What if the Next Decade of Gospel Impact in Northeast Florida Wasn’t Tied to a Building—But Fueled by It?

On May 13, 2025, exactly one hundred years after the establishment of the Cooperative Program, the Executive Committee of the Northeast Florida Baptist Association made a significant and prayerfully discerned decision. With approximately one-third of our Family of Churches represented, the committee voted to approve a recommendation from the Associational Visionary Team to sell our current office property and reinvest the proceeds into a Kingdom-focused endowment.

This decision isn’t about downsizing—it’s about mobilizing.

By selling the building and combining the proceeds with $100,000 already invested with Florida Baptist Financial Services, our association will create a $650,000+ endowment. With wise stewardship and projected annual returns, we anticipate reinvesting nearly $1 million over the next 10 years directly back into gospel-centered ministry in Northeast Florida.

To put this shift in perspective: over the past 10 years, only about $16,000 had been reinvested into the churches of our association. That’s not a critique—it’s a context. Now, with this bold step, we are entering a new trajectory, one marked by courageous collaboration and missional impact.

What This Means

The ministry areas funded by this endowment will be deeply strategic:

• Church Planting & Replanting
  Launching new churches and supporting existing ones in critical transition or decline.

• Leadership Development
  Equipping the next generation of pastors and leaders in a season where 50% of current pastors are over the age of 55.

• Church Revitalization & Strengthening
  Offering coaching, consulting, and resourcing for congregations navigating changing cultural realities.

• Pastoral Care & Renewal
  Providing vital care to pastors and their families at a time when 4 in 10 ministers have considered stepping away from the calling due to burnout or exhaustion.

Why It Matters

The population growth across Nassau County, North Jacksonville, and the surrounding region is accelerating. As God brings more people into our communities, we are called to respond—not just reactively, but with vision, urgency, and faithfulness.

We’re committed to the original mission written into our founding documents in 1938:

“To help churches in the association become better-functioning agents in the Kingdom work of our Lord.”

And we believe now is the moment to act on that mission with strategic reinvestment and courageous collaboration.

Across the SBC landscape, we are not alone. Lifeway. Gateway Seminary. The Florida Baptist Convention. The Georgia Baptist Mission Board. Associations from New York to Nevada. These entities and others are embracing a common philosophy:

Buildings are tools—not trophies.
And when a tool no longer serves the mission, it must be repurposed.

What Could Be?

Imagine this future with us:

• New churches planted in unreached communities.

• Pastors who are refreshed, equipped, and encouraged.

• Struggling congregations experiencing hope and renewal.

• A leadership pipeline that multiplies disciple-makers.

• An associational family not limited by an office, but deployed in the field.

This Is Just the Beginning

This isn’t the end of an era. It’s the beginning of a new chapter—one defined not by brick and mortar, but by faith, unity, and forward motion. A chapter where the Northeast Florida Baptist Association is more agile, more aligned, and more active in fulfilling the Great Commission.

We ask you to pray with us, walk with us, and dream with us.

Together, we will not preserve buildings.
We will pursue the mission.
And by God’s grace, we’ll do it—together.