Join the Association
About us:
I Love the fact the front page of our website simply identifies itself as “THE ASSOCIATION”
WHAT IT SAYS FOR ME:
1. There are NO geographical BOUNDARIES to THE ASSOCIATION!
The current churches who form the Association stretch from Kansas to New Mexico to a 70-mile radius around Lubbock. The churches that have chosen to associate are found in rural, urban and suburban communities. There are more than 100 churches of all ethnic backgrounds who make-up The Association. They include every style of music from contemporary to traditional. Some of the churches are new and others have been in existence for more than 100 years. It is also comprised of almost 80% bi-vocational pastors. With this much diversity, how does a title captivate the true essence of “What is the Lubbock Area Baptist Association?”
2. The Association ALSO speaks of partnering churches to fulfill a JOINT PURPOSE. The natural image that association forms, is a connection/link to serve as a catalyst between those who choose to associate and a mandate that overshadows everything that is done. That mandate is simply to fulfill the Great Commission one soul at a time so God may be glorified even more. The intent is to intentionally work side by side to reach more lost people with the Good News of JESUS. The simple truth is that more people get saved when collaboration between churches is reality. Chris Bruno states, “When we partner with other churches, we do it because we’ve identified a need that’s too big for one church to handle.” The Association believes that “Kingdom Partnerships thrive when there are churches that are passionate champions of the cause of Christ.”
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REQUIRED TO ASSOCIATE:
There is a simple requirement to be associated with The Association: BE A STAKEHOLDER. A stakeholder is a person (a church) with an investment and responsibility toward an organization (an association) that directly affects the actions and success of the organization. What is required? “OWNERSHIP!”
This association must be owned by associating churches for it to ever achieve the mandate desired and required. What does ownership look like? A minimum of a 1% investment is required to be a stakeholder. There are three specific areas where the 1% is crucial.
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1. The first is found in intentionally praying for sister churches in The Association – “Churches Praying for Churches.” The desire is that every church would spend 1% of it’s cooperate weekly prayer time, praying for other churches.
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2. The second area is investment of time. We all know that the greatest commodity in the world today is time. A church has many ministries and events. The stakeholder spends at least 1% of that time investment partnering with other Associational churches to achieve more Kingdom impact.
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3. The final area the stakeholder must own is a 1% budget line item. Understand, this is NOT what a church sends to support The Associational Annual Budget. That is a totally different line item in a church’s missions investment. This 1% is what is put in every church’s budget to be used directly through partnering with another church or churches.
REQUIRED: Ownership in three specific areas!
If your church is interested in joining The Association, please contact the LABA office, and the staff will discuss the process further with you.
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What you can expect from the ASSOCIATIONAL EXTENDED STAFF:
The Association extended staff sees itself in the roll of facilitators. A facilitator is someone who helps make progress easier to fulfill the mandate. What is the mandate? To partner to fulfill the Great Commission to the glory of the King. The facilitator’s purpose is to challenge, connect, and cheer-on churches to collaborate for souls.
This is achieved through the facilitators stair steps of labor to make progress in partnerships easier.
Five Step Process:
Step One: The facilitators desire to be found faithful in all things. This includes finances, job performance, and integrity in all things.
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Step Two: To connect churches with a process by which every church can pray systematically for every other church in The Association.
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Step Three: To challenge churches and pastors to consistently move toward health through providing resources and teaching at retreats, seminars, and through providing access to all the current resources and tools available through state and national conventions.
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Step Four: Assist in making collaboration easier. The Associational Staff does not birth partnerships, but they do help facilitate them.
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Step Five: Cheer-on churches to constantly keep the sharing of the Gospel the main thing. This will be done through evangelism training and tools being made available.
Within the five steps is constantly the image of the staff as the extended staff of pastors and churches. So many churches are bi-vocational or single staff. They often feel overwhelmed and alone and without resources or answers. The Associational staff desires to be a “go to” resource when that feeling becomes reality.
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THE ASSOCIATION EQUATION
There are two parts to the equation that leads to the SUM.
1. The first factor in the equation is that churches must be stakeholders in the association. If there is NO ownership, the association will NEVER achieve its mandate to make disciples. The churches who associate are asked to have at least a 1% stakeholder investment (see the section “What is Required to Associate” for more information) so more souls will be saved.
2. The second factor in the equation is the extended staff as facilitators. As the LABA staff consistently engages the church and moves up the stair step strategic process (see the section “What You can Expect From the Extended Staff” for more details), more partnerships are birthed and more collaboration is achieved and more souls are saved.
Stakeholders PLUS facilitators EQUALS the sum of souls
1% + stairs == souls
