30+ Days of Giving Thanks, Day 57: the Mid-Hudson/Union Association

Today I am expressing thanks for the Mid-Hudson/Union Association of American Baptist Churches of New York State (phew! that’s a mouthful!). This association of approximately 30 churches in our Hudson River valley area is a networked collection of local churches with some important points of common interest. In this association are several pastors who actively participate in monthly breakfast meetings. We gather to share concerns, opportunities, and just to encourage one another and be encouraged.

Not all of our member churches actively participate nor support the association, for which I am somewhat sad. Even so, in the nearly six years of my association with this group, we have seen more of our churches and individual members become more involved. I am thankful for the growth of our association, for the friends I have made here, and for the future that we share.

Thank You, Heavenly Father, for the people, the churches and the pastors of the Mid-Hudson/Union Association.

30+ Days of Giving Thanks, Day #53: the Ministers Council

Today I am thankful for a special group of colleagues in ministry: the members of the Ministers Council. This is a professional organization that has a National component (professional ministers or “clergy” of American Baptist Churches across the United States) and a Regional component (professional ministers from around the New York state “Region”). Though the potential membership in our region is well over 300, less than 20% of our ministers are members in the Ministers Council.

This voluntary association of pastors serves a number of important functions for me. It offers a collegial network of pastors who can encourage one another, commiserate with one another, and counsel one another, when a pastor has no one in his or her own church to whom he or she can confide (which is almost always the case). The Ministers Council offers a forum for sharing ideas—especially those that have been somewhat successful elsewhere. It is a place for refining the pastor’s skills, for sharpening the pastor’s tools, and for maintaining the pastor’s spiritual vitality.

Since coming to First Baptist Church in Newburgh and becoming a part of the American Baptist family of ministries, the Ministers Council has become very valuable to me. Among the constellation of agencies and ministries associated with American Baptist Churches generally, the Ministers Council is unique in that it has the pastors as its sole focus. Oh, the Ministers Council is a crucial resource for our churches, because the Ministers Council exists to serve and to support the pastors. Improving and enhancing pastoral ministry is a particularly important piece of the puzzle of how to help our churches grow and thrive.

I thank God for the Ministers Council!