As the year 2008 draws to a close, all but 214 churches out of 1,589 have submitted their Annual Church Profiles.
ALEXANDRIA – As the year 2008 draws to a close, all but 214 churches out of 1,589 have submitted their Annual Church Profiles.
The non-reporting churches are scattered across the state, said Shana Johnson, Information Services Support Supervisor for the Louisiana Baptist Convention.
“Nineteen of Louisiana’s 43 associations obtained 100 percent of their congregation’s reporting,” Johnson said. “We want to thank the clerks and directors of missions in those 19 associations for their efforts to obtain that 100 percent score. The clerks and directors of missions in the remaining associations continue to work diligently to collect the outstanding ACP reports.”
There are many reasons a church might not yet have sent in its ACP, Johnson said. Three quickly came to mind: The church might have been between pastors, the pastor might be an extra-busy bivocational wage-earner, or the need to complete the report might have gotten lost with everything else the church was doing this fall.
The 214 churches that have not yet completed their ACP are urged to do so within the next month, Johnson said.
“It doesn’t take long to fill out the form,” Johnson said. “It’s not hard. And it – the ACP – provides so much good information that helps the LBC directors and strategists make better plans for helping meet needs expressed by churches.”
The ACP form asks for the name of the church and its pastor, the year it was organized, number of baptisms, other additions, resident membership and total membership. It also asks for the number enrolled in Sunday School, Discipleship Training, Vacation Bible School, Church Music, WMU and Men’s Ministries.
The ACP form asks for the amount given to missions through the Cooperative Program, total of all other missions giving, undesignated receipts and total receipts.
That’s it!
“In most churches, the church clerk and church treasurer should have all this information,” Johnson said. “The form can be filled out online, or printed out and mailed in.”
The ACP form is available online at www.e-lbc.org or by calling Johnson at 318.448.3402 ext. 210.
“ACP information is used to spot trends, to provide a better response as we target that area of growth or decline,” Johnson said. “It puts information in black and white, which sometimes helps church leaders identify areas where God is working in your congregation that you might not otherwise have seen.”
The ACP also provides proof of operation for banks and insurance companies. In case of a natural disaster, when records housed only in church buildings are lost, the submitted ACP serves as core data.
“We have multiple examples of this very thing happening to the churches in our state,” Johnson said.
The ACP report is necessary for determining the number of messengers allotted from the church to LBC and SBC annual meetings.
LBC Business Manager Dale Lingenfelter said he likes to refer to the ACP – Annual Church Profile – as the ACT – Annual Church Testimony – because of the information in the documents.
“This is an opportunity for your church to testify of the good work God is doing in and through your local church body,” Lingenfelter said.
“This is our number one tool that determines our impact locally and globally. As Southern Baptists, we have no other mechanism of understanding how well we’re impacting our culture.
“It is so important for each church to be part of ACP reporting,” the business manager continued. “It provides a statistically verifiable look at the growth and potential of our churches … and we use this information to determine how we can best be of service to you in reaching out locally and globally in God’s kingdom work.”
“Every church is important to God’s kingdom work,” said John Yeats, LBC director of communications. “It is our joy to print a historical statistical record of Louisiana Baptists engaged in cooperative ministry with the Lord.”