Separated by time zones, mostly rural churches pull together in associations

Jul 29, 2008
CAROLYN NICHOLS
Newswriter

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Baptist associations in the United States celebrated their 300th anniversary in 2007. The Florida Baptist Witness is honoring Florida’s 49 associations in a series of articles that will showcase each association and its ministries. This is the eighth installment.

PANHANDLE (FBW)—In the central part of Florida’s rural Panhandle, the Apalachee, Gadsen, Middle Florida and Taylor Baptist Associations run from a low of 14 to a high of 30 churches each. The churches within their associations mirror the associations themselves, sometimes spread over large rural areas, coming together for worship, fellowship and missions.

APALACHEE BAPTIST ASSOCIATION

Apalachee Baptist Association is divided by the line that separates the Central and Eastern Time Zones. Its 14 churches are small, with none numbering more than 200 members, and most are led by bi-vocational or retired pastors.

Operating in two time zones requires promotions of associational meetings to be very specific. Every mention of time requires the addition of EDT, CDT, EST or CST.

“We have learned to live with it,” said Clyde Roberts, director of missions. “We make very few mistakes now.”

Roberts lives in Bristol—in Eastern Time, and works in Blountstown—in Central time. The 73-year-old, who works for the association part-time, set his office hours 8-11 a.m. Central Time, so that he can leave the office when hunger strikes about noon, Eastern Time, he said.

Roberts served as a missionary in Mexico where he was a “field missionary” in the state of Michoacan, called “the garden place of Mexico,” he said. His family, including five children, lived and worked south of the border 20 years, except for a two year break in which the family lived in Nashville so that the Roberts could “make Americans out of” their four teenagers. His work in the field required travel over a large area.

“I did about the same thing as directors of missions do, except that it was in an area the size of Georgia,” he said.

After returning to the States, Roberts served as pastor in Oxford, Ala., then in Lake Mystic Baptist Church in Bristol. He has led Apalachee association four years. Much of the time he has worked for the association, he also has served as interim pastor of “troubled churches.”

“The association gives me freedom to move to where the most trouble is,” Roberts said.

According to Roberts the association’s churches are working hard to accommodate “changes in the denomination and in the world.”

“I have told our churches that they have to make changes or they will not be around in 20 years,” he said. “Some are very responsive, and some want to do their own thing.”

Roberts is concerned that churches seem to be “patterning themselves after their communities” instead of aligning with God’s direction.

“Like Henry Blackaby says, we need to ‘rediscover the God of the Bible.’ We need to turn to God instead of tradition,” he said.

When contacted by the Witness, Roberts said he was in the midst of preparations for a visit by John Sullivan, executive director-treasurer of the Florida Baptist Convention.

Sullivan is slated to visit with pastors and church leaders Aug. 12, during a “listening tour,” Roberts said. Also, in an effort to lessen the danger of “losing an entire generation,” associational leaders have planned a meeting for youth leaders Aug. 23 that will feature conference leader Poker Boyd from Orlando.

Pastors meet regularly on the first Tuesday of every month at the association’s offices on the property of First Baptist Church in Blountstown, and the executive committee of the association meets monthly, Roberts said.

GADSDEN COUNTY BAPTIST ASSOCIATION

Disaster relief workers traveled to Mississippi.

After three years of working to restructure the work of the 57-year-old Gadsden County Baptist Association, Director of Missions Thomas Kennedy says the new structure is “working well.” Representatives of the association’s 19 churches now serve on teams instead of committees, and an associational council plans events.

“I went to our executive meeting and said ‘We have to do something. We are declining in everything,” Kennedy told Florida Baptist Witness.

The restructuring has resulted in better attendance, and has involved more people, according to Kennedy. The teams of five to six members work in the areas of Christian education, missions and evangelism, administration and leadership, and church support.

The four team leaders—facilitators—meet with Kennedy and the associational moderator “where things are hashed and hammered out.” The simplified process “didn’t do away with anything and combined several things,” he said.

In an effort to ease the work of pastors, especially the bi-vocational pastors working with almost half of the association’s churches, Kennedy tries to promote meeting well in advance. Also, if a meeting is planned by the Florida Baptist Convention in the association, Kennedy asks that Convention leadership provide a written statement of the purpose of the meeting.

Disaster relief workers help clean up in Hattiesburg, Miss., after Hurricane Katrina.

The move has proved “very beneficial” to busy pastors, he said.

Also to help pastors and church leadership, Kennedy repeats meetings in the eastern, central and western parts of the association to lessen travel time and gas expense. Most meetings are held in Havana, Quincy and Chattahoochee.

