By Tony Crocker, President • BMA of Arkansas
Greetings, brothers and sisters in the BMA of Arkansas! It is time to make plans for the annual meeting of our association. This year’s meeting will be Nov. 6-7 at Central Baptist College in Conway. Duffy Guyton and the planning team always do a wonderful job serving us. We owe them a tremendous debt of gratitude. Please put this in your calendar and watch for further announcements in future articles.
Once again, I am honored to serve you as president and moderator of the meeting. In addition, you elected Mike Book to serve as First Vice President and re-elected Derrick Bremer as your Second Vice President. Our clerks are Wes Hulvey and Randy Shepherd. These men love you and love the work God has entrusted to us. We ask you to pray that the God of Heaven will give us wisdom to plan and lead this meeting.
This year’s theme is “For the Sake of the Name.” The thought was inspired some time ago as I read the tiny epistle of III John. The apostle compliments Gaius for his hospitality and support of itinerant preachers and strangers who had at some time been guests in his home. As those servants had gone on, they spread word to John about the wonderful spirit Gaius had demonstrated. In his compliment, John tells Gaius these people were worthy of that honor because they had gone out “…for the sake of the name…”” (III John 7 ESV). Beloved, this one line in our Bible screams of the value of being an association!
When I was a child, my father was a deacon at the small, rural Missouri church where I grew up. It was often our privilege to host the evangelists and missionaries who visited us. My mother would prepare a fine home-cooked meal, and our guests would fill the air with stories of places they had been and meetings they had held. These visits were always brief, often just a few hours, and on rare occasions, they would spend a night. But come evening or morning, they were off to the next destination.
Those were wonderful days, but more than that, they were important days. My parents instilled in me how serious a matter it is for us to do our best for those who labor “…for the sake of the name…”..” John was emphatic about this when he told Gaius, “Therefore, we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth” (III John 8).
And there it is, the reason I said this line screams to us about being an association. We know plainly from Scripture that we cannot all go. That is not the pattern of the New Testament. The Lord chose and called itinerant servants. As those men went and taught, they had partners in ministry in all the places they visited because of the hospitality and generosity of God’s chosen people. By hosting, nourishing and giving a place of rest to a preacher passing through, Gaius was used of God and in so doing became a co-laborer for the truth — and so do we. As an association, it is our privilege to host, hear, feed, support, encourage and pray for those kingdom servants God sends to serve among us.
Sometimes a meeting may not be convenient to attend. Sometimes it may tend to be a little boring. Even so, they are always necessary if for no other reason than we have the privilege of assembling as one great host to the servants God sends our way. Whether it is our department leaders and missionaries, or the vendors who set up tables to share about their ministries, we have the awesome honor to assemble together with them “…for the sake of the name…”.”
I hope to see you in November. Thank you for all you are doing “…for the sake of the name…” God bless.
