When messengers from our IBSA churches gather for the 2024 Annual Meeting at Ashburn Baptist Church in Orland Park November 12-13, they will receive something we call a Book of Reports. In addition to a program for the meeting itself, it will provide numerous documents that overview the cooperative work and ministries of our network over the past year. Proposed budgets will also communicate plans for the coming year. And nominations will be presented for dozens of leaders and representatives from all over the state to continue the network’s cooperative work.
You might be surprised at the amount of time and preparation it takes to gather and report clearly and responsibly on all the shared ministries of our churches. But it’s important.
In fact, the book of Acts is in many ways a book of reports on the action-packed adventure of the earliest churches. What if Doctor Luke hadn’t traveled with the early apostles, and recorded the outcomes of meetings like the Jerusalem Council of Acts 15, and gathered credible reports from churches and leaders all over the Mediterranean region? Think how different and limited our understanding of God’s mission and the advance of the gospel would be!
If New Testament writers such as Luke, Paul, Peter, and John hadn’t written letters, many of them designed to be shared among multiple churches, how would those early churches have been encouraged, and instructed in sound doctrine, and coordinated in shared ministries? How would we know, not only what happened then, but what should be happening in our churches now?
Of course, an annual book of reports is only one tool our diverse churches have today to stay connected, accountable, and cooperative. Our award-winning newspaper, the Illinois Baptist, still arrives monthly in church and member mailboxes, a very visible reminder and report of our work together. The weekly IBSA Now e-newsletter, and the IBSA.org website, and multiple social media channels can keep us connected on a weekly or even daily basis.
But as the New Testament’s “books of reports” remind us, the value of communication among churches is not just a current, disposable benefit. The next time you visit the IBSA Building in Springfield, give me an opportunity to take you through the historical library and archives maintained there by our staff and faithful volunteers. In addition to various electronic archives, you can look back into Illinois Baptist history through the carefully preserved pages of century-old Illinois Baptist newspapers, photographs, and local associational reports that even predate IBSA.
Recently I found such a newspaper clipping in a trunk from my grandma’s house. On a yellowed clipping from the 1970’s was a picture of my dad with sideburns down to his mouth, my college roommate’s dad who was then a pastor and IBSA President, and an IBSA staff member whose daughter-in-law now serves on our IBSA Board. Those three men have all gone home to be with the Lord during the time I’ve served at IBSA. But all three have inspired me to continue the important work of helping churches cooperate to advance the gospel faster and better than any church could do by itself.
So let’s keep gathering when we can, whether as a local association like the ten meetings I’m attending personally this year, or the annual meeting in Orland Park. Let’s digest and understand the annual reports of our work together that will someday become the history our grandkids will look to for guidance and inspiration. And let’s stay engaged in the monthly papers and daily posts that help capture the faithful, cooperative mission work of all our churches. Doctor Luke would have wanted it that way.
Nate Adams is executive director of the Illinois Baptist State Association. Respond at IllinoisBaptist@IBSA.org.