The Vision for the Association

Developed from one on one and group meetings with our pastors and involved laity around the Association. As a result we are developing quarterly conversations with key leaders who are part of three areas of ministry within our association. These areas are: Church Planting, Church Revitalization, and Language Missions.

We know that many of our churches are facing the challenges of plateau and decline and we must work effortlessly to turn that around.

Our church plants are down and those we have launched have failed to feel connected to the association despite the fact that they have a staff member to assist them.

• Continue Peer to Peer Mentoring
• Develop ongoing team of peer mentors
• Set goal of 10 pastors leaders equipped yearly for the next 15 years (150)
• Develop & Train Association Church Revitalization Assistance Team
• Equip a team of leaders to assist our churches with revitalization utilizing laity, church staff, pastor/leaders, and GOBA staff
• Mentor monthly a group of potential leaders available to assist in revitalization activities to aid GOBA Churches
• Place a greater emphasis on developing new Church Planting leaders
•  Hispanic Leaders
• Haitian Leader
• Asian Leaders
• Multi-cultural Leaders
• Assist, Train, & Develop Pastor Search Committees
• Provide initial weekend training event for our churches
• Resource them with helpful resources
• Be available for consultations
• Healthy Church PlantingWhat we will honor!
• Seek to promote new models and paradigms
• Intentional Multi-cultural
• Church within a church
• Apartment complex churches
• Establish greater commitment to association church planting
• Work towards engaging all churches in some way to become involved (three levels)
• Assist Church type missions to become full aligned churches
• Develop & Train Churches desiring to become Church Planting Centers
• 10 in 15 – Train and equip 10 GOBA churches to become Church Planting Center churches that utilize and train up future church planters from all languages and nations.
• These 10 would break down to 7 English centers and 3 language centers.
• Set new goals for church planting
• 15 for 15 Church Planting strategy – 15 new churches per year for the next 15 years (225) connected to the Association
• Increase the number of Hispanic Church Plants to reflect our GOBA demographic (75 of the 225)
• Develop & implement an Each One Plant One strategy
• 15 for 15 Sponsoring Church Strategy – 15 new sponsoring churches involved in planting at least one church that will add to number of sponsors within the Association (225 new sponsors by 2027)

Church Development - What we will honor!

• Promote a greater sense of family connection for our churches with each other and GOBA
• Engage in the Restarting of Declining Churches within GOBA
• 5 for 15 Church Revitalization Strategy – 5 churches assisted in revitalization efforts annually for the next 15 years (75 churches revitalized by 2027)
• Utilize a Multi-site strategy when possible in renewal if viable
• Utilize a Restart Strategy when there are no other options in renewal
• Deploy Association Church Revitalization Assistance Team to needed churches
• Evangelism Training for Churches desiring assistance
• Work with FBC staff to facilitate where they are able
•  If FBC no longer contributes to these conferences than GOBA will develop its own by utilizing our own pastors and leaders.
• If need be we will host our own leadership development conferences and invite nationally known leaders.
• Seek to work in conjunction with others associations when possible.

• ·Work towards developing an association wide Missional mentality
• Develop a 3in 365 Strategy – This is where our churches participate in 3 Missional activities per church each year for the next 15 years.
•  Develop ministries that could foster future plants in marginal areas of the association

GOBA Long Term Development

• Work towards becoming …
•  Self-sustaining
• Self-propagating
• Self- supporting
• Further develop GOBA as a Global Association & network
• Seek to expand to the edges of the association (reach new territories through church planting)
• Embrace smaller areas that need leadership support
• Develop an International Partnership with some specific area for GOBA churches to do Missional work (Mission Indy)
• Embrace new territories that might become available
• Keep our focus on central Florida and surrounding areas
• Stretch to the edges of our 5 counties with Missional work and church panting
•  A sense of God’s early leading toward some bold goals accomplished by 2027!
• 225 new churches started within GOBA
•  75 churches strengthened & restarted within GOBA
• 150 Pastor/Leaders equipped in GOAL leadership development
• 460 Churches and Missions are actively connected to GOBA
• 225 Churches becoming sponsoring churches in one of the three ways: Primary Sponsor, Cluster sponsor, Supporting sponsor
• 10 Church Planting Centers churches developed that will train and deploy interns from all languages and nations(7 English centers, 3 language centers)

I ask you as visitors, leaders and messengers of our 176 churches and missions, will you come along with me? Will you help to revitalize our churches all across central Florida through a deliberate effort of Revitalization and Renewal? Will you seek the face of the almighty about planting churches of all kinds through all of central Florida? Will you pray for the young men of God who will be raised up out of our churches to plant new churches and become pastors of our churches?

Oh I pray you will for the sake of Christ. I pray you will for the sake of Southern Baptist! I pray you will because the need is great and it is our time to step up and step out in Jesus’ name. It’s time to cross the Jordan and get ready for a new day! Let us pray…

Respectfully Yours and Happily His,

Dr. Tom Cheyney
Executive Director of Missions
Greater Orlando Baptist Association
October 17, 2011