Baptist Associations exist to aid individual Baptist churches. They allow each church to do more with what they have by pooling resources. Associations do not tell the churches what to do or how to act. In fact, associations are there to provide help for the churches; to support them in their endeavors, and give them sources for information and training. That is what the Salem Association does. We help our member churches function more efficiently with what God has entrusted to them.
The purpose of the Salem Association is to help churches accomplish their mission by promoting fellowship, providing training, and fostering a cooperative spirit of ministry in the area.
Think of it this way:
Imagine you have one church that is supporting the Great Commission, like this:
If that church is suddenly unable to continue, then its support is gone.
However, when several churches work together,
they help each other, and can keep supporting the Great Commission even if one has trouble.
Of course, this is an over-simplified description, but we hope that it helps you to understand what the Salem Association does.
To learn more about how we help the churches, visit How We Can Help.