Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
On this episode of The Lead On Podcast, Jeff Iorg, president of the SBC Executive Committee, discusses the vital role of Baptist associations in Southern Baptist life and ministry leadership. Whether you’re a pastor, church leader, or layperson, this episode unpacks why engaging with your local Baptist association can make a lasting difference for your ministry and your church’s impact in the community and beyond.
Creators and Guests
What is Lead On Podcast?
Ready to hone your leadership skills and unlock your full potential? Tune in to the Lead On Podcast, where Jeff Iorg dives deep into Biblical leadership.
Hosted by SBC Executive Committee President Jeff Iorg, this dynamic podcast provides insight for seasoned executives, aspiring leaders, or those in ministry who are simply passionate about personal growth. The Lead On Podcast offers actionable, practical tips to help you navigate the complexities of ministry leadership in today's ever-changing world.
From effective communication and team building to strategic decision-making and fostering innovation, each episode is packed with valuable lessons and inspiring stories to empower you on your leadership journey.
Put these principles into practice and Lead On!
Welcome to the Lead On Podcast. This is Jeff Iorg, the president of the executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, talking with you once again about practical issues related to ministry leadership. Today, I wanna talk about an aspect of Southern Baptist life that has made and continues to make a vital contribution to the overall work we're doing all around the world. And I wanna talk about it not only from a perspective of what it accomplishes, but I wanna talk about it also from a perspective of how you can engage with this particular aspect of Baptist life and what a difference it can make in your life. I wanna talk today about the role of Baptist associations and the importance of being involved in a local Baptist association for you and for your church.
Jeff Iorg:Now, there are almost 1,200 local Baptist associations in cooperation with the Southern Baptist Convention and its churches. Now, let's remember our Baptist polity. There's no hierarchy in Baptist life, so a church affiliates with or cooperates with its local association, its state convention, and its national convention separately or independently. But most churches, the vast majority, work with all three of these denominational groups. I wanna talk today specifically about why it matters that you're a
Jeff Iorg:part of an association and what you personally can benefit from being in that arena. Let me
Jeff Iorg:tell you first a little bit about my story related to this. I have never worked for an association. I have never had an formal leadership responsibility for one besides chairing a committee or something like that. But my first experience with associations was really when I moved to Missouri to take on my first pastorate. When I got there, I needed a final year of seminary, which included a year of field education, and I needed a field supervisor.
Jeff Iorg:Well, I was relatively new to the area. I didn't really know any other pastors, and the director of missions had reached out to me even during the time of my candidacy to become the pastor of the church. And I thought, well, you know, he's a veteran ministry leader, knows the area well. Perhaps he would be willing to meet with me in this supervisory responsibility. And so I asked him to be my field supervisor for my seminary's theological field education program, that final year of education for me.
Jeff Iorg:Well, that turned out to be a wonderful choice. This man was a ministry veteran. He was a reflective thinker. He had been involved in the seminary in various ways over the years, so he understood the program. And he really did an excellent job of asking me, probing questions, helping me to evaluate my life in ministry, to think through theologically and practically what I was doing in my church during that first year, and became someone who made a a lasting contribution to me in ministry.
Jeff Iorg:So my first experience in going into a ministry context as a pastor with an association and with a director of missions was very positive. And it was positive on a personal basis as he worked with me during that first year, not only helping me to finish seminary, but helping me to get established well in my new church. Another part of that relationship is that he he asked me something once in a supervisory meeting that has stuck with me for now almost, what, forty years? That's how profound those conversations became as he asked me a simple question about ministry leadership that forced me to think about something that I was completely overlooking as a massive blind spot in my life. So my first experience was very positive.
Jeff Iorg:Then I moved from there and went to the Pacific Northwest and was welcomed by several pastors in the association related to Interstate Baptist Association near Portland, Oregon. But it was only when I became the state executive director that I really started learning about the breadth of the work of Baptist associations and what they could mean in in in our work together. So when I became the state executive, there were about, I think, 15 or 17 different associations. The reason I don't know that exact number is because some of them shared a director of missions because they were small and quite remote. So there were about 15 to 17 at any given time of either associations or directors of missions that shared those responsibilities.
