Resolution On The Importance Of The Annual Church Profile

 RESOLUTION: ON THE IMPORTANCE OF THE ANNUAL CHURCH PROFILE

 WHEREAS, The example of Paul and Barnabas in bringing a report to the church in Antioch (Acts14:26-27) established a precedent for the value of giving testimony to the work of God through our efforts; and

WHEREAS, Our present work of teaching the Gospel and creating disciples through the church is equally important to the health and growth of the Kingdom and should be evaluated regularly by the local church and pastor, as well as by leaders in the local association, state convention and the Southern Baptist Convention; and

 WHEREAS, The Annual Church Profile system is an essential tool for gathering information to identify some of the visible results of the work of our churches, thereby helping us see trends and better understand the effectiveness of our methods and strategies; and

WHEREAS, Completing and submitting the ACP annual survey reflects support of the cooperative effort and contributes to the cooperative spirit that characterize our Great Commission fellowship; and

WHEREAS, This yearly administrative exercise offers a beneficial opportunity for self-evaluation to churches and pastors; and

WHEREAS, The ACP survey data is used to determine the representation of Louisiana Baptists on the SBC Executive Committee, the LBC Executive Committee, the trustee boards for NAMB, the IMB, as well as to set the number of messengers each church qualifies to send to the state and national conventions; and 

WHEREAS, Approximately 15 percent of Louisiana Baptist Churches do not return a completed ACP survey form; and

WHEREAS, Users and administrators across the denomination have collaborated to simplify the ACP survey, reducing the number of questions and making it easier to understand; and

WHEREAS, The ACP survey can be completed online as well as in paper form; and

WHEREAS, Associational and state leaders offer help with completing the ACP survey, now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, That the messengers to the 174th session of the Louisiana Baptist Convention, meeting in Monroe, Louisiana, November 16, 2021, call on all pastors and churches to complete and submit the ACP survey each year; and be if further

RESOLVED, That we affirm the value of an accurate, yearly testimony to the work of Christ in Louisiana through local Baptist churches; and be it finally

RESOLVED, That we urge associational and state convention leaders to actively promote participation in the ACP process, by highlighting its importance at annual meetings and also using other forums and means to encourage pastors and churches to take part.

#TurnInTheACP

 

Greetings!

I'm Clark Palmer, 64, SBC pastor from Pineville, LA. I'm asking for your help in creating a widespread emphasis on returning the Annual Church Profile. 

When I became Moderator of our local association, I considered setting some goals for increased attendance and/or baptisms. I searched for data to create a baseline and discovered our numbers were off. There were no discernible trends. One year we were up, the next down.  Numbers from a decade ago showed the same issue. I realized part of the problem was the number of churches not reporting. In fact, one of the largest churches in our area had not turned in an ACP recently.  

Clearly this is a problem for determining such things as  representation on our state Executive Committee and messengers to annual meetings and tracking progress or the lack of it.  Then I began to wonder if this could also account for at least some of the reported overall declines for the SBC in terms of attendance and baptisms.  

So I'm on a campaign to ask our leaders at all levels to make some noise about the ACP this August.  I have created the hashtag, #TurnInTheACP. I've started a twitter account devoted to this @acp_2021.  My request to you folks is to give some visibility to the effort.  This is non-partisan. I just think we need good numbers.

Also there is value in church leaders seeing their numbers and making adjustments accordingly. I know I've had years where the numbers revealed a lack of attention to certain areas of our ministry. 

The person with Lifeway connected to the ACP is Scott Mconnell. He's aware of my interest but I'm strictly a one-man team. He would be a good resource for information.  

Thanks for reading and considering, 

Clark Palmer