June 24, 2002
Hearon sees associations as
'front-line facilitators' in a new day
___ST. LOUIS--Baptist associations stand as the "front-line facilitator" to help churches navigate in a "new and different day," Gary Hearon told directors of associational missions at their annual conference.
___Hearon, director of missions for Dallas Baptist Association, served this year as president of the Southern Baptist Conference of Associational Directors of Missions. In that role, he delivered a keynote address at the group's June 9-10 meeting in St. Louis.
___"Everything that has been nailed down is coming loose," he observed. "Other denominational entities are now reverting to the old societal method for funding and are thereby effectively dismantling the funding of the association."
GARY HEARON
(BP photo)
___Yet in this "new day," Hearon said, "other Baptist entities need to affirm the importance of the association."
___Because of the changing and expansive demands of the job, "no timid or easily discouraged" people should consider becoming directors of missions, he warned.
___Hearon called his colleagues to "navigate our priorities."
___"The real test of everything we do is, Does it bring glory to God? Does it advance the kingdom of the Lord Jesus? If it does not, we better rid ourselves of it and find what does and latch on to that," he said.
___He urged pursuit of four values--excellence, mastery, purpose and total stewardship.
___The association "must be the best resource to meet the church at its point of need," he said, noting that associations no longer can control information, because the Internet has made information available to everyone.
___"In a day when the middle-man continues to be displaced, you put yourself in a dangerous position if that's all you are," he said.
___He warned directors of missions to rethink their purpose "before some other agency or entity of Baptist life does it for you."
___"Conventions are now putting regional offices all around their respective states to promote the work of the convention. I would suspect they are not there to promote the work of the association."
___The directors of missions also heard from evangelist Anne Graham Lotz and North American Mission Board President Bob Reccord.
___Reccord reflected on the transition of the former Home Mission Board into the North American Mission Board: "If during that time you felt suspended in the air, I am sorry. It's now five years down the road, and we're ready to roll."
___New officers of the association are President Don Reed, director of missions in Kansas City, Kan.; First Vice President Jim Freedman, director of missions in Nashville, Tenn.; Second Vice President Nodell Dennis, director of missions from Kansas City, Mo.; and editor of the association's newsletter, John Brackin, director of missions from West Palm Beach, Fla. Ernest Sadler, director of missions from Jackson, Miss., remained as recording secretary.
___Based on a Baptist Press report
___
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