Today I want to focus on CBF as a fellowship. All the words in our name are important. We are cooperative, which describes how we will engage in missions and ministry. We are Baptist which describes some core values that we share.
But the word fellowship speaks of our common life together. Even though we are separated from each other by geography and even though we are members of autonomous churches, we have formed ourselves into an organized (some would say too organized and others would say not organized enough) body of Baptist Christians and churches. We give money, attend meetings, elect leadership, operate with bylaws, budgets and policies and make decisions, all of which are expressions of an organization.
We are formed as a denominational-like association to resource congregations, develop leaders, and be a congregational partner for Global Missions. We are a member body of the Baptist World Alliance and today we will consider becoming a member body of a new ecumenical organization in the US. We are an NGO, a chaplaincy endorsing body and I believe we are a work of grace and a movement of renewal in the Baptist family. But today, my remarks have to do with us as a fellowship.
I. FIRST, THE FOUNDATION OF OUR FELLOWSHIP IS JESUS CHRIST.
In the crucified, risen Christ is our foundation, our unity, our center. We have heard a call to Christian discipleship and we have answered that call. Our decision to follow Christ is free and voluntary. We have confessed our discipleship in baptism and live out our discipleship in congregational communities.
This is the tie that binds our hearts in unity. This is the bond that brings us together for shared ministry. This is the foundation upon which we build. Some would ask "But don’t you need something else to insure effective cooperation? Don’t you need creedal statements that insure conformity? Don’t you need an authoritative structure that insures compliance? Don’t you need authoritarian leadership to insure collaboration?" The answer is that our personal experience of God’s grace revealed in Jesus Christ is what binds us together. It is this common experience of faith in Jesus Christ and relationship to Jesus Christ as Lord that is the basis of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Is that enough? I contend that it is. To be immersed in Christ, to partake of Christ, to participate in Christ’s divine life and share Christ’s divine love not only forms our lives as individuals but forms us into a fellowship.
Earlier this year, the coordinators took a three-day retreat. We listened to a tape by the Franciscan monk, Richard Rohr. In it he illustrated how people who have had a near death experience, (which are one in 20 Americans,) emerge from such experiences with an almost unanimously common world view. Their belief systems are as follows: 1. They have an amazing ability to be in and enjoy the Presence. 2. They have a quiet confidence that it’s all OK. 3. Decreased interest in material values. 4. For them, spirituality becomes absolutely central to life. 5. They exhibit a much higher level of natural compassion. 6. They have a strong sense of the purpose of life.
After listening to these characteristics of people who share a near death experience, I asked myself, shouldn’t our experience of the crucified living Christ do the same for us and shouldn’t it forge us together into a community? I believe that this is something of the meaning of the words of 1 John 1: 1-3,
(1) "We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life – (2) this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us – (3) we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ."
II.
THE VISION OF OUR FELLOWSHIP IS TO BE THE PRESENCE OF CHRIST TO ONE ANOTHER AND THE WORLD.
This vision calls forth from all of us a self sacrifice and surrender to God that is not easy but perhaps even more, it requires the work of the Spirit that touches the deepest part of our beings.
I’m convinced that without such work of the Spirit, this Fellowship, though it may do some good things, will not have the influence and impact that is so desperately needed in this broken world. Being the presence of Christ sounds simple until one begins to take it seriously. Let me ask three questions.
The first question is CAN WE BE THE PRESENCE OF CHRIST TO THOSE WITH WHOM WE DIFFER?
Sometimes we can resolve