What holds us together?

CBF Executive Coordinator Daniel Vestal's address to the 2009 CBF General Assembly

Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is approaching a milestone of 20 years. It is also something of a threshold that has prompted me to reflect on the question, “What holds this Fellowship together? Is it our history? Or our cultural context? Or our partners? Or an organizational structure? 

What is it that holds this Fellowship together? We are not a convention of churches or a denominational organization like so many others. We do not own and operate institutions that are solely dependent on our continued existence. We do not have a tenured history that compels love and loyalty. And in a post-everything culture where local churches are reasserting their primacy what is it that can keep us connected and cooperating?

These are important questions not only for the present, but for the future. Let me offer some reflections that I hope will be encouraging. 

FIRST WE ARE BOUND TOGETHER BY SOME COMMON VALUES.
For some they may almost be assumed and unstated. And even the way they are articulated in our mission statement may not capture their essence, but Cooperative Baptist Fellowship does share some commitments about which we are passionate.

We are a “Jesus people.” We have a sincere desire to follow Jesus, as free and faithful disciples. We believe that Scripture should be interpreted in the light of Christ, that the ministry of Christ is our model for our ministry, that the message of Christ is for the whole world. and that being the presence of Christ is our mission.

We are a “Bible people.” We have differences of interpretation on many texts, but we genuinely want to be biblical in everything we do.  One reason we partner with a number of theological schools is because we value biblical scholarship and want congregational leaders who love the Bible enough to study it. One reason we are embarking on a partnership with “Faith Comes by Hearing” is because we want to listen and learn from Scripture.

We are a “mission people.” We believe both in the Great Commission and the Great Commandment. Here I like the way our mission statement reads: ‘Christ calls us to minister redemptively to the spiritual, physical, and social needs of individuals and communities.”

When I was Pastor in West Texas I preached at two cowboy camp meetings. Grady Wilson, Billy Graham’s associate, preached there on one occasion. After a stirring sermon a cowboy complemented Grady by saying, “I like your preaching because you don’t preach no theology or nothing.” Some folk have accused us of not having theological integrity or foundation. But that is not true.

Our core values are informed by deep theological roots in the Christian Gospel.

We believe in the triune God who creates all people in God’s image.
We believe all people are separated from God by sin.
We believe Christ is the Savior and Redeemer for all peoples.
We believe the Holy Spirit convicts and converts all who believe in Christ, teaches the church in the voice of the living Christ, and empowers the church and all believers for the mission of Christ in the world.
We believe in a biblical vision of justice and mercy and that the call of Christ extends to every area and relationship of life.
We believe in the authority of Scripture and that the Bible under the Lordship of Christ is central to the life of the individual and the church.

These core values bind us together.  

SECOND, WE ARE BOUND TOGETHER BY OUR LOVE OF FREEDOM.
This is at the very heart of a Baptist vision, and those that make up this Fellowship have a love affair with freedom.

 We believe every individual is a priest before God free to interpret and apply Scripture as the Spirit leads them.
We believe every church is free to order its own life and ministry
We believe in religious freedom for everyone and that the government should neither prohibit the free exercise of religion nor establish it.

I know there are some who think that the Baptist witness is not relevant or important in the 21st century, but Cooperative Baptist Fellowship disagrees. And one reason we disagree is because of our love of freedom. 

Usually freedom is not valued unless it has been lost or is threatened. I hear regularly from Baptist lay people who are in churches where there is little freedom. They always speak with grief at being in a church where freedom is no longer valued. They are not free to disagree or even discuss. They are not free to be involved in the decision making of the church. Everything is controlled and imposed.

I also hear regularly from clergy who are looking for a church where they are free to lead, where they are free to speak and live out their conscience and calling. They don’t feel free to exercise their God given gifts, but feel stifled by the tradition and inertia of the church.   

Freedom is precious. Don’t take it for granted. Thank God for freedom.

THIRD, WE ARE BOUND TOGETHER BY A COMMUNITY AND CONNECTION THAT IS PROFOUND FOR LOCAL CHURCHES.
It’s a community and connection that is broader than one state or region. It is a connection to a global mission vision that includes cross cultural missionaries, chaplains/pastoral counselors and strategic partnerships with Baptist bodies all around the world. It is a connection to the larger Baptist family and to the even larger Christian family. It’s a community of Baptist Christians and churches as well as seminaries, organizations and a host of partnering ministries.

I know there are some who do not value community beyond their own local church, but for Cooperative Baptist Fellowship this larger community has become sweet and life giving.
 