Jeff Iorg:I soon came to value these men for several reasons. Number one, they tended to be men who had proven themselves in the Northwest. They got asked to take on those leadership roles because they had been there and done that. Second, they really knew the local leaders in areas, not only the pastors, by the way, but lay leaders. They had worked hard at befriending deacons and elders and other leaders in churches, and beyond that, also including the pastors, so that they had a relational base that, frankly, I didn't have.
Jeff Iorg:And as a state leader, I was not likely to have because I just couldn't be in a local area long enough to develop those relationships like these directors of missions were able to do. A third thing that I came to appreciate about these men was they had different levels of capability, but they were all earnest about what they did. Now I wanna be really clear here. Some of them were were marginal leaders that did an average to a little bit above average job. Not every one of them was a spectacular success in what they did or a model that I would hold out for everyone else to emulate, but they
Jeff Iorg:were all adequate to above average in the work that they did. But there were a few of them that were truly remarkable, that had an incredible insight into leadership. Vast wisdom about how to reach people in the Pacific Northwest.
Jeff Iorg:Courage to go into churches and deal with sometimes difficult situations with no authority, but only influence to make a genuine difference. These were some leaders that I came to depend on significantly as we did our work together. One of those key leaders has passed on to heaven now, but two of them are retired older men that I still have as lifelong friends because of the work we were able to do in the Pacific Northwest about twenty five years ago. Men who I saw making an incredible difference and that I was able to partner with to do remarkable things. So these are some of my personal experiences in my early formative years of ministry leadership.
Jeff Iorg:Then I moved to California and moved on particularly to Southern California, where I met Darryl Lackey, the director of missions for the Inland Empire Baptist Association. And once again, I met a model leader. If you know Daryl, you know he is a passionate leader, committed to the great commission, kind of a no nonsense guy who tells it like it is and helps pastors to face reality and helps churches to deal with what is, not what they used to be or what they wish was. Man, I love that guy. The association was such a vital partner for Gateway Seminary that they actually moved into our building, leased a suite of offices from us on our campus, and became vital ministry partners even in that regard.
Jeff Iorg:Then, of course, I moved to Nashville, and what happens here? Right away, I get invited to speak to the Nashville Baptist Association and to a luncheon meeting packed house with pastors wanting to come together to hear about what God is doing around the world through Southern Baptist and give me the opportunity to speak into their lives and speak locally about what they can accomplish here together. I'm telling you these stories because frankly, I I hear people demeaning associations or lamenting them or complaining about them. And while I'm sure that there are some that are ineffective and some that may be unhealthy or dysfunctional, that has simply not been my experience. Even in the Northwest, where there were some that were by every measure average, There were none that were dysfunctional or detrimental to our work, and there were some that made a significant contribution.
Jeff Iorg:And in fact, as I've moved along through ministry, I've continually been impressed by the leaders that work in these areas and the impact they're making in different cities and and different areas around the country. So that's been my personal experience and my positive experience with associations and associationalism. So from that, I would say if you're a person wondering, well, should I plug into this? Well, of course you should because first of all, you're likely there to meet leaders who can be mentors and guides to you. You're likely to meet leaders there who can be resources to you and help you in ministry decision making and ministry leadership.
Jeff Iorg:You're likely to meet people there who have a proven track record of ministry in your region or your area, and who have come to their leadership role because others valued the contribution they've made and want them to
Jeff Iorg:have influence in a broader venue. These are
Jeff Iorg:the kinds of people you're likely to find. I would encourage you to build relationships with association leaders, to reach out to them and discover how you can connect with them and what you can learn from them, how you can grow by relating to them, and even what you can contribute by sharing ministry together with them. But now having said that on a personal basis, let me talk with you about five or six different ways that I think your church can benefit by being networked with and being engaged with your local Baptist association. The first thing is that you can work with your local churches coordinating missions in a local context. Now, this is really at the core of what associations do.
