February 2025 | 5
Annual Church Profile Connects Churches to SCBO The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is a fellowship of nearly 47,000 Baptist churches scattered across the United States and its territories.
It provides a visual of how we are doing The statistics collected with the ACP are about relation- ships. How many people have a relationship with your church (total members)? How many new relationships began this year (total baptisms)? What is the depth of those relationships (worship, Bible study, giving)? These statistics reveal a congregation’s relationships as well as those of the local associations, SCBO, and the Southern Baptist Convention. It shows our willingness to connect The ACP is for each congregation to personally partici- pate and is about congregations that are investing in re- lationships with each other locally. Nothing that Southern Baptists want to accomplish can be obtained without first investing in loving one another. This is Jesus’ new command and exhortation in John 13:34. When a local leader asks you to participate in the ACP, they are asking if you are willing to connect. It reveals our relationships There are numerous opportunities to do things together as Southern Baptists. The ACP captures joint participa- tion in the Cooperative Program and offerings that sup - port international and North American missions. Con- gregations can share specific names of leaders to help create connections with others doing similar ministry across the SBC. There’s still time for you to connect with other Ohio Bap- tist churches and SCBO by submitting your 2024 Annual Church Profile. Please visit SCBO.org/ACP and take 1-2 minutes to complete your church’s profile today. Original article courtesy of Lifeway Research. “penalties” in life. That’s the essence of the Gospel— we need God’s grace and forgiveness every single day. 2. Failure doesn’t disqualify your witness. Mistakes are inevitable; it’s not a matter of “if” but “when.” The real question is, how will you respond when you fall short? 3. The Gospel is for every moment. No matter how influential our platform may be or how God uses us for His glory, we never outgrow our need for the Gos- pel. True maturity comes not from moving past it, but growing deeper in it. Every day, we need Jesus to in- crease in our lives as we decrease. Ultimately, this is the beauty of the cross: Jesus bore all our PENALTIES so we could share in His VICTORY.
These churches have organized themselves to accom- plish a specific set of missions and ministry initiatives all to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to all people ev- erywhere. The Annual Church Profile (ACP) is part of the organiza - tion of our SBC churches. It is a short set of questions to record the condition and activity of your church. In Ohio, it is shared with your association, the State Con- vention of Baptists in Ohio (SCBO), and SBC entities to identify the condition of our shared work. “Just as our vital signs indicate our overall physical health, the ACP reveals in many ways our missional health,” said Dr. Jeremy Westbrook, SCBO executive director. “The annual completion of the ACP is critical for our coopera- tive efforts to help reach the neighborhoods in Ohio and the nations around the world for Christ.” Completing the ACP connects Ohio Baptist churches with each other and SCBO in several ways: Only related congregations are asked to participate How your congregation became Southern Baptist may be something that many in the congregation were a part of or it may only be a distant memory. But that decision to voluntarily join with other Baptist churches in Great Commission work and fellowship makes your presence important. Your participation confirms that relationship still exists. Penalties and the Gospel By Shane Pruitt, NAMB national next gen director Amidst all the attention on college football players and coaches openly expressing their faith, let’s talk about a PENALTY. TreVeyon Henderson, an outspoken Christian and leader in Ohio State football’s Bible studies and bap- tism services, is an example of faith in action. During OSU’s semi-final game against Texas, he wore Romans 3:22 eye black—a bold display of his beliefs— while also receiving a 15-yard unsportsmanlike pen- alty. While I don’t condone penalties or unnecessary ag- gression, this serves as a powerful reminder: 1. Christians aren’t perfect. Even as followers of Jesus, we still make mistakes. We’re going to commit some
Original article, which appeared on Facebook, courtesy of Shane Pruitt.
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