Associational Director of What?
Associational Missionary. Director of Missions. Executive Director. Associational Mission Strategist. Mission Strategist. Why do many different names exist for someone serving in the same position?
It's a legitimate question with a relatively straightforward answer. While the roles of various Mission Strategists may look similar from the outside, their anything but on the inside.
At a fundamental level, an association is a family of churches determined to labor alongside one another for the shared benefit of encouragement, strength, and missional impact. However, each family of churches determines how they collectively need to be served based on their unique familial DNA.
In some circumstances, a family of churches may decide that they only need a person ready to fill the pulpit when the pastor takes a vacation, faces an emergency, or simply needs a break. Some regional groups of churches resolve they want an individual who acts as a conduit to preview, house, train, and deliver the latest resources. A few associations declare they need an individual to organize and act as a mission work liaison since some individual churches don't have the personnel to coordinate such opportunities. Each association is formed based on the localized need of the family of churches in that area.
With those factors in mind, the Northeast Florida Baptist Association is a unique family of churches that has, from a thirty-thousand-foot perspective, five different regions within our single area: West Nassau (Hilliard, Boulogne, Callahan, Baldwin, and Bryceville), Central Nassau (Yulee & Wildlight), East Nassau (Fernandina/Amelia Island), North Jacksonville (New Oceanway & Deep Oceanway), Kingsland and Saint Marys, GA. This reality means that the traditional role of an Associational Missionary/Director of Missions needs to evolve beyond what's been to what's required to help our diverse family of churches reach their full kingdom potential in the future story of missional ministry that He is writing through their local expression of His bride.
Therefore, the new title of Missions Strategist reflects the changing dynamic among our family of churches. There isn't necessarily one primary means of support for this family of churches anymore. Our family of churches is unique in their culture, context, and capacity. Some families need to convene or collaborate with other leaders. A few churches need a coach or an example of champion breakthrough innovation. Others need a consultant to provide them with content or case studies of success. Several churches need counseling and concerted prayer for a breakthrough. Unfortunately, some churches need compassion as they pray about the possibility of God starting a new work through reCommissioning. Each part of our family has different needs based on their congregation's missional vitality.
As the Mission Strategist, I get to engage our family members where they are and help them answer the question, "Where is God at work in our household, and how is He calling us to join Him in that work?" As a Mission Strategist working with our family of churches, I help teams and leaders clarify God's better future for their immediate families. Rather than being the expert, I connect our families with the strengths that already exist within our immediate faith tribe. Strategically speaking, through the association, we're building a discovering next ecosystem to help every church strengthen its disciple-making muscles, size-culture dynamics, communication, data management, evangelistic opportunities, missional vitality, and so much more! We want to connect people daily based on a church's discerned next best step toward meaningful progress in God's narrative for their congregation.
Family of Churches, I'm thankful for all the kind welcomes and humbled for the opportunity to serve as your Mission Strategist to strengthen churches by assisting you in assessing, questioning, clarifying, charting, implementing, and celebrating as you discover your full kingdom potential in our region!