Jeff Iorg:They do missions in a local context. Now, you should not expect every association to define that the same. So for example, I know of associations that really put most of their energy into church planting because in their local context, that's what's needed. But I know other associations that are putting their main emphasis into replanting or reclamation of churches that are struggling because that's what's needed in their context. I know some other associations that have a relatively strong group of churches, and so what they're focused on is on things they can do jointly together.
Jeff Iorg:For example, one association operates a robust Christian counseling center that the churches and the association band together to support. They employ the team. They have the facility, and churches are able to send people there with confidence knowing that they have this professional Christian counseling ministry operated because they come together to do this ministry together. So it can be something like church planting. It can be replanting.
Jeff Iorg:It can be reclamation. It can be something like a counseling center or even a food bank or disaster relief or something like this where churches come together and say, we're going to pool our resources, work together collaboratively, and do something together that no one of us can do on our own that really meets a need in our local context. I emphasize that local context. Associations are not supposed to replicate the work of the International Mission Board or the North American Mission Board or other stake convention. Now, may work very closely in partnership with these groups.
Jeff Iorg:That's wonderful, but they don't have to replicate them. So for example, an association may say, none of our small churches have the capacity to do an international mission trip on their own, but by coming together, the association can facilitate an international mission trip, but we don't have to be experts in that. We'll simply facilitate it, but we'll do it through the international mission board as our partner. Same thing with church planting, same thing with other ministries that we do across our various denominational levels. What I'm simply saying is an association doesn't have to replicate those things.
Jeff Iorg:It can partner with those things. What it does need to do, however, is say what needs to be done locally. What needs to be done in this county or in this city or in this area that we can come together and do better together locally than we can do on our own? Now, you you might say, well, we're a larger church. We can do it on our own.
Jeff Iorg:Well, think about sacrificing some of that independence to help some smaller churches that can't do it on their own. And by doing that, you still come together to do more in your local context than you could
Jeff Iorg:have even done as a large church by yourself. You know, a few years ago, I had a pastor in the Pacific Northwest call me and say, hey, we're thinking about pulling out of the association. I said, why? He said, well, because we're
Jeff Iorg:the largest church in the association, we give the most money, and
Jeff Iorg:we don't get anything out of it. I said, uh-huh. That's true. But why are you thinking about pulling out? He was silent for a moment and
Jeff Iorg:he said, because we're the largest church in the association, we give the most money and we don't get anything out of it. I said, yeah. I know you told me that and I understand that and I agree with you, but why are you pulling out?
Jeff Iorg:It got silent for a minute. Now, those of
Jeff Iorg:you who know me well, you know that when I know you well, I can get a little snarky sometimes. And I was being snarky with
Jeff Iorg:this guy because I knew him pretty well. After a few moments of silence, he said, I'm not following you. I said, alright. Listen to me. You're the largest church.
Jeff Iorg:You give the most money, and you're not supposed to get anything out of it.
Jeff Iorg:It's called cooperation. You are making it possible for small churches to have resources, to have leadership, to have consultive services, to participate in a larger context of local ministry than they can do on their own. You're making that possible because your church has stepped up and said, we're gonna cooperate and help other churches to be more successful. So, yes, you're the biggest church, you get the most money, and you probably get the least out of it if you're thinking about you're getting value or they're adding something to your ministry or you're supposed to get a commodity for what you give. But if you see yourself as the facilitator, the enabler, the reason that these other churches are able to come together and get things done together, then you'll see that you're making a very, very valuable contribution.
Jeff Iorg:And he said, okay. I'm staying. We laughed about it. He not only stayed, but, he went on to later become a significant leader in state convention work in the West. All because he came to understand that cooperation means that you step up and make it possible for others to be involved in in mission together that they might not be able to do on their own.
