Associational Missionary Don Chancellor said the goal of Pulaski Baptist Association is to “help every church impact their community with the gospel.”
“Churches are the association. It’s churches helping churches to fulfill God’s mission in their setting,” Chancellor said. “Our goal this year is to help churches take the next step. Whatever that is for them. To help them discover the next step and then to have the resources and develop strategy to take the next step. Everything is focused on the local church.”
The Pulaski Baptist Association is comprised of 57 churches and is one of the most diverse associations in the state. It spans portions of Pulaski, Saline and Grant counties.
Chancellor said they are one of the most diverse associations because of the diverse population and ethnicities in Little Rock. Additionally, Chancellor said they are diverse in church size with churches with more than a thousand in attendance and churches that run less than 10. Furthermore, he said the association is diverse in setting.
“We have churches that are inner city. We have churches that are in the suburbs, and we have churches that are in the country,” Chancellor said. “That makes it challenging. It’s not a one size fits all. We have to help every church find their place, their next step where they are.”
“The thing we do the most together is missions,” he said. “We want to help every church develop an Acts 1:8 missions strategy.”
He noted that one of their biggest ministries is their missions work in the Dominican Republic. Over the years, they have started 12 churches there and have been able to construct buildings for those 12 churches. They support three full-time church planters in the Dominican Republic.
In December, a group from the association traveled to Wyoming and met with churches and pastors who are part of the Send Wyoming Network. Chancellor said they will go again in the summer to assist a new church plant on a Native American reservation and another church that is being “replanted” in a mining community.
“On the flip side, because we are so diverse, we also are continuing to look at how we can be more effective here in our mission field. We don’t just go somewhere else to do missions. We do live on a mission field.”
Chancellor has served churches in Mississippi, Florida, and Arkansas. He has been in the Pulaski Baptist Association for 25 years. He has served as the associational missionary for the past five years.
Chancellor and his wife, Donna, have four children and two grandchildren.