The document proposes an organizational structure for the Bowie Baptist Association that focuses on assisting member churches in fulfilling the Great Commission. It involves three main points of ministry: an association missionary, ministry teams determined by strategy, and affinity groups for leader investment. The goal is to engage churches and help them engage their local mission field through flexible, hands-on support rather than organizational maintenance. Outcomes will be assessed based on how well churches and the mission field are served.
2. Presuppositions
The Great Commission was given to the local
church! Therefore churches do ministry;
associations help churches.
There are some ministries best fulfilled in
partnership (BSM, camps, seminary ext).
Teams do things; committees decide things.
The Assoc. Missionary should be hands-on,
in the field (focus on relationships).
Activity that helps churches engage the
mission field should receive priority (as
opposed to events in and of themselves).
3. Strategy Statement
The Bowie Baptist Association is a
family of Southern Baptist churches
cooperating to obey the Great
Commission both within and beyond
Bowie County, Texas.
We assist and resource partnering
churches as they follow the Lord’s
direction for their given ministries.
23. Advantages:
This is a flexible structure that supports any
strategy and core value set.
It directs most associational resources to
ministry rather than maintenance of the
organization.
It provides simple standards for assessment:
Are the churches helped / served?
Is there greater penetration of the mission field?
It serves churches and leaders, that they may
faithfully serve Jesus Christ.
When the presuppositions are applied to this mission field, strategy statements might look like these.
Everything begins with mission. For the association it rests with the command God has given His people to carry the gospel to all people groups. Our ultimate vision is that every congregation will engage its mission field locally, regionally, and globally.
How will the association fulfill its vision? The Association is not a church. Christ gave the Great Commission to the church. The association is parachurch. As such it exists to help the churches to fulfill the Great Commission. This might include helping a church to overcome internal barriers to healthy ministry. It may involve helping a strong church to move forward. The association will absolutely NOT dictate anything to the church. It will leverage the resources of our partnership in a way that all of our churches have an opportunity to follow the Lord’s design for their particular ministry.In fulfilling its mission, the association accounts to the churches through the annual meeting (celebrating God’s work, providing corporate accountability, approving overall budget and strategic direction) and the executive board (foster fellowship among churches, approval of base strategy plan; routine monitoring and adjustments).
The work of the association can be illustrated with a triangle, with each point representing a ministry component of the association. Each of these components work to help the churches and their leaders to fulfill God’s call as they understand it.
The work of the association can be illustrated with a triangle, with each point representing a ministry component of the association. Each of these components work to help the churches and their leaders to fulfill God’s call as they understand it.
The work of the association can be illustrated with a triangle, with each point representing a ministry component of the association. Each of these components work to help the churches and their leaders to fulfill God’s call as they understand it.
The work of the association can be illustrated with a triangle, with each point representing a ministry component of the association. Each of these components work to help the churches and their leaders to fulfill God’s call as they understand it.
The work of the association can be illustrated with a triangle, with each point representing a ministry component of the association. Each of these components work to help the churches and their leaders to fulfill God’s call as they understand it.
The work of the association can be illustrated with a triangle, with each point representing a ministry component of the association. Each of these components work to help the churches and their leaders to fulfill God’s call as they understand it.
The work of the association can be illustrated with a triangle, with each point representing a ministry component of the association. Each of these components work to help the churches and their leaders to fulfill God’s call as they understand it.
The most obvious point of ministry is the Associational Missionary, the Ministry Assistant, and staff.
The Missionary in particular works to (1) encourage and assist pastors and church leaders. The heart of this ministry is relationships, and the Missionary will set the pace. He will also (2) serve as a Lead Consultant and coach for the association, supporting congregations as needed; He will (3) work to facilitate alignment of associational ministries with the vision, and (4) Facilitate movement of associational ministries toward fulfillment of goals and ultimately the vision. Everything he does in terms of staff supervision, administration, training, and otherwise should connect to one of these three tasks.
A second point of ministry involves ministry teams, a team leader and other interested persons from within the association who are gifted and have a vision for that given aspect of ministry.
Ministry teams are the primary means by which the work of the association is carried out. Bylaws will not define them. Instead, they will grow out of our strategy. Each area of our associational mission strategy will have at least one team directed to it, with specific outcome goals that will guide their work. Some teams may be long lasting; others may be short term.
How many ministry teams will the association have? That depends on what we determine together God is leading us to focus our efforts on. Some we are likely to have would include: Campus ministry / BSM Seminary Extension / Leader Development Children’s Camp Church Assistance and Training Mobilization – perhaps to enlist volunteers to go on-mission locally through associational ministries or our fraternal partners On Mission – to invite member churches to participate in the great commission beyond Bowie County (Texas, N. America, Globally). They may facilitate church partners and mission trips; may help foster associational partnerships that will involve many churches.Notice how many of these teams look similar to the most active committees. That is intentional. The association will always support those ministries the churches are led to do. The shift from a committee to a team rests on the idea that teams do things, while committees make decisions. So, any current committee that actually performs ministry is likely to become a ministry team (unless the association shifts strategies).This is intended to provide a stable structure for the association while allowing flexibility to respond as ministry priorities shift.
The final point of contact with the churches involves affinity groups. Affinity groups are less formal than teams. They are regular gatherings of associational leaders who meet for fellowship, encouragement, and mutual satisfaction of needs and interests.
Affinity groups are secondary to the ministry teams, but this is not to say they lack importance. They serve several functions: (1) Networking of leaders with common interests and needs; (2) Focused support and assistance to those leaders; (3) Mutual learning as the leaders pass along wisdom one to another, and as the association learns from them all; (4) Real-time strategic support as new challenges, opportunities, needs, ideas, and resources are discovered.
Potential Affinity Groups Determined by interest and needs of leaders.
How are the decisions made and accountability maintained? At the hub of the “triangle” is an Associational Administrative Team. It is possible to include several committees at this point (finance, personnel, strategy), but for simplicity this proposal draws these policy, oversight, and decision making tasks into one administrative team.
The Associational Administrative Team meets monthly. It is comprised of (1) the moderator, (2) Finance Director, (3) Associational Officers, (4) Associational Missionary, and the (5) Ministry Team leaders. An alternative proposal breaks the Team Leaders off of the Admin Team and sets them up as an Associational Ministry Council, through which they would work with the Missionary to assure the work is coordinated and conducted according to strategies and policies.The duties of the Admin Team include (1) developing and recommending to the Executive Board an overall strategy plan for the association, (2) Monitoring and “fine tuning” of the plan, (3) Recommending the annual budget, (4) Recommending any administrative policies for approval, (5) Supervising the work of the Associational Missionary, and (6) Working with the missionary through personnel matters. They would also schedule those association-wide events such as executive board meetings (Team leaders would schedule with the Missionary their ministry events, activities, or projects.The administrative team may from time to time form committees and task forces to resolve particular matters or perform tasks not otherwise assigned to them or a Ministry Team. For example, the Admin Team would assign a committee to plan the program for the annual meeting.