A rare one-time meeting will be the Men’s Gathering Aug. 9, “Becoming God’s Men.” Three speakers are to encourage men in godliness: Ernie Stevenson, Tallahassee; Ronnie Cottrell, Bayou La Batre, Ala.; and Jeff David, Quincy. The event has been spearheaded by the association’s Missions and Evangelism team.

“This is an effort to energize the manpower in our association,” Kennedy said.

Several men in Gadsden County association are already active in disaster relief.

The disaster relief team travels to sites of natural disasters, and often receives training in needed skills. The team, under the leadership of coordinator Eddy Potter, recently received training in chain saw use and maintenance. In missions closer to home, the association sponsors a medical clinic twice a month and recently sent 200 gift boxes to those in the military.

Disaster relief workers played an important role after Hurricane Katrina.

Association leadership hopes to see a work among Hispanics in less than a year, Kennedy reported.

Pine Grove Baptist Church in Greensboro will be home to the new work, Kennedy said. Midway Unity Fellowship, a mission of Beulah Hill Baptist Church, is a new work among African Americans. Also, Gadsden County association will vote in October to receive New Canaan Baptist Church.

In working with the new churches, Kennedy said the association is “walking along beside them” by providing literature and printing, financial assistance and training “in Southern Baptist Convention ways,” especially in giving through the Cooperative Program.

Well-versed in “Southern Baptist ways,” Kennedy spent 46 years as a pastor of Baptist churches and retired in 1998 from Forest Heights Baptist Church in Tallahassee. The 74-year-old, an avid runner, works part-time for Gadsden County association and often preaches in the association’s churches. He hopes to minister with a “personal touch” that he sees as necessary in future work in the association. We have to offer churches things that are in line with their personality and character,” Kennedy said. “We have to know where a church is in ministry.”

MIDDLE FLORIDA BAPTIST ASSOCIATION

Logan Groover and Mikayla Plain arrive in their camp cabin accompanied by future camper Mykenzie Plain.

The Middle Florida Baptist Association serves 30 churches in Madison, Jefferson and Lafayette counties in north Florida. The rural area is home to 20,000 people spread across 900 square miles, and the area is much the same as in 1967, when Director of Missions Gene Stokes moved to Madison.

“The area has not changed a great deal, but the population is becoming more diverse,” he said. “We’ve always been 50/50 Anglo and African American, but now we have about 10 percent Hispanics. We would like to reach all of them.”

With that goal, two churches have been planted recently in the association. A new Madison church ministers among African-Americans and a new work in Mayo is among Anglos.

Madison County, where Middle Florida Baptist Association maintains offices, is the birthplace of the Florida Baptist Convention.

Almost 154 years ago, the convention was formed at Concord Baptist Church. At that time churches of Middle Florida association were part of the enormous Florida association, but chose to become a separate association in 1900, becoming the fourth Baptist association in the state.

“Traveling 60 miles to association meetings in Tallahassee in 1900 was a real hardship. At that time people walked, rode a mule or a buggy,” Stokes explained.

Youth campers worship in the chapel.

With the advantage of 21st century transportation, associational gatherings are much easier. Pastors meet for breakfast fellowships on the first Wednesday of each month. Because the only restaurant with a meeting room in the area went out of business, the group now alternates between meeting at the associational office and churches. Often Stokes enlists Florida Baptist Convention staff members to speak to the pastors.

Associational churches work together to plan and host a massive evangelistic event every March. Last year’s event drew about 2,300—more than 10 percent of the area’s entire population—to the Madison football stadium.

“It was more people than we’ve ever had before,” Stokes said.

Churches offered free food and inflatable games during a block party, and Paul Daly, the “horse whisperer,” spoke to the crowd. About 30 marked “received Christ” on response cards, Stokes said.

The six-year veteran DOM told the Witness he was making final preparations for summer camps at Middle Florida Baptist Assembly recently although it felt “like a puddle” because of rain in the area. Pickett Lake is the center of recreation for the camp that is owned by seven Baptist associations: Middle Florida, Taylor, Suwannee, Beulah, Santa Fe, Lafayette and Harmony. The 62-acre camp is on land donated by the Sapp Family about 50 years ago.

Camp organizers expected about 100 children and 50 youth in two four-day camps in July. The facility, which lacks adequate meeting rooms, according to Stokes, stays busy in the summer, but is largely unused nine months of the year.

Lisa Ginn, camp director; Anthony Newman; Wayne Prevatt, recreation leader and Matt Buchanan, camp committee confer about the day’s activities.

“We struggle with the camp financially,” Stokes said. “It is hard to make money from six or seven weeks last the whole year.”

Although resources for the camp may be lacking, resources for church projects is available through the Church Growth Stimulus Fund that is managed by the association. According to Stokes, Mosely Hall Baptist Church in the southwest corner of Madison County turned its assets over to the association when the church disbanded. The association sold the building and one acre of land and established an endowment fund for associational churches. The fund matches 20 percent of funds raised by a church, up to $10,000, for building or other projects.

“Mosely Hall church will have a ministry here until the Lord comes back,” Stokes said.

Middle Florida offers a “biblically-based” counseling ministry at the associational offices on Thursdays. Counselor Sylvia Tonberlin meets with clients all day, and those on a waiting list await an opening. In another ministry, disaster relief response, equipment and utility trailers stand ready to help in an emergency. A cadre of volunteers is trained in clean-up, feeding, chaplaincy, communications and child care.

An associational children’s event Aug. 13 will feature the puppet ministry of Fort Ogden Baptist Church, “Hands in Ministry.” First Baptist Church in Lee is hosting the event beginning at 7 p.m. The Lee church also will host a Senior Adult Rally Sept. 25. Phillip Herrington, pastor of First Baptist Church in Live Oak will speak. Musicians Eddie and Faye Lockamy from Tallahassee will lead worship, and humorist Luther Beauchamp will provide entertainment.

Looking ahead, Stokes said he hopes the association will continue to become diverse in ministries and population, and that the churches will update their facilities to meet the challenge of more people moving in.

TAYLOR BAPTIST ASSOCIATION

Volunteers traveled on a mission trip to rural Nicaragua to help missionary Jim Palmer build a church for the Miskito Indians.

With only 19 churches, Taylor Baptist Association is one of the smallest associations of churches in Florida. Director of Missions David Solomon believes the size of his rural association contributes to its effectiveness.

“Sometimes bigger is not better, it’s just bigger,” Solomon told the Witness. “Our quality or value is not diminished by our numbers, because people in our churches take seriously the Great Commission.”

One of the association’s longest standing Great Commission ministries takes volunteers to Central America several times a year to work on construction projects and evangelism.

Working with international Mission Board personnel in Nicaragua and Honduras almost 30 years, the association’s short-term missionaries have built bunkhouses, camp dining and meeting facilities, churches and Bible institutes. They have witnessed to hundreds and led scores of Bible studies. In June, a crew of about dozen spent two weeks repairing buildings and teaching.

Closer to home, several churches have ongoing benevolent ministries. First Baptist Church in Perry, for example, offers counseling, clothing, food and financial assistance to residents. Although the ministries have been in place several years, the current economic downturn has magnified residents’ needs.

“This benevolence is becoming more and more needful, and our churches are working hard to help,” Solomon said.

Churches in Taylor association have been working together in ministry since 1957, when 13 churches amicably withdrew from the Middle Florida association to regroup. The churches, in a “free vote,” committed themselves to the Baptist tenets and “voluntary support of the Cooperative Program,” he said.

Solomon counts “facilitating the work of the local church” as the responsibility of the association. He uses an acrostic for the word “Family” as its mission statement: Faith, Assistance, Ministry, Integrity, Leadership and Your Family. He also adds “innovator” to his description of the association, as church leaders are “exposed to the best ways to do ministry.” He utilizes the “tremendous resources the Florida Baptist Convention provides for us,” he said, along with leaders from other churches in the state. An August 1 Sunday School event will be led by Pastor Alan Floyd and the staff of First Baptist Church in Middleburg.

The 10-year veteran DOM tries to further fellowship and communication among the pastors of his association.

“We assume that people know each other, but some never get past the cordial. Pastors need to get together to talk about their work,” Solomon said. “All pastors have times of loneliness and they tend not to reach out to others.”

Solomon, who served 23 years as pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Tallahassee, can empathize with pastors; and, as a part-time director of missions, he also knows the struggles of the several bi-vocational pastors serving presently in the association. Solomon still lives in Tallahassee and travels 50 miles to the office in Perry. Regular e-mails and constant cell phone communication help to minimize travel time, he said.

Although Solomon has seen several changes in his work in the past 10 years, he says changes now are “more rapidly coming, and seem to be more fundamental to the work.”

In addition, churches are less focused on the denomination, he said.

“All of this will not change our work, but it will change our methods,” Solomon said.

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