Baptist associations & local church cooperation

When a Vermont pastor's father became deathly ill, the pastor called the Green Mountain Baptist Association. Like many pastors in the state, he works another job to make ends meet. Unable to pay for the long trip home to be near his father, he needed compassionate counsel from a trusted colleague in ministry.

"Within minutes of his phone call, I was able to send out a plea to all our pastors," Terry Dorsett, director of missions and church planting catalyst with the association, recounted in an email.

"In less than two hours I was able to call him back and tell him that we had collected all that he needed to make the trip home."

For many pastors, Baptist associations serve as the primary support system for their work and ministry. But that's just one facet of the groups of churches that join together for fellowship, for ministry and service and for cooperative evangelism and missions.

The Baptist association is the oldest cooperative unit in Baptist life, tracing its existence back more than 300 years. Read more

How does your denomination foster local church cooperation? How effective is this approach? Did your denomination adopt this approach because "that's the way we've always done it"? Or because it is the most effective approach?