When Small is Big: Associational Micro-networks

In the same way big things can come out of small packages, big influential movements have come out of small significant moments. I have a view from the front row of how the bigness of the Southern Baptist Convention was birthed out of a moment in time among a small handful of leaders and churches. The history of associations in the Southern Baptist Convention began in my city, Charleston, SC and in my association where I serve as the mission strategist for the Charleston Baptist Association (CBA). 

In 1751, Pastor Oliver Hart of the First Baptist Church of Charleston (circa 1692) founded this local association prototype that was formative in shaping the cooperative nature of the Southern Baptist Convention (1845). The footprint of this first association in the south functioned as a micro-network of four Baptist Churches who came together in a cooperative alliance around doctrinal fidelity, relational connection and missional advancement. This dynamic collaboration has remained as the essence and value of local associations who serve to strengthen leaders, strengthen churches and engage in multiplying of new churches. 

Over decades we have seen the small moorings of this collaborative DNA be eclipsed by the good intentions of a “bigger and better” pragmatism seeking to scale growth and efficiency. What can sometimes be lost in this bigness is the closer alliance and collaborative dynamic when associations and churches get siloed from each other unnecessarily creating a culture of independence. As a result, the ties that bind an associational connection is held together mostly by history and tradition. 

Nearly 10 years ago, the Charleston Baptist Association called an organizational “time out” to the mission drift of an oversized staff and overweighted programming that unintentionally functioned competitively to the churches.  This over-centralized approach called for support from churches to sustain the programs and staff of the association instead of operating with a leaner staff and leveraging resources to foster collaboration between churches and leaders.

For nearly one decade, we have observed strength and vitality by returning to the foundational blueprints of an interdependent movement among churches, leaders and mission. The value gap between our 70 member churches and operations of our association has been closing and coalescing through a return to a micro-network strategy between churches within our associational community. The fruit of this realignment has resulted in increased giving, membership and partnership within our association. Here are a few transferable ways micro-networking is growing our association’s impact:

Pursuing radical collaboration through families of churches - Northwood Baptist Church in North Charleston has been developing a pipeline of leaders and in recent years has created an ecosystem for deploying leaders, members and vision through replanting. Pastor Tommy Meador and church leadership have multiplied the dynamic of their strategy, values and mission and have adopted churches into a micro-network of closely related churches called the Northwood Family of Churches. While honoring the autonomy of these related churches, they are bringing the best of their relational and ministry resources through a centralized family support system while decentralizing their shared impact through teams of leaders, members and ministries who are indigenous at each location. Pastor Mark Hallock and The Calvary Family of Churches in Denver, Colorado has served as a shaping influence and model to follow: www.thecalvary.org.

Another expression of familial collaboration is the Park Circle Collective in North Charleston. These four autonomous CBA churches share a defined geography within a turn of the century planned community. A strong alliance has been made through relational support and learnings from the shared experience of bringing revitalization to their respective churches. In addition to shared community services at Christmas and Easter, these churches have forged a collective for ministry residents to connect and be equipped within the context of church renewal. Each lead pastor, staff and church ministry provides a learning lab for the mutual benefit of all residents to gain insight and experience.

Taking geographic responsibility through mission – Riverbluff Church in North Charleston has engaged an area of accountability within a 3-mile radius of their campus. Prayerfully they have identified the who, what and how of taking ownership for the lostness in this defined geography. Strategically they have identified churches, schools, communities and non-profits who reside within this radius. As a result, they are seeking Kingdom collaboration with their neighboring Gospel-centered churches and are adopting schools and communities in loving and serving people with Gospel intentionality.  

 

Centerpoint Church at Remount is located within the most diverse area of Greater Charleston. Central to this mixed community (economically, ethnically, culturally & generationally) was the campus and congregation of Remount Baptist Church that once boasted of nearly one thousand members and strategic community impact but over decades experienced significant decline due to the struggle to contextualize to this shifting community. During the pandemic, the church agreed to be replanted, and a new vision and leadership emerged that radically changed the demographic of the congregation and shifted the campus toward an outward facing ministry center. 

Eleven churches have collaborated in this new reality through work teams, financial giving and volunteerism. This once outwardly isolated and inwardly insulated church is now functioning as a shared ministry center to other local churches serving the underserved. Empty educational buildings now house faith based non-profit groups as well as a budding Christ-centered medical clinic, a future bi-lingual academy and refugee care ministry.  Additionally, there are four congregations that share space on the campus of which are two church plant groups and a Latino congregation.

Strengthening & Multiplying Churches through Micro-networks

SBC churches have autonomy that is missionally diverse nationally across rural, suburban and urban contexts. Our shared cooperative program unites us with a common global mission that can and should inform a direct impact on how we engage locally and regionally.  In the same way the SBC utilizes the cooperative program as the mission mobilizing operating system, associations have an opportunity to engage in a mission-based operating system that can create a culture of collaboration among autonomous churches.

In Greater Charleston, The Cypress Project (www.cypressproject.org) serves as a catalyst uniting new and established churches and leaders around a shared vision to work together for the good of their common community. This missional framework functions like a missionary operating system that moves the starting line further back aligning to the four shifts within the early church: the movement of the Holy Spirit, embracing a Kingdom come mindset, engaging a harvest-based focus and pursuing disciple-making strategies. 

Multiple churches and leaders have employed this shared missional operating system and common language to inform and shape the priorities of their outreach strategy. Creekside Church in Goose Creek facilitates a localized cohort of lead pastors who meet to pray, strategize and mobilize their congregations toward Gospel saturation. The disposition of this shared mission is outward facing and relationally collaborative with others who share the conviction that it takes more than one church or one denomination to reach every man, woman and child with the Gospel. 

The mission of our association is to connect churches for Kingdom potential to maximize Gospel saturation. A micro-network strategy promotes the bigness of Kingdom impact leveraged through the smallness of each church’s missional engagement. The Charleston Baptist Association functions as a platform to connect and catalyze radical collaboration by investing time, energy and resources in envisioning, equipping and engaging churches and leaders toward collaboration. Shifting to this missional mobilization within micro-networks maximizes the power of interdependence and magnifies the influence of our mission. It is our prayer to multiply more families of churches, increase more owners of geographical lostness and advance renewing established churches as well as planting new churches so that every man, woman and child has repeated opportunities to see, hear and respond to the Gospel. 

Craig Tuck serves as the Associational Missions Strategist for the Charleston Baptist Association in Charleston, SC.