Become a Member of the Birmingham Metro Baptist Association
The Birmingham Metro Baptist Association is made up of 126+ cooperating Baptist churches that have come together to carry out the Great Commission of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
We have been around for a long time. Associational messengers of Baptist churches founded what was then known as the Canaan Baptist Association in 1833. Baptists had lived in the Jones Valley area for seventeen years when the Canaan Baptist Association was founded. Settlers poured into the fertile valley in record numbers, staking out homesites. We have enjoyed many years of triumph and suffered moments of sinful disunity over the years. Many white churches resisted the dismantling of Jim Crow and failed to partner with men like Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth and Dr. Martin Luther King. However, leaders within the Birmingham Metro Baptist Association, Alabama Baptist State Convention, and the Southern Baptist Convention began to work diligently on bringing hearts and minds together around the Gospel. Today, approximately one-third of BMBA churches are non-white. We see an increasing number of multi-cultural churches. We still have a long way to go “to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of Christ’s name among all the nations” (Romans 1:5, ESV). We press on in the journey!
Today, the Birmingham Metro area has a population of 1,149,807. Our Association of churches with thousands of church members has a providential place in the history, present, and future of the metro area.
While we recognize the autonomy of each congregation, there are certain expectations that we have for all the churches that make up this incredible work. They are as follows:
Doctrinal Fidelity
Financial Support
Ministry Participation
Executive Board Attendance
Annual Church Profile Reports
In addition to the expectations, there are Kingdom opportunities for the member churches such as:
Church Planting and Church Revitalization Resources
Cooperative Ministries
Cooperative Missions Efforts
Fellowship/Networking With Like-Minded Churches
Leadership Development
Mutual Accountability
The process begins with each church submitting an Application for Membership. Each church meets with the Membership Committee. Then the committee makes a recommendation to the Executive Board of the Association to receive the church under a one-year watch-care period, the Membership Committee will make a recommendation to the Executive Board of the Association to receive the church into full membership with all the rights and privileges of all other member churches.
Please feel free to contact our Executive Director, Dr. Chris Crain, or any of our missionary staff team at (205)599-3245 with any questions or concerns.
We look forward to working with you, as we clearly understand that we can accomplish more together than any one church can do alone. Our purpose is to encourage, equip, and engage biblically faithful churches in the Great Commission for the glory of God.