In a recent PBS special on LBJ one of his associates said, ‘I love LBJ. But I love him more when I’m not with him.” Some folk say that about their Baptist brothers and sisters. But I don’t feel that way. I need the community and connection of this Fellowship. For many of us CBF has become like an extended family that has shaped our Christian discipleship and formed our Baptist identity. It has become a Fellowship in the biblical sense of the word: creating life changing relationships.

In CBF churches can find a community that connects them to mission engagement, congregational resources and opportunities for spiritual formation, leadership development and advocacy for social justice. In this Fellowship clergy can find connection to reference and referral, chaplaincy endorsement, peer learning networks and retirement benefits. Churches can find connection for disaster response, micro enterprise lending, church planting, management for endowment funds and much more. 

But this Fellowship has also become a community that at times has challenged us and stretched us in ways that our local churches haven’t. In the nearly 20 years of its existence this Fellowship has been something of a communal laboratory of renewal. I’ve experienced this personally and have seen it in numerous individuals and churches.

CBF as a community has broadened the vision and deepened an understanding of the Gospel for so many of us: especially as it has to do with women in ministry, prayer and spiritual formation, missional church, rural poverty, the least evangelized, the marginalized and most neglected. This Fellowship is a community and connection that binds us together.

FOURTH, WE ARE BOUND TOGTHER BY A GROWING PARTICIPATION IN GOD’S MISSION TO THE WORLD.
I believe that there is an increasing awareness within churches that what binds us together is the mission of God, and that we need community and connection with one another because the mission of God is greater than any one of us or any one of our churches. In our better moments we know that the mission of God is global in scope, and nothing less than that global mission is compelling enough to bind us together.

In Baptist churches across this land there are signs of awakening to the global mission  of God. And where that awakening is taking place there is also a desire to connect with other churches, work with them, learn from them and, for the sake of mission, collaborate and cooperate.

 Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is poised to facilitate and nurture even greater participation in God’s global mission.

There are almost 2,000 congregations with 750,000 members that in some way partner within this Fellowship. We have 150 field personnel strategically placed around the world and many others ready to be placed. We have a dedicated and gifted staff. We have almost 600 chaplains and pastoral counselors, and that number is growing. We have a host of partnering ministries that see their very existence tied to helping churches. We have more than 90 peer learning networks with more than 600 clergy where trust is being built. We have 18 state/regional organizations that wish for nothing more than for Baptist Christians and churches to discover and fulfill their God given mission.

All this, and much more, is God’s doing and it is marvelous in our eyes. But what is even more marvelous is God’s redemptive mission in this world, of which we are a part. I often hear the question, “Is CBF relevant to local Baptist churches and individual Baptist Christians?” And my answer is that our relevance is ijn proportion to our participation in what God is doing in the world.

To the degree that we are missional and that we model being missional and that we help churches be missional we will be vital and vibrant. What binds us together and what will take us into the future is our involvement and engagement with God’s mission to reconcile the world to Himself through Jesus Christ.

My brothers and sisters, hear me today. The triune God loves this world, has created this world and has purposed to transform this world so that all the kingdoms of this world become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.

God is on a mission. This is the Gospel. And God invites us to participate in that mission. And even though we are frail and fallen; and even though our participation means we must be transformed; and even though our participation requires sacrifice – we are included in God’s mission. This too is the Gospel. And this is what binds us together.

We are not bound together just by historical circumstances or by geography. We are bound together by the mission of God. That mission is greater than anyone of us and all of us. But if we are to participate, really participate, in God’s global mission, we must do it together. 

ONE LAST WORD. WE ARE BOUND TOGETHER BY GRACE AND PROVIDENCE
I know we are living in a recession and in a culture that in many ways is hostile to what we believe. I also know that some of you live and serve in places where there are not many others who love and value this Fellowship. I know that some of you feel isolated, and at times, discouraged. I feel that way at times. But I believe in the grace of God and the providence of God working in and through us. 

This Fellowship is a work of God’s grace. And as we approach a milestone, our very existence is a testimony to providence. Our birth was a miracle. Our survival amidst brutal and sustained attacks is amazing. Our growth and influence within the Baptist family and the broader Christian community is humbling. The resources that God’s people have entrusted to us is at times overwhelming. I recently had a respected Baptist leader outside of CBF say about CBF, “You will never know how many people have been saved because of what God has done through you.

Providence is nearly always discerned in retrospect and even then it is seen “through a glass darkly.” This means we need to be careful and prudent in our rhetoric. But in fear and trembling as well as deep gratitude for the past two decades of history, we can sing:

Through many dangers, toils and snares
We have already come.
Tis grace has brought us safe thus far
And grace will lead us home.