The Catawba River Baptist Association is “a fellowship of Churches-on-Mission.” Each Church is independent and autonomous, but we have made a covenant, or agreement, to work cooperatively together to touch people for Jesus. The 68 Churches of the Catawba River Baptist Association know that we can do much more by working cooperatively as partners than any Church could do alone.
Affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention and the North Carolina Baptist Convention, the Catawba River Baptist Association is located in beautiful western North Carolina. We are comprised of 68 Churches located in Burke County where the population is around 90,000 people.
The Staff of the Catawba River Baptist Association works with these 68 Churches and Missions in various ways to encourage them in their work of missions and evangelism.
CRBA Mission Statement:
Uniting and strengthening CRBA churches to be on mission in building the kingdom of Christ in the community and beyond.
CRBA Vision Statement:
We envision the CRBA to be a group of churches working together in unity and love to build the Kingdom of God in our region and beyond. The churches will so manifest the love of Christ that the people outside each church will be drawn to the Savior and want to know the One who is behind this love.
Each of our churches will be focusing on sharing the Gospel message on a regular basis in our region and wherever the Lord may send the members of those churches. CRBA will provide opportunities for those churches to work together in this area of evangelism.
CRBA envisions being able to lead our members to become more dedicated disciples of Jesus who will be making disciples of those who are coming to know Jesus as their Savior. Each of these new converts will be taught how they too can make disciples of others.
CRBA churches will be praying churches that are impacting their world through prayer. This commitment to prayer permeates who they are as the body of Christ and establishes deep relationships with the Father that allows Him to use us to touch the entire world. It allows the power of God to be unleashed so that He accomplishes His mighty work here and to the ends of the earth.
CRBA churches are on mission with God, doing work in many areas of the world. Because of this work, God is adding to His church daily those who are being saved. This is happening both in our own churches and in those places where we are working to build His Kingdom around the world.
CRBA churches envision working together in a way that will encourage and strengthen each other. We are giving wise counsel and loving encouragement to each other in such a way that we are advancing the Kingdom of God to the greatest degree possible until Jesus comes.
CRBA Goals for 2025
Provide mission opportunities to strengthen local churches (Serve NC, LoveBurke, etc.)
Investigate opportunities for ESL Classes.
Provide opportunities for our churches to partner in planting new churches.
Challenge churches to participate in CRBA’s mission trips to Shelby and Armenia while looking for opportunities to increase mission endeavors globally.
Provide mission opportunities for students.
Plan and conduct evangelistic activities
Provide mission opportunities for students
Start two additional mentoring cohorts in our Association where the emphasis will be placed on developing leaders in Church Revitalization situations
Create a cohort for bi-vocational pastors.
Equip new and potential pastors through the Foothills Residency Project and the Timothy Project.
Assist churches regarding revitalization and church adoption.
Provide/Implement a plan to help our churches become more evangelistic, creating a culture of evangelism(Great Commission Project).
Seek to have 90% of our CRBA churches contributing financially to the work of CRBA
Develop and implement a Child Protection Policy for CRBA
Search for a better program for the weekly update.
Build relationships with pastors to help them lead their churches to eradicate lostness in Burke County.
Encourage each of our CRBA churches to participate in activities and contribute financially.
Work towards a minimum of 85% participation in completing the Annual Church Profile.
Increase awareness of the CRBA Endowment Fund that will (in time) support our mission endeavors and fund repairs and improvements to our CRBA building.