July 15, 2002
Vestal's vision for CBF hinges on vitality of churches
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___FORT WORTH--The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship will only be as healthy as its churches, and its churches will only be healthy if they embody the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, according to Daniel Vestal.
___Vestal, a former Texas pastor who is coordinator of the Atlanta-based CBF, made this assessment the theme of a "vision" message he delivered to CBF's general assembly in Fort Worth June 28.
___"The future of CooperativeBaptist Fellowship must be tied to the health and welfare of churches," he explained. "CBF is not the church. We are a fellowship of churches and Christians whose very purpose for existence is to serve churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission."
Daniel Vestal delivers a message on vision for CBF during the general assembly in Fort Worth. (Photo by Mark Sandlin/CBF)
___While people may offer different visions of what the mission of the church should be, Vestal acknowledged, his vision for CBF churches is that they emulate Christ.
___"The mission given by God to every Christian and every church is to be an embodiment and an extension of Jesus Christ in the world," he declared. "We are to be what Christ was while he was on earth. We are to do what Christ did while he was on earth. ... We are to be Christ in the world."
___But not all churches, including many CBF churches, are ready to be the presence of Christ in the world, Vestal warned. They are prevented from this mission, he said, by ill health, joylessness, immorality and cowardice.
___"Has the church today lost its ability to be prophetic?" he asked. "Is our moral vision clouded because our moral convictions are compromised? How can we call people to discernment, moderation and discipline, when we ourselves are overweight, overworked and overwrought? How can we change a prevailing permissiveness in sexual morality when so many in our pulpits and pews practice that same permissiveness?"
___At the same time, he said, churches that emulate the ministry of Jesus will love sinners. But, "How can we love sinners outside the church if we don't love sinners inside the church?" he asked.
___Moderate Baptists, he warned, "are critical of one another, cynical and caustic instead of compassionate and kind."
___Another barrier to emulating Christ, Vestal said, is lack of joy.
___"I'm in a whole lot of churches where there is a deadness and a joylessness," he reported. "The music is joyless. The preaching is joyless. The people are joyless. And I'm not talking about style or liturgy. I'm talking about spirit."
___Further, churches that emulate Jesus must learn to sacrifice, Vestal said.
___"Has the church today lost its ability to sacrifice and suffer?" he asked. "Please don't hear me saying we should go looking for sacrifice and suffering. What I am saying is that we must be willing to accept sacrifice and suffering when it is necessary to do the will of God."
___Throughout his message, Vestal drew illustrations from a recent visit to China, where he met with Christians who endured persecution under communist rule and where he saw a vibrant Christian church that has emerged from repression.
___American churches should learn from the way Chinese Christians emulate the life and ministry of Jesus, he charged.
___Vestal told several stories about individual Chinese who through simple means have given bold witnesses in their everyday tasks.
___"These Chinese people were simply living their lives as Christians," he surmised. "They were incarnating the life of Jesus."
___Churches that emulate Christ will be prophetic and priestly at the same time and they will celebrate and sacrifice at the same time, Vestal said.
___"Can you imagine churches that function as the presence of Christ? They will laugh together and cry together. They will sing together and then scatter to places of great need. The people in these churches will learn of Christ, follow Christ and embody Christ.
___"This is why CBF exists," he said. "Not for ourselves, but for the body of Christ, and through the body of Christ, reconciliation and redemption for a world that is broken and hurting. All this, that God be glorified and God's kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven."
___
The Baptist Standard
News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.
Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!/ Signup for FirstLook