Lincoln Association of Baptists

1. Call to Order – Pastor, Silas Session Sr., LAB Recovery Team Leader, Moderator
2. Scripture and Prayer – Faron Knopp, Pastor, Mill Creek, Vice-Moderator
3. Welcome and recognition of new pastors, staff, new messengers, and guests, Pastor Session
4. Review and approve minutes from previous meetings, Pastor Session (Page 6-7)
5. Financial Report – Marlene Hall Page 8)(Additional reports Page 16-19)
6. AMS report (Page 8-12)
7. Reports – Trustee, Camp Schafer (Page 13), BCM (Page 14-15

) Recovering Ministry, Audit Team, Unscheduled reports.

8. Previous Business
9. New Business 
10. Praises of what God is doing among either your respective ministries or your personal life. Prayer Requests you might have so we can join with you in prayer.
11. Motion to adjourn and closing prayer, Pastor Knopp.

 

 

CONSTITUTION and BY-LAWS

 

The Association is a fellowship of New Testament Southern Baptist churches which voluntarily associate themselves with each other as one way to express their covenant relationship as the people of God, to advance the work of His kingdom under the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

 

ARTICLE I – NAME

This body shall be known as the Lincoln Association of Baptists.

 

ARTICLE II – MEMBERSHIP

Section 1:  The membership of this Association shall be composed of messengers representing cooperating Baptist churches whose doctrinal beliefs and practices conform to the recent BAPTIST FAITH AND MESSAGE adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention. These churches’ pastors shall be Southern Baptist in theology and practice.

Section 2:  A cooperating church shall continue to be defined as a church which is a bona fide (sincere) financial contributor to the work and ministry of the association. Additionally, a cooperating church will endeavor to complete and return the Annual Church Profile to the association. Any church that fails to fulfill these two defining characteristics for two consecutive years will be considered inactive. If an inactive church begins cooperating again within the third year (within the year of being considered inactive), that church will be considered active and cooperating. If, after being considered inactive for a year (a total of three years being uncooperative), there has been no cooperation, that church shall not be considered a part of the association any longer.

Section 3:  Each church shall be entitled to send two messengers and one additional messenger for each fifty (50) members or major fraction thereof, and no church shall be entitled to more than fifteen (15) messengers.

Section 4:  Any church desiring to unite with this body shall petition the Association for recognition and shall present the Annual Church Profile (ACP). The Missions Development Team shall investigate and make appropriate recommendation to the Association.

Section 5:  This Association reserves the right to reject messengers from any church which shows itself to be unorthodox in faith or practice according to ARTICLE II, SECTION 1, or which willfully and persistently creates discord by refusing to comply with this Constitution.

 

 

ARTICLE III – OBJECTIVE

 

Section 1:  The purpose of this Association shall be to assist the churches to implement the Great Commission by:

1. Promoting inter-church fellowship.
2. Strengthening our oneness in faith and practice.
3. Disseminating information in an effort to inspire our churches regarding the work within the Association and within the whole denomination.
4. Helping the churches do together those things which they cannot effectively do themselves.

Section 2: This body shall exercise no legislative or judicial authority over any church, nor shall it have ecclesiastical power over the internal affairs of any church.

 

ARTICLE IV – OFFICERS

Section 1:  The officers of this Association shall be moderator, vice moderator, and clerk.  These officers shall serve on the Executive Board in the same capacity.  They shall be elected annually at the annual meeting and begin serving thereafter.  The term of office for the moderator and vice-moderator is limited to two consecutive years, and a person shall not be eligible for re-election until at least one year has elapsed from the time a successor is named.  The clerk shall serve until the clerk’s successor is duly installed.

Section 2:  Their duties shall be such as are common to the same officers in similar organizations, and as defined by the Association.

 

ARTICLE V – EXECUTIVE BOARD AND TEAMS

Section 1: There shall be an Executive Board of this Association which shall have charge of the work of the Association between annual sessions.  This Board shall be composed of the pastor of each church, or pastor’s designee, and one lay member duly elected by each church, the pastor of any mission of a cooperating church, the associational officers listed in Section 1 of Article IV, the DOM, and the chief officer of each organization of the Association.

Section 2: The Association shall elect a three-member Board of Trustees, according to the Articles of Incorporation on file with the Secretary of State of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Section 3:  The Association and the Executive Board shall have such regular and special teams as needed in executing their work.

Section 4: Team leaders shall have voting privilege at Executive Board Meetings. Team members are invited to attend as non-voting members.

 

ARTICLE VI – ANNUAL REPORTS

Section 1:  The affiliated churches shall furnish annually to the Association the information requested by the Annual Church Profile (ACP.)

Section 2:  The AMS and each team and organization of the Association shall submit an annual report.

 

ARTICLE VII – ANNUAL MEETING

Section 1:  The Association shall meet annually at such place and time as selected by majority vote of the messengers.

Section 2:  In case of an emergency requiring a special session, or a change of date or place of the annual meeting, the Executive Board may take such action.

 

ARTICLE VIII – ANNUAL MINUTES

The minutes of the annual meeting of this Association, together with such information as may be useful, shall be published and distributed annually among the churches of the Association.

