FAQ

What is the Arkansas Baptist State Convention (ABSC)?

The ABSC is best known as the family and network of Arkansas Baptist churches, agencies, and institutions around the state that have chosen to cooperate together to advance the Kingdom of Jesus. At present, this includes approximately 1500+ churches, Arkansas Baptist Children & Family Ministries, the Arkansas Baptist Foundation, Camp Siloam, the Executive Board, Ouachita Baptist University, and Williams Baptist University.

I’ve also heard the Arkansas Baptist State Convention referred to as an event that people attend. Is that also Arkansas Baptists?

Yes! Once a year, Arkansas Baptists gather together to celebrate and share what God has done in the areas of church planting, ministry, missions, Christian higher education, and much more. While we commonly refer to this event as the “Annual Meeting,” it is also known as the “Convention,” or the “Arkansas Baptist State Convention.”

What is the purpose and value of state conventions and associations?

Associations and state conventions exist to fulfill the Great Commission by assisting local churches in evangelism, discipleship, missions, and other church related specialty ministries.

• Associations assist through local fellowship, ministry resources, and contextualized attention to ministry.

• State Conventions assist through expanded and additional ministry resources, messenger eligibility for state and national conventions, advancing the convention by serving as trustees of state entities and serving on committees.

How exactly does everyone cooperate together? What connects us?

While the very nature of Arkansas Baptist churches, agencies, and institutions is to partner with one another to do Kingdom work, the tangible element that connects us all is known as the Cooperative Program (CP). The Cooperative Program is how more than 45,000 Southern Baptist churches collectively give to and support missions work.

The local church decides what percentage of their overall tithes and offerings will go to these cooperative missions, and that percentage is then sent to the Arkansas Baptist State Convention to be distributed to Arkansas Baptist agencies, institutions, ministries, and missions. The distribution of Cooperative Program giving is also by messengers from the local church; this is voted on at the Annual Meeting of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention.

So, when you give to your local church, an amount of your giving will support the variety of Arkansas Baptist ministries from the Arkansas Baptist Children & Family Ministries to Williams Baptist University, as well as Southern Baptist missions and ministries in our nation and around the world!

To read more about the Cooperative Program and how it works, please see page 16.

absc.org