To be as simple as possible—we exist to make every one of our churches a success in the eyes of God! We want to be the key to the success of our churches!
As our website says, “The LBHA exists to Resource, Assist, Coach, and Equip the leadership of local churches, empowering them to make disciples, and launch new churches and ministries.
“We see a day by 2020 AD when these two million plus people in southern LA County have had multiple opportunities to receive and respond to the life-transforming gospel of Jesus Christ. We seek to help our church and pastor partners to reach the lost and unchurched throughout the state, nation, and world, as God calls them and equips them in His wisdom and power.
“We are a partnership of diverse churches, cooperating to encourage and empower one another to carry out the will of God by taking full advantage of Kingdom-building opportunities.”
We exist to enable our churches to fully follow Jesus Christ—in obedience of the Great Commission and the Acts 1:8 Commandment, in fulfillment of the six functions of the church (prayer, worship, evangelism, discipleship, fellowship, and ministry), to fully focus on their stated priorities (as identified by our pastors to us in 2007) of . . .
- Leadership Development and Vision Casting
- Outreach and Evangelism
- Facilities Needs of All Kinds
- Community, Family, and Social Needs, and
- New Church Launching
That’s a Big Job! How Does the Long Beach Harbor Southern Baptist Association Do It? By Funding From and Working with Our Partner Churches and Pastors, and (to a lesser extent) Our Partners at the California Southern Baptist Convention and the Southern Baptist Convention.
We Do It through Leadership Development and Vision Casting from our Staff Members!
We also do this through Leadership Training and Resources:
- We have a wide variety of Leadership Conference and Workshop DVDs, kits, and other resources in our offices, all available to our churches.
- We provide Spiritual Gifts seminars, Personality Profiles for potential leaders, Next Level Leadership workshops, and Jonathan Model workshops to our churches.
- We provide Road to Financial Freedom workshops, Comeback Churches workshops, and information about California Southern Baptist Convention leadership resources, seminars, and workshops.
- Ministers for Intentional Interims, Pulpit Supply, and Staff Candidacies
- Background checks for potential leaders and ministers.
- Weekly Pastors' Breakfasts and Monthly Pastors' Prayer Fellowships
We Do It through Outreach and Evangelism Training and Facilitation
- FAITH Evangelism training workshops and resources
- Way of the Master training workshops and resources
- Share Jesus Without Fear training workshops and resources
- Becoming a Contagious Christian training workshops and resources
- An Evangelistic Block Party Trailer and Block Party training workshops and resources
- Identification of New Residents in Church Areas
We Do It through Helping Our Churches Meet Facility Needs of All Kinds
- Identification of new work start facility needs and potential locations
- Partnerships with NAMB, CSBC, and California Baptist Foundation to meet facilities and building needs
- Partnerships with Texas churches who send college students on spring break to renovate and build needed facilities
- Consultations on facility utilization and expansion
- Church Legacy consultations (planning for the distant future)
We Do It through Helping Our Churches Meet Community, Family, and Social Needs
- California-other states Partnership Mission Teams
- Mustard Seed Foundation Grant Information
- How To Be a Peacemaker workshops
- Seminars on a variety of needs, including gang activities, marriage enrichment, divorce recovery, prayerwalking, prayer intercession, and others
- Annual Association-Wide Christmas Banquets
- We Do It through Helping Our Churches Launch New Work Starts
- Identification of Under-Evangelized and Under-Churched Areas
- Development of Potential Partners and Partnerships in New Church Launching
- Development of Financial Resources for New Church Launching
- Identification, Recruitment, and Training of Potential Church Planters
- Helping Our Churches Develop Themselves as Church Launching Partners
What Is It That We Ask of Our Partner Churches and Pastors?
- We ask that every church allow their pastor to serve on the Executive Board of the association, which meets quarterly, and to elect one to three others to serve with him. The Executive Board guides the association.
- We ask that every church consult with the Director of Missions and his staff to fully utilize the personnel and resources of the association to their full benefit.
- We ask that every church give 4% of undesignated offerings to fund the staff and resources of the association.
Recognizing that every Southern Baptist Church is autonomous, we know that we cannot require these things. But to the extent that every church does, to that extent our association of partnering churches will be able to fully achieve all the visions and mission that our Lord Jesus Christ has commanded us to achieve!
We hope that you and your church will recognize the value that our association is and/or can be to your congregation. We want to be the greatest value we can possibly be to you. With your assistance, we can be! Then not only will your congregation achieve fully the plans that God has formed for you, but His Kingdom will grow and multiply, and He will be honored in all our churches, and in all our area, and in the world!
Richard Graham, Director of Missions, Long Beach Harbor Southern Baptist Association
4508A Atlantic Avenue, #101, Long Beach, CA 90807. cell 562-676-5640, www.lbhchurchimpact.net.