BOWIE, Md. — Cooperative Baptist Fellowship churches in Maryland and the District of Columbia have significant human and financial resources to share with the national CBF movement and they need to “tap into that” to impact the organization, members of those congregations were told Feb. 24.
“We have great resources to share with the larger CBF family,” said Maryland pastor Cameron Edgar at the annual meeting of the Mid-Atlantic CBF. “This region needs to be heard at the national level.”
MACBF Cameron Edgar (right) introduced Trey Sullivan, the organization's new communications specialist. (Religious Herald photo)
|
Edgar, MACBF moderator and pastor of College Parkway Baptist Church in Arnold, Md., said the region which includes the national capital area has “a tremendous amount of potential.”
“We need to tap into that and celebrate what the CBF is about, and to honor who we are in God’s name,” he said.
Most of the MACBF’s 50 affiliated congregations are in Maryland and D.C., but the region includes Delaware and West Virginia. A couple of churches in Washington’s Virginia suburbs participate as well.
Cameron, who had just returned from a meeting of the national CBF’s Coordinating Council, said changes in governing structures — adopted last summer at the CBF’s general assembly — mean the MACBF will not initially be directly represented. He and others are advocating to alter that, he added.
Among the structural changes are the replacement of the 60-member Coordinating Council — comprising representatives of the CBF’s affiliated state and regional organizations — with a 16-member governing board, which, while geographically diverse, won’t be based on representation from state and regional bodies.
Washington pastor Kasey Jones, a former Coordinating Council member, said the MACBF’s lack of representation reflects the uncertainly of the CBF’s transition to a new organizational model.
“CBF national is trying to figure out a movement that came out of struggles with the Southern Baptist Convention, and the numbers [of churches and people] are primarily in the South,” said Jones, pastor of National Baptist Memorial Church in Washington. “They have to figure out what it looks like [to expand representation].”
Participants at the MACBF annual meeting gathered around tables to discuss dynamics in their churches. (Religious Herald photo)
|
A key part of the CBF’s transition is the recent election of a new executive coordinator, Suzii Paynter, who will assume her role on March 1. Edgar said he’s eager for Paynter to visit the MACBF’s region, “to come and share her vision.”
During its annual meeting, the regional affiliate adopted a $51,200 budget for the fiscal year beginning April 1. Of that total, $13,000 is “pass-through” contributions from churches to national CBF ministries, and another $8,000 is gifts to the CBF’s Global Missions Offering.
The new budget includes funding for the MACBF’s first communications specialist. At the meeting, Cameron introduced Trey Sullivan, a member of Calvary Baptist Church in Washington, who will handle the organization’s communications strategy on a part-time basis. Sullivan is on the staff of Georgetown University.
Collaboration with the CBF of North Carolina also was on the annual meeting’s agenda. Jones said a “real intentional partnership” with the CBFNC over at least a three-year period will feature an exchange of mission teams and of speakers at events. “The CBFNC is excited about the potential and ideas,” she said.
The collaboration was represented by Rick Jordan, CBFNC’s church resources coordinator, who was a keynote speaker at the annual meeting. Jones has been invited to speak at the CBFNC’s general assembly in Lumberton, N.C., March 15-16.
The MACBF also has developed a close working relationship with the CBF of Virginia.
In his comments, Jordan told his audience that despite the natural anxiety of the CBF’s transition, “there is good news” to be celebrated.
“There is good news because there is community,” he said. “Even though we may be in isolation and there might be distance between us, we have things in common in our faith and heritage that do unite us. The Church is the body of Christ, and we’re all gifted. We have those gifts to share with one another.
“It’s my hope that during the transition we will be able to share even more,” he added.
In other business, Silver Spring, Md., pastor Connie Stinson urged participants to attend a second annual clergy retreat just after Easter and a first laity retreat in September, both hosted by the MACBF at a facility just outside Baltimore.
“Of all the good things we do, I’m proudest of our retreats,” said Stinson, pastor of Luther Rice Memorial Baptist Church in Silver Spring. “The crazy hubbub of our lives tells us we need time to be refreshed.”
Robert Dilday ([email protected]) is managing editor of the Religious Herald.