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The church today is facing a significant leadership crisis as fewer and fewer men are choosing to pursue pastoral ministry. This leaves many churches without qualified pastors for extended periods of time. Consequently, these churches often experience steep declines in attendance, involvement, financial support, and gospel impact on their communities.

As an association of churches, it is our firm conviction that the responsibility of recognizing, mentoring, and sending out leaders belongs to the local church. Therefore, we are committed to aggressively and proactively obeying the Biblical mandate of 2 Timothy 2:2 by passing on our disciple-making ministry and Regular Baptist doctrinal commitments to the next generation of Christian leaders.

Therefore, we graciously yet boldly challenge one another to do the following:

  • Pray fervently for God to raise up Biblically qualified leaders within our local churches to be identified, mentored, and sent out to serve other local churches at home and abroad (Matt. 9:37–38; 2 Thess. 3:1).
  • Regularly disciple young men in our local churches with the understanding that they will potentially serve as leaders in local church settings (2 Tim. 2:2; Titus 1:5–9).
  • Invest the resources God has entrusted to us to assist with the mentoring, discipling, and training of young ministry leaders (1 Cor. 4:2; 2 Cor. 9:6–15).
  • Create a culture of enthusiastic mentoring and discipleship within our association, emphasizing the need to develop new leaders so that they can make disciples of Jesus Christ in succeeding generations (Heb. 3:12–13; 2 Tim. 1:13–14).
  • Provide godly examples to younger believers of faithfulness, wisdom, Biblical preaching, joyful ministry, sober speech, blameless conduct, and longevity in serving Christ (1 Cor. 11:1; 2 Thess. 3:7–9; Titus 2:2, 7–8).

May we renew our commitment to faithfully mentor and train the next generation of Christian leaders for the vital ongoing work of disciple-making to the glory of God.

Resolved by the messengers of the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches, meeting together in regular conference June 28 to July 1, 2021, at Bethel Baptist Church in Schaumburg, Illinois.