conservative impulse. To paraphrase G.K. Chesterton, a healthy conservatism seeks to understand why the fences were put in place before moving them.
We had better remember the need for accountability—for our churches and ordained pastors and deacons. We had better remember how fellowship and encouragement both foster and fuel that accountability. We had better remember the biblical truism, which FWB Executive Secretary Eddie Moody has reminded us of often: we are better together.
Even these ideas have to be unpacked in order to be applied, or else they remain abstract or hazy. For example, what kinds of accountability? Strong Presbytery Boards (ordination committees, credential committees, or whatever one calls it) not only should be examining men carefully; they should be continuing to support and nurture them. They should be asking well-worded, biblically based questions from time to time to ensure we’re confessionally sound, personally healthy, and philosophically clear.
What kinds of fellowship and encouragement? Visiting, catching up, praying together, eating together. Who can commiserate with the delegates whose church has been without a pastor for months and months? Who can put their arms around the new pastor and wife who have moved into the association from several states away? Who can connect with a young, licensed preacher who needs an older man to help guide him through toward ordination? Engaged, conscientious association members can.
What kinds of “togetherness”? Perhaps our churches can rally around a church revitalization project in the region. Perhaps we can raise funds to help scholarship a few students who will be attending a Free Will Baptist college the next semester. Perhaps we can hold a summer camp in our area for low-income kids. It’s awfully difficult for one church to do most of these things, but it becomes highly possible for four, five, or 15 to do so.
Yes, I completely realize the philosophical issues that prevent these types of efforts from occurring. This is where it will take a concerted effort on the part of associational officers (often pastors) to ask themselves some hard questions, “What can our churches try to do together? What differences can we respect, yet lay aside in pursuit of spiritual outcomes?”
Sometimes younger laymen and pastors need to take the lead and come up with ideas. Sometimes they will simply need to show up, be present, learn the parties and processes, and ultimately step into leadership roles.
I’m not naïve about the challenges. But I’m often frustrated by unthinking appeals to our autonomy and/or differences as reasons why we can’t do anything. In many cases, I suspect some of us are afraid to try something, or we’re frustrated by past failures.
Might we pray for and seek a new day? After all, many serious pastors and laymen reading this find themselves in a challenging work, family, or church situation. Yet they have remained. They keep showing up and giving forth an effort. Why not pull back or jump ship? Because they believe there is a greater purpose in staying the course. They are sustained by some hope of a better day ahead. They have a vision and calling.
I’m hopeful that while many associations fade and falter, others will enjoy a resurgence of fruitfulness.
You Usually Get What You Put In
I enjoyed my morning at the meeting. I heard a good sermon. I met a young preacher new to my area. I reconnected with a pastor I haven’t seen in some time. I met and tried to encourage some struggling laymen from another church. I heard some updates on several prayer items. I enjoyed a great meal (and took a to-go box for my wife!).
I benefited because others showed up. They prepared somehow. Maybe showing up and being prepared is a simple but powerful thing that could transform our Sunday School classes, small groups, services, and yes, even associations.
Currently Reading:
Deepak Reju, On Guard: Preventing and Responding to Child Abuse at Church.
Quote of the Week:
Presidents are not redeemers, messiahs, incarnations of mystical aspirations, or righteous settlers of seething grievances. They’re not god-kings or the fathers of our American family. They’re politicians elected to do some specific things as the head of one branch of one level of government. They get that job for a limited and defined period of time, and afterward they’re simply citizens. It’s a source of constant consternation and amazement for me that so many people either don’t understand this or simply pretend not to.