 

ARTICLE IX – BY-LAWS AND JOB DESCRIPTION

This Constitution allows for By-Laws and Job Descriptions of all employees, officers, teams, and organizations.

 

ARTICLE X – CHANGE OF CONSTITUTION

The Constitution may be amended by a two-thirds majority of messengers present and voting at any regular annual meeting, provided that such proposed amendments have been submitted in writing at the preceding annual meeting.

 

BY-LAWS

 

ARTICLE I

All meetings of the Association shall be conducted in accordance with the Bible and Robert’s Rules of order (latest edition).  A simple majority of those voting in any regularly announced meeting shall be valid.

 

ARTICLE II

The Nominating team shall nominate to the Association or the Executive Board the members of existing teams and leaders.  The Nominating Team shall be named by the Moderator.

 

ARTICLE III

Between annual sessions of the Association, vacancies in the office of moderator, vice-moderator, or paid full time personnel and ministerial staff shall be filled by the Executive Board.  Part-time personnel may be filled by either the Association Mission Strategist, and/or the Personnel Team.

 

Election of officers shall be conducted during the annual session. The Nominating Team shall nominate other offices and team members. Upon a majority vote, they will take office following the annual meeting. If two or more candidates for any position are proposed, voting shall be conducted by secret ballot. Should there be more than two (2) candidates and none received a majority, there will be a run-off to determine the winner. The run-off would be between the two (2) candidates receiving the largest number of votes in the first ballot.  Only the one(s) receiving the greatest number of votes will be announced (or run-off candidates) to the annual meeting. A team will be appointed for the purpose of counting and recording the votes. The persons receiving a majority of votes shall be declared elected.

 

ARTICLE IV

The Trustees are authorized to hold, purchase, and receive title to real estate and other property by devise, gift, grant or other conveyance, with power to mortgage and to borrow money, sell or convey the same or any part, parcel or portion thereof, when so directed by the Association, except in an emergency the Stewardship Team shall recommend to the Executive Board that trustees be authorized to borrow money to cover previously approved budget authorization.

 

ARTICLE V

The Association and Executive Board shall have regular and special teams as needed to execute their work.

 

ARTICLE VI – CHANGE OF BY-LAWS

These By-Laws may be amended by a majority vote of the Executive Board of the Association present and voting providing the membership of the Executive Board has been notified in writing of such suggested change thirty (30) days prior to the vote.

 

LAB Executive Board Meeting Minutes

6:30 PM, Tuesday, January 9, 2024

ARTICLE V – EXECUTIVE BOARD AND TEAMS

Section 1: There shall be an Executive Board of this Association which shall have charge of the work of the Association between annual sessions. This Board shall be composed of the pastor of each church, or pastor’s designee, and one lay member duly elected by each church, the pastor of any mission of a cooperating church, the associational officers listed in Section 1 of Article IV, the AMS, and the chief officer of each organization of the Association.

1. Call to Order at 6:30pm
   • Pastor, Silas Session Sr., LAB Recovery Team Leader, Moderator

 

2. Scripture and Prayer
   • Faron Knopp, Pastor, Mill Creek, Vice-Moderator
   • Psalms 23

 

3. Welcome and recognition of new pastors, staff, new messengers, and guests, Pastor Session
   • Tom Watkins – Colesburg
   • Rick Newberry – Blueball
   • Debby Duda – Northside

 

4. Review and approve minutes from previous meetings, Pastor Session (Pages 6-7)
   • Noted a couple spelling errors.
   • Motion to accept minutes, with the noted changes to be made, by Randy Logsdon – Berean
   • Seconded by David Akers – Cecilia
   • All in favor, no opposed

 

5. Financial Report – Marlene Hall (Page 14-17)
   • No Questions

 

6. AMS report (Pages 7-11) – Shawn Edwards
   • Trustees decision on 9 acre lot – No questions
   • Personnel Team – Make corrected changes to the Sick leave and personal days policy.
   • Let’s Hope – Updates
   • Missions highlights – Salt Lake City, New York, etc.
   • Upcoming Dates – Thursday, Share Jesus Training at LAB and Sunday night association wide prayer meeting.

 

7. Reports, Trustee, Personnel, Camp Schafer, Recovering Ministry, The Dudas, unscheduled reports (Pages 12-13)
   • Camp Schafer – Josh Looten – Tunnel Hill
     1. Went over dates, theme, etc.
     2. Pray about being a camp counselor

• Discussed Christian Church bringing children and youth – got blessing from group

• Recovery – Silas Sessions
  1. Looking for resources – local recovery groups to help share resources with.
• Marriage Tune-up – Debby Duda – Northside
  1. Local Marriage conference.
  2. Informative meeting Feb. 1^st – Price from February 1-14 is $50, the 15^th on will be $60.

 

Motion to approve reports made by Josh Looten – Tunnel Hill

Seconded by David Akers – Cecilia

All in favor, no opposed.

 

8. Previous Business
   • No New Business

 

9. New Business 
   • Clarity Solutions Lunch – Josh Looten – Tunnel Hill

 

10. Praises of what God is doing among either your respective ministries or your personal life. Prayer Requests you might have so we can join with you in prayer.

 

• Motion to adjourn and closing prayer, Pastor Knopp.
  • Closed at 7:36pm