There are so many reasons to love our association of churches—but we’re obviously partial. So, don’t just take our word for it. Watch or read as Pastor Parris Patrick highlights the benefit of working together with others and the real pastor-to-pastor friendships he's developed within the Union Baptist Association.
I love the UBA—well, because of a few reasons. The first is the idea that I can do more together with a group of churches than I can do by myself. The other thing is not only the relationships we have with other churches but the pastor-to-pastor relationships.
When we go to these meetings, there's talking time and things like that. It can easily turn to networking, but I believe what is loving about UBA is that these are relationship-driven. So the relationships that I have and I'm sure other pastors have with other pastors in the UBA are real and they are deep. [We love] the fact that we can partner with other churches, particularly our church.
We love partnering with South Belt, Pastor Kevin Rizer—who is a good brother in the Lord of mine, and other pastors as well that I could easily name. But that relationship [with Kevin Rizer] I can give sole credit to the fact that we're both in Union Baptist Association and we both love the Kingdom of God on Earth as it is in Heaven.
The fact that we're both in the Union Baptist Association gave us a connection at a meeting, and we found out that we were brothers—that we love the same things. We found out we both love the gospel. We found out we both love teaching and preaching and caring for the people of God.
The things that we have done together and the ideas we were able to banter back and forth could have never happened otherwise. It's something I'll always remember how it started—just being a part of the association. It's something I'm happy I learned, and it's something I'll always remember.
One of our initiatives at UBA focuses on developing these pastor-to-pastor relationships and this church-to-church support. It's called Collaborative Care. We believe our association is both an organization and a living organism—a network of living, reciprocal relationships. These relationships are the foundation of everything else we do.
Collaborative Care is an effort to bring churches, their staff, and their members into deeper, more meaningful, Kingdom-expanding relationships that strengthen the whole Body of Christ. You can contact our staff to find out more about how you can get connected.
Whether it's making a meal, teaching Zumba, doing crafts, or playing games, serving others (and allowing yourself to be served) is a blessing to us all.