Jesus the foundation for fellowship in CBF, coordinator says_71204

Posted: 7/09/04

Jesus the foundation for fellowship in CBF, coordinator says

By Marv Knox

Editor

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.–“Fellowship” is a defining principle for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, CBF Coordinator Daniel Vestal declared at the organization's general assembly.

Although CBF participants are separated by geography and involved in autonomous churches, they're organized as a fellowship, a collection of Christian friends “unlike a convention structure,” Vestal said.

He cited four principles of the CBF's fellowship:

“The foundation of our fellowship is Jesus Christ,” he insisted, noting each individual who affiliates with the CBF has responded to the call of Christ upon her or his life.

CBF Coordinator Daniel Vestal and Linda Davis-Mitchum, a CBF Leadership Scholar, pray during a session of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship general assembly in Birmingham, Ala. (Stanley Leary)

“We are Christian. This is the tie that binds our hearts together,” he said.

“But don't we need something else?” he asked, referencing creedal statements and authoritative structures that provide the stack-poles for other Christian groups.

“The answer is it is our common experience of faith and relationship to Jesus as Lord that is the basis of our Fellowship,” he responded. “Is that enough? I contend that it is. … We find our center unapologetically in Jesus the Christ.”

'”Our vision is to be the presence of Christ to one another and the world,” he added.

“This vision calls forth a kind of self-sacrifice and surrender to God that is not easy,” he acknowledged, citing several challenges to that goal.

“Can we be the presence of Christ to those with whom we differ? This seems to be the acid test of fellowship,” he said, noting CBF people differ over such topics as the war in Iraq, homosexuality and abortion, Demo-cratic and Republican politics, and embryonic stem-cell research.

"Can we be the presence of Christ to one another and this world when we are different from one another?" he added. "We devalue those who are different," but God blends their differences together to make "a symphony" that would not be possible if all Christians were alike.

“Can we be the presence of Christ to those who are difficult?” he queried, pointing out Jesus said his followers do not do well if they love only those who love them.

He urged CBF people to refrain from controlling and manipulating others, as well as to open themselves to others, intently focusing on each other as they relate.

'”Our mission is to serve,” he said, asking God to help the CBF never to become a hierarchical structure that uses others for its own gain.

“We exist to serve,” he charged. “We are a fellowship whose mission is to serve one another, to serve churches, to serve the poor.”

Admitting the CBF is not perfect, Vestal said the call to service transcends weaknesses and demands involvement for the sake of others.

"This Fellowship is worthy of your love and your care. It needs your love and your care," he said. "CBF needs pastors and laypeople … who want to serve" the poor, the disadvantaged, the people across the nation and around the world who do not have Christ in their lives.

“Our commitment is together,” he reported.

“We want to be and do all this together,” he said. “I believe the time is right for some new convergences. God is a god of convergences.”

He pointed to two significant “convergences” for the CBF–its recent membership in the Baptist World Alliance, a grouping of 211 Baptist denominations around the world, and a proposal to become a founding member of Christian Churches Together in the USA, a new ecumenical movement.

“It is time for Christians to converge together in the public square,” he said.

“We want to care about the poor, and we want to care for the poor. The time is right for people to converge, … to work for peace and prosperity, for justice and reconciliation.

“There has never been an hour when there was a greater need for Christian convergence.”

Christian unity will express Christian love, which “is able to bring permanent hope and peace to this world,” he said.

In another address, CBF Moderator Cynthia Holmes described how she is thankful for the organization.

Holmes, an attorney and member of Overland Baptist Church in St. Louis, has been the CBF's top elected leader the past year.

“I'm thankful to claim the label 'Baptist,'” Holmes said, noting CBF has the opportunity to champion endangered Baptist principles, such as soul competence, local church autonomy, religious liberty and freedom of conscience.

Holmes said she is thankful 226 churches joined the ranks of CBF congregations this past year, and that individuals felt God's leadership to make special gifts of $2 million and $5 million to the organization.

She expressed thanks that CBF not only helped provide support for about a dozen seminaries but also provided leadership scholarships to 77 students, and that the organization received a grant to create leadership networks that involve 350 ministers.

Other topics of gratitude included the Fellowship's partnerships with news organizations and ethics agencies, as well as ecumenical coalitions.

Holmes noted she is grateful the CBF has endorsed 414 chaplains, sent 151 career missionaries, involved 2,500 volunteers in its Rural Poverty Initiative to minister in the nation's poorest counties.

She also expressed gratitude that CBF partners with other Baptist groups, such as the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas, the Baptist Medical-Dental Fellowship, the All-Africa Baptist Fellowship, the Protestant Hour, the hunger- and poverty-fighting groups World Vision and Call to Renewal, the Baptist World Alliance and Christian Churches Together.