Jeff Iorg:So the first and most important reason I want you to engage locally in missions is because it's an opportunity to really engage locally, to identify some needs in your city, region, county, whatever, and to say, the churches here can come together and meet this need. We can operate this counseling center. We can operate this food bank. We can provide these consultative services to churches that are trying to be replanted. We can plant churches.
Jeff Iorg:You don't have to do all of these things. Listen, you need to decide what it is that in your local context you need to come together to do, and let that be the focus or the nexus, if you will, of associational life.
Jeff Iorg:A second contribution that associations make is that they network small churches for a national and an international movement. They network small churches. You know, the flagship churches get a lot of attention.
Jeff Iorg:No no problem with that. But never forget that the overwhelming majority of Southern Baptist churches have 200 or fewer people present on a Sunday. The overwhelming majority of Southern Baptist churches are small, and that's okay. Small doesn't mean dysfunctional or unhealthy. Sometimes small just means small, And the Baptist associations are the way that small churches of fifty, seventy five, a hundred band together to get something done locally, but even beyond that, band together to feel like and to experience being part of a national or even an international movement called Southern Baptist.
Jeff Iorg:It's that local way of saying we belong. We're part of the team. You know, most small church pastors are not really going to have close fellowship with other pastors around their state or certainly around the nation, but they can have that close fellowship of and sense of belonging to local guys who band together and say, you know, we're part of something big here. We get to be a part of something big because we're part of something small right here in this local association. But by networking together, we start to intertwine our lives, and
Jeff Iorg:we become part of a bigger family of churches that is making a national or even an international impact. Well, a third thing that associations contribute is they contribute some objectivity and some challenge for churches that need to change. You know, one of the hard realities is that some churches need to change, and someone has to
Jeff Iorg:tell them that. You know, I was recently, engaged with a situation where a church has dwindled down to about 12 attenders, all over age 60. They've been dwindling for three decades, holding on to an old methodology and a perspective on ministry that has rendered them essentially incapable of connecting with the younger generation. They've lost a couple of pastors
Jeff Iorg:who've tried to help them to change. And now, they're frankly pastorless and flailing, but local leadership stepped in. Now, had stepped in before, but this time they stepped in and there was a learning readiness and they were able to say, it's time for you to change.
Jeff Iorg:And if you don't change, here are the consequences you're going
Jeff Iorg:to face as you continue to die a slow death. It was that objectivity of a leader stepping in and saying, things need to change. Now sometimes this only happens in a crisis situation like the one I'm describing. But some of those leaders I mentioned earlier on the podcast in the Pacific Northwest, I'm thinking about one of them. He had a church that was languishing.
Jeff Iorg:The pastor was concerned and invited this director of missions to come to meet with
Jeff Iorg:them and said, you know, I want you to come and meet with me and meet with our leaders and just talk to us about what you see. Well, he was expecting this guy to come in and kind of pat him and say, Oh, it's so hard, and I'm so sorry for you, and you're having such a hard time. But instead, this leader came in and with objectivity said, Look, here are five things you're doing that are diminishing your ministry. Here are five things that need to change right now. And the first thing he said was, clean all the junk out of this church building, put a little paint on the wall, and act like you're ready for company.
Jeff Iorg:Now that's how blunt and direct he was, but yet he could say that because he had built a relationship with his church. They'd invited him into the situation, and with objectivity and with clarity, he issued a challenge of what they needed to do to start moving in a different direction. Now, obviously, it was more than painting a wall
Jeff Iorg:and getting ready for company, but just the way he said that the way
Jeff Iorg:he said that shocked them a bit into thinking, wow. We we we gotta get with the program here. We've gotta start changing. And he was able to help that church over the next couple of years make some substantive changes that really resulted in a new day of ministry for them. So another reason to be involved in your association is so that you build relationships and that your church members and church leaders build relationships with some outside leaders, either outside pastors or outside directors of mission, who can step in and say some things that real bring objectivity and challenge to a situation.
Jeff Iorg:You know, sometimes internally, we're in an echo chamber. We only talk to ourselves, and we only see our situation, and we need somebody from the outside to step in and say, this is what needs to happen, and to give them clarity about how they
Jeff Iorg:can go forward in a new way. Well, a fourth reason that
Jeff Iorg:I found it's good to be involved in local associations is because they are the advocates for and the interpreters of the larger denomination. Now I realize that Southern Baptists are not hierarchical, and we are all autonomous, and each entity is autonomous, but we work together very closely. And one of the good things that local leaders do is they interpret the Southern Baptist Convention and the State Convention to local leaders and to local people in churches who simply don't understand how this whole thing works.
Jeff Iorg:So they become advocates for you know, a lot
Jeff Iorg:of directors of missions are strong advocates for the International Mission Board, strong advocates for the North American Mission Board, strong advocates for the seminaries, for the ERLC, for LifeWay and GuideStone. They're strong advocates for these entities of the SBC because they recognize that these are great resources that are available, but yet because there's such a distance between the national entity and the resources they provide, and oftentimes the local church and the issues that they have or the things they need, there's this big information gap. Being involved in your local association helps bridge that gap because you're accessing leaders who can come into your church and meet with your leaders and help them understand how to bridge those gaps. Sometimes it's as simple as knowing how to make a phone call or what email address to send something to or who to connect with on a particular problem. But local association leaders are advocates for the larger work of the denomination and what it can accomplish.
Jeff Iorg:Well, number five. Another reason to be involved is that most associations have some kind of leadership support network, a pastor to pastor kind of network where you can draw from your colleagues and your peers and even your mentors to keep you stronger in ministry. You know, many associations have some kind of weekly or monthly leadership gathering, whether it's a pastor's luncheon on a Monday or a prayer breakfast once a month or something like this where leaders can come together. I know some larger associations have even broken this down into what they call cluster groups, where groups of four to six pastors meet for a smaller group, a fellowship opportunity, and they're able to to come together for mutual support. You know, this is one of the secret sauces, I think, of associational life, and that is the capacity to network leaders so that they feel a sense of camaraderie, of companionship.
Jeff Iorg:It lessens competition and just gives us a sense that, you know, we're all in this together. You know, I have heard different stories about different pastors, but one really stuck with me. There's a mega church pastor here in the Southern Baptist Convention who actually hosted for a number
Jeff Iorg:of years a monthly pastor's luncheon for their association in his church building. Now, didn't always meet there,
Jeff Iorg:but oftentimes it did because they were central and they had a larger facility. He was a person that was in a very large church and traveled and spoke extensively and those kinds of things, but he made it a personal discipline that when he was in town on Monday,
Jeff Iorg:he went to the pastor's luncheon.
Jeff Iorg:Because of that, he was beloved by the pastors in his area. He said, in talking about this, he said, You know, God's blessed me with a large responsibility and ministry fruit, and I'm grateful for that, but I still need friends. And then my best friends are fellow pastors who know what I'm going through, and I know what they're going through, and we're trying to get through it together. Rather than be a haughty person who was sort of separated and thought, you know, I've got everything I need in my big church, and nobody else needs to I don't need to worry about anyone else, he said, no. I I'm a pastor, and I need to be with other pastors.
Jeff Iorg:And that kind of humility goes a long way in building relationships, but it also just causes each the people around you to know that that we're all all in this together, and we we all need each other. And so I'm not saying you have to go to every meeting or anything like that, but I am saying that local groups of pastors, youth pastors, worship pastors, local groups of pastors who share common responsibilities and share common challenges, building those relational connections goes a long way to keeping us all strong as we go forward together in ministry. You know, it's good to have some brothers just pray for you,
Jeff Iorg:care about you, pat you on
Jeff Iorg:the back when you do a good job, celebrate when something good happens in ministry. Cry with you when hard times hit. You can find that by looking in your local area at some other pastors. Now, again, this can take various different forms, but it's one of the reasons to be engaged, to be plugged in, in this kind of pastoral support kind of network. And it extends also to pastor's wives, ministry wives, and women who are involved in ministry leadership.
Jeff Iorg:Associations are also a good place for these to connect as well and to find the relational support they need to build that kind of network that they need to keep going also in ministry leadership. I'm thinking about a couple of different models of this. I've already mentioned the cut the cluster group model where pastors come together, you know, once a month or once a quarter and sit down for a couple of hours and talk about their lives and their ministry and maybe read a book together and talk about what it's meaning or read a book of the Bible together and talk about the insights they're gaining. Man, this kind of relational connection is is pure gold for keeping us going in ministry relate leadership. You know, I'm I'm blessed.
Jeff Iorg:I work among the presidents of the entities of the SBC, and I consider every one of them my friend. But even within that group of 12, there are always smaller groups of men that really connect over different things. Some of us enjoy similar hobbies, or we have children that are of similar age or grandchildren of similar age. Different reasons, but but even there, finding three or four guys that you can talk with and pray with and share life with has kept me going and keeps me going in ministry
Jeff Iorg:leadership. None of us
Jeff Iorg:none of us were made by God to go it alone. We're all made to function best in community and with fellowship and with support, and so finding that commonality with the people in an associational role or people in associational relationships is one way of building those relationships. Then the final one is being networked with your association gives you somebody to call when the bottom falls out, when the roof caves in, when the crisis hits. Directors of missions tell me that when a church has an incident or a alleged incident, for example, of any kind of sexual impropriety, they're often the first person to get the phone call from the church. Can you help us?
Jeff Iorg:When a church has a natural disaster, blood comes through, tornado comes through, the director of missions is often the first person to get the phone call.
Jeff Iorg:When a pastor's marriage is really hurting and his wife is leaving or it's on the verge of coming apart, he's also the the first person who often gets the call. Can you help us? When a church and a pastor gets sideways and there's conflict or tension, when crisis comes in that relationship, often it's an association leader that gets the phone call.
Jeff Iorg:Can you come in and help us? And when a pastor leaves, whether it's a retirement or a leaving for another ministry setting or sometimes an uglier situation with a termination when a church needs a pastor, oftentimes, the first person they call is local leadership, saying, you know our church, you know our situation, can you meet with us and help us to get started on finding a new leader? And that can involve anything from recommending candidates to training pastoral search committees to bringing in transitional leadership to help through a rocky time.
Jeff Iorg:When the bottom falls out, when crisis happens, local leadership's often who gets the first phone call. So that's why it's important for
Jeff Iorg:you to be networked with them so that when it happens to you, you'll have you'll have that phone number. You'll have that person you trust. You can make that call. Now today on the podcast, I've been talking about the positive role that Baptist associations make and the contribution that you can make to them and they can make to you by being connected. Now, I readily admit that not every association is a cutting edge ministry organization or doing the most innovative or creative work.
Jeff Iorg:I know that some of them are small and some of them are struggling themselves. But generally, across the Southern Baptist Convention, I still believe that this local expression of Baptist life has a contribution to make. And you can access that contribution, you can support that contribution, you can be part of making that contribution by networking yourself locally with other Southern Baptist churches who are on mission together. So in review, find what needs to be done locally and network together to get that done. Find in that local identity a commonality that gives you even greater capacity for national and international impact.
Jeff Iorg:Draw on leadership locally for objective, challenging insight into churches and churches that need to change. Allow these leaders to be advocates to your people and to your church for the larger work of our advocates denomination. Reach out through your association for leadership support and connection with others in this regard. And then have those relationships built so that you can call on someone in a crisis and get the help you need. Baptist associations, they were the first expression of Baptist denominational life, and they still have a good and important role today.
Jeff Iorg:Access this network as you lead on. Hi.