I love American summer-- it brings a lot of Christians together, in denominational meetings, that is!
Over the weekend (June 19-20), the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship held its General Assembly in the Blues and Barbecues City of Memphis, Tennessee! There were 1,824 registered participants at the gathering. Leaders had predicted an attendance of 4,000, but the hall in which the meeting was held contained only 2,800 seats.
The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is a direct result of a reaction of moderate congregations and pastors who felt that they were no longer being represented in the Southern Baptist Convention when it showed very strong bent towards the conservative side that began in the later 70's to the early 90's. In 1990, these disheartened churches and ministers gathered in Atlanta, Georgia and started the Fellowship. However, CBF does not consider itself a denomination, but a fellowship of churches and Christians cooperating for a missional purpose, although it functions as one in some ways. Today, the CBF is a conglomeration of 1900 churches.
Amazingly, it is the only national gathering of Baptists (or Protestants, for that matter) with very little issues discussed! Throughout the assembly, the whenever the moderator, Harriet Harrall would open the floor for debate and discussion, there were very little number who would want to engage in a debate!
Attendees heard a strong criticism June 19 of anyone who believes Scripture limits the office of pastor to men. Chuck Poole, senior pastor of Northminster Baptist Church in Jackson, Miss., said during a theme interpretation that the church he once attended claimed to take the Bible seriously but ignored its teaching on women.Proper interpretation of Scripture, he said, involves realizing that some passages "embody the spirit of Jesus" more than others."I came to see that passages such as Galatians 3:28 really did embody the spirit of Jesus more fully than passages that drew a small circle and raised a tall wall. And quicker than you can say, 'new skins with new wine,' I came to see that if we were not going to ordain women, we were going to have to stop baptizing girls," Poole said to applause. But what else is new and what was Poole's issue? CBF does ordain women.
Anyway, their goal for the meeting was to Discern God's Will. According to Daniel Vestal, Executive Coordinator for the CBF, "This is what we are attempting this year as a fellowship of Baptists Christians and churches– to discern God’s leadership for the future. And we are attempting to do it together."
Daniel Vestal, Executive Coordinator
But like any other CBF gathering, there are still some hints of bitterness and dismay with their past affilliation with the SBC reflected in some of the leaders' comments like:
Daniel Vestal said- “In 1993 I was at Southern Seminary about to enter the PhD program when Al Mohler was installed as president. My wife and I sat together that night and asked ourselves if we could still be Baptists in light of the pain that was going on. I went to bed that night…and I was unsure."
Molly Marshall said she has long desired to start a denomination called the "not that kind of Baptists Baptists" in reference to the SBC.
The Fellowship gathering ended with a Celebration of Missional Churches Program, and endorsing the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals in October, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship focused on its commitment through a report by CBF moderator-elect Jack Glasgow, workshops and the launch of new ministry initiatives at the 18th annual General Assembly in Memphis, Tenn.
In June 2007, the Assembly sent a motion to the CBF Coordinating Council “to investigate the feasibility and means by which the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship might be involved in acting with other bodies to reach the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.”
The eight goals are eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; achieve universal primary education; promote gender equality; reduce child mortality; improve maternal health; decrease HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensure environmental sustainability; and create global partnerships for development.
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