LUMBERTON, N.C. — The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina began preparations March 15-16 to celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2014, initiating a “discernment process” to set future priorities and announcing a new annual mission and ministry offering to be launched next year.
During its General Assembly at First Baptist Church in Lumberton, the CBFNC also welcomed newly-elected national CBF coordinator Suzii Paynter, elected its own officers for the coming year and adopted a slightly reduced budget for 2013-2014 of more than $1.5 million.
At the CBFNC's General Assembly, Ray Ammons of Gastonia assumed the post of moderator and Lisa Rust of Lumberton was elected moderator-elect. (Religious Herald photo)
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The North Carolina Fellowship’s visioning for the future comes on the heels of the national CBF’s adoption of a new strategy for identity, governance and financial support which will guide its course over the next several years.
“Our task is to lead you in a discernment process about our future,” Guy Sayles, co-chair of the CBFNC’s vision team, