MCBA Moderator:

Dr. Ronald L. Owens,
Senior Pastor of
New Hope Baptist Church, Metuchen

Middlesex Central Baptist Association  of New Jersey, Inc.

    “A Relevant Witness   A Relevant Church   A Relevant Association”

 www.mcbanj.org

• Annual Calendar of Events
• Happenings in MCBA Churches
• General Baptist NJ Scholarship Luncheon

About Our Members:

• Message of the Month
• Prayer Requests
• Membership

• MCBA Church Directory

About MCBA:

• MCBA Officers
• Meet Our Moderator
• The Moderator's Church
• MCBA History
• About Our Website
• About MCBA Auxiliaries

Education/Leadership:

• Christian Education
• Pastoral Resources

Fundraising  Resources:

• MCBA Toolkit for Faith-Based nonprofits
• Government Links for Faith Based
• Grant Blog
• www.grantadvocate.com

Community Resources

• www.neni.us National Educational Network Inc. (in NJ)
• www.juneteenthnj.com
• Parent and Child Care Provider Blog

Career /Training:

• Career Opportunities

PASTORAL RESOURCES

ATLANTA, July 14, 2008 – To help congregations identify and nurture the next generation of leaders for the church, The Fund for Theological Education (FTE) is offering competitive grants ranging from $5,000 to $12,000 for grassroots programs that cultivate a sense of Christian vocation and the call to ministry among youth. 

The next deadline for letters of intent is September 8, 2008; information about this process is available at www.thefund.org/programs/congregations_grants.

Organizations

American Association of Pastoral Counselors http://www.aapc.org/index08.cfm

Additional Resources

• http://www.pastorresources.com/
   

• The Louisville Institute -- Sabbatical Grant for Pastoral Leaders ...
  Sabbatical Grant for Pastoral Leaders grant competition, The Louisville Institute will award up to forty grants for eight-week ($10000) and ...
  www.louisville-institute.org/Grants/programs/sgpldetail.aspx - 30k

Pastoral Succession Resources:

“One way or another, every church will eventually lose its pastor or minister yet few congregations prepare for this dramatic event. The pastor’s departure evokes a range of reactions and problems—sorrow and grief, uncertainty, loss of mission and momentum, power struggles—yet no one wants to talk about this elephant in the boardroom.” (taken from the introduction to The Elephant in the Boardroom: Speaking the Unspoken about Pastoral Transitions — see below)

Below are resources dealing with the issue of pastoral succession:

• Heir Apparent — A retiring pastor and his successor discover what it takes to make a transition plan work. A reprint of an article in Leadership Journal by Skye Jethani.
• Passing the Torch – Changing Church Leadership in a Changing World is a book by Donald Bowen, former pastor of Downtown Baptist Church of Alexandria, Virginia. Download the book by clicking the link above. In the words of Bob Perry, “This book tells the story of a healthy church with a healthy pastor making a healthy transition toward the future.” According to Don Bowen, the process and transition went so well, different people encouraged him to tell the Downtown story so as to help other pastors and churches traveling a similar road.
• The Elephant in the Boardroom: Speaking the Unspoken about Pastoral Transitions by Carolyn Weese and J. Russell Crabtree is available from Amazon by clicking the link above. Carolyn Weese and J. Russell Crabtree—experts in the field of church leadership—have written a nuts-and-bolts guide to developing a succession plan for smoothing pastoral transitions. Filled with strategies and solid advice, this handy resource is based in solid research and the authors’ many years of experience working with churches in a wide variety of denominations. Weese and Crabtree clearly show that leadership succession should be part of every church’s planning process
• Bob Russell Succession Plan
  Bob Russell, Pastor of Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, KY, one of the 10 largest churches in the US, has wisely set up a succession plan that is enabling a smooth transition to a new pastor.