ACP: An essential measuring tool

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By now, every Kentucky Baptist Convention church should have received a blank Annual Church Profile report in the mail. The ACP report collects data in a variety of areas, including baptisms, church membership, and attendance, all of which are important measures of our overall strength. Strong data lets the watching world know that God is working in and through our 2,400 congregations.

It also helps me do my job. How so? The KBC was created by churches to help churches. To effectively carry out our assignment, we need to know what’s working and what’s not. And the ACP is perhaps our best measure of that.

For example, we rejoiced after last year’s numbers were totaled to find that KBC churches baptized 13,970 people. That number, while impressive, also raised concerns when we did a comparison that showed baptisms were down slightly from the previous year.

ACP reports can be completed in a matter of minutes. Even so, nearly 20 percent of KBC churches didn’t submit them last year. If they had, I feel certain we’d have seen much higher numbers in every area of measurement.

Beyond Kentucky, each of the approximately 50,000 churches of the Southern Baptist Convention is asked to complete an ACP. As a whole, the information becomes an invaluable resource for understanding who we have been, who we are, and how we are doing as Southern Baptists. Our great history and heritage as a people is best understood in light of the factual record made available to us via the ACP.

If you are a pastor, let me urge you or your designee to fill out this form and mail it back so that we can rejoice with you in what the Lord is doing across the state, and we can help our churches be as effective as possible at reaching Kentucky and the world for Christ. If you’ve already completed the task, then thank you!

Let me also express appreciation to our Directors of Missions. They are tremendous partners in the collection of ACP data. Many of our associations have a consistent track record of 100% of their churches completing the ACP. While it may not be possible for me to follow up with 2,400 churches apart from a mass mailing or newspaper article, our DOMs are able to make personal contact with their affiliated churches. I am most grateful for their investment of time and energy!

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