July 10, 2000
Texans launch CBF chapter
___By Marv Knox
___Editor
___ORLANDO, Fla.--Texans have formed a state organization to affiliate with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
___Texas participants at the Fellowship's general assembly in Orlando voted unanimously to create the state organization and to launch a search for an executive director immediately.
___The Fellowship is a network of moderate Baptists who work together to support missionaries, provide church resources, support such endeavors as ministerial training, ethics advocacy and production of Christian literature, and create Christian community around common convictions and interests.
___Although Texas is the last state or region to create a Fellowship organization, it is not a newcomer to the 9-year-old national Fellowship. Texas is home to the largest number of Fellowship-affiliated churches, 415, and provides the largest amount of money, almost $3.5 million, of any state or region.
___The move to create the state Fellowship organization, complete with a full-time coordinator, will help interested Texans support the national group while also continuing to back the Baptist General Convention of Texas, said Phill Martin of Richardson, who made the motion to form the state organization on behalf of the Texas Fellowship steering committee.
___"It's important for us as CBF-like-minded persons in Texas to have someone to coordinate support for CBF," said Martin, director of education for the National Association of Church Business Administration. "This coordinator will partner with and support the BGCT.
___"We will try to enlarge the CBF camp in Texas and meanwhile not reduce support for the BGCT."
___The steering committee has not yet determined a budget for the state organization nor the location of its offices. "We don't have those answers," Martin said. "This has been a faith journey."
___A Texas Fellowship organization will have different purposes than Texas Baptists Committed, the statewide organization with which most Fellowship supporters in Texas already are affiliated, noted David Currie, executive director of Texas Baptists Committed.
___Texas Baptists Committed is a political organization designed to protect the Baptist General Convention of Texas from the kind of "takeover" that occurred in the Southern Baptist Convention during the past 20 years, Currie said. "Baptists Committed has kept trying to save the state from fundamentalism."
___State organizations affiliated with the Fellowship, on the other hand, are focused on promoting the missions and ministries and networking operations of the national
___"It's time we have someone to think every day about CBF. Texas doesn't need to do everything by itself," Currie said. "The stronger CBF becomes, the stronger Baptists Committed and the BGCT is, then greater is the chance our vision can be fulfilled."
___Formation of a state Fellowship organization offers several "plusses," noted Charles McLaughlin, editor of the Fellowship newsletter in Texas and associate director of Texas Baptists Committed.
___"First, it can generate support for CBF and the BGCT among churches," he predicted. "It also forms an identity in Texas for the CBF. And it allows us to move forward in support of missions activities, fellowship and educational opportunities."
___"The formal organizaiton of CBF Texas signals a deepening commitment by these churches and individuals to the cause of Christ in Texas," said Kyle Henderson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Athens and moderator of Texas CBF.
___"Many of our churches have given significant time and money to the national CBF. Now we want to invest additional resources in Texas.
___"We are seeking new ways to partner with the national CBF, the BGCT, local associations and individual churches to reach people for Christ," Henderson stressed.
___"We hope to help plant churches, minister to the poorest of the poor and to champion the cause of Baptist life in the state of Texas.
___"We love what the BGCT is doing and hope to be a supporting partner in reaching Texas and ministry in Texas."
___
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