Celebrate Next With Courageous Missional Strategies
Local denominational organizations/judicatories empowering their congregations to serve from the base of their context. Based on Baptist associations in the Southern Baptist tradition.
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Beginning in January (2025), I started writing and publishing a series of columns with The Baptist Paper—then posting them on this blog—about imagining what a national denomination would be like if the local denominational organization—rather than the regional or national organization—was in the lead role by the year 2033.
The Baptist Paper is a publication of TAB Media. Request a free trial HERE. See all TAB Media columns written by George Bullard HERE.)
SPECIAL OFFER! Use promotion code “Bullard” to subscribe to The Baptist Paper print and digital editions at half-price by going HERE. Seven of these columns have posted on this blog. As of today I have at least four or five more to go.
Celebrate Next With Courageous Missional Strategies
Are there locations in your context that lack sufficient gospel ministry? Which people groups are being neglected or underserved?
“Celebrate next,” the jubilee year for Baptist associations, embodies a joyful anticipation. It reflects an expectation of what God is ready to accomplish in and through your fellowship of congregations.
Out of the convocation, convening, commission, commandment, challenge and commitment of the jubilee year, at least three strategic efforts should emerge.
These are missiological strategies, congregational multiplication strategies and a response to the great need to replace revitalizing and replanting strategies. This column addresses missiological strategies. Later columns will focus on the other two strategies.
Missiological Strategies
It is possible and hopeful that missiological approaches specific to your association’s context are already part of your strategies.
These strategies result from viewing your context as an unentered missions field with unreached people groups. Open doors of opportunity and great potential for ministry to people with unmet needs exist around you.
Are there locations in your context that lack sufficient gospel ministry? Which people groups are being neglected or underserved?
To address this opportunity, your association must think in radical new ways. I will share an example from my life.
Year ago, I participated in a think tank sponsored by the North American Mission Board, then known as the Home Mission Board. Its purpose was to develop new missional strategies focused on large metropolitan areas.
We were assigned to small groups and encouraged to think outside traditional frameworks. Our group initially discussed revising and reinventing existing strategies.
I was the outlier as the youngest participant with the least experience. I proposed we launch a new denomination to effectively reach the cities, as our current denomination was unable to do so.
I pointed out people groups our denomination was neglecting as we prioritized church growth over Kingdom ministry.
Baptists were becoming upwardly mobile socioeconomically and leaving behind the lower economic classes. While we focused on growing larger congregations, individuals from lower socioeconomic backgrounds often need smaller congregational gatherings to feel comfortable.
We overlooked the diversity of racial, ethnic and lifestyle groups. We favored those who resembled us and were in traditional marriage and family relationships.
We continued leaving the cities for the suburbs. In doing so we failed to launch ministries and congregations in the communities we abandoned.
The gap between how we envisioned the cities and the reality of those cities was widening each year. Our perceptual and geographic distance did not motivate us to recognize unentered neighborhoods, communities and unreached people groups.
Our group formally recommended launching a new denomination. Although a new denomination was not endorsed by all the participants, it did encourage individuals to think and act differently in their respective contexts.
In what new ways should your association be thinking differently about applying the mission of God in your context?
Continue reading HERE.
Let me hear from you if you want to talk about this.