JOURNEY WITH JEFF: Successful Opening Weekend

No, I’m not talking about football. Last week was “opening weekend” for local association meetings in Arkansas. Starting Thursday night, with the Mount Calvary association meeting in Searcy, through Saturday afternoon, there were five local associations that met. Because we strongly believe in the importance of making connections with as many of our churches and pastors as possible, we had representatives at each of these meetings. On Saturday, when there were three meetings at the same time, Associate Editor Allan Eakin and Editor Emeritus Diane Spriggs helped cover two of the three. I was honored to be able to share my report with the Mount Calvary, BMA of the Ozarks and the United associations, while Diane was at the Mount Vernon Association and Allan was at the North Arkansas Association.

We have plans to be at each of the local association meetings to share what we believe to be vital information gleaned from the recent Associational Involvement Survey we conducted. I encourage anyone reading this to make an effort to attend your local association meeting.

Why Do We Associate?

In preparing to share information at the local association meetings and after receiving feedback from the survey, we made the decision to use the content from the special four-page insert that was in the April 19, 2023 issue to produce a booklet we can share to help encourage the important conversations that need to take place regarding associational involvement. We will have these available at every local association meeting, special events and at the state meeting.

We produced these at our cost because we felt it was worth the investment to move the conversation forward. The cost to produce and print 1,000 booklets was $1,600. If you feel led to help cover this extra expense, please send your offering to P.O. Box 192208, Little Rock, Ark. 72219 and mark “booklets” in the memo line.

Thank You!

As of this writing, and just under the wire as we closed out our fiscal year, we have met our goal for Special Emphasis 2023! God is always faithful, and we thank each of the churches and individuals who He used to help meet the needs of this ministry.

2023 Special Emphasis • Goal — $30,000

Previous Balance (Aug. 23) $27,275.07

Shirley Hollis $200.00

Summers Baptist Church, Summers $300.00

Ruby Nelson $100.00

Joyce Garrison $100.00

Dewey Kelley $25.00

Center Grove Baptist Church, Cord* $1,000.00

Total $30,150.07

*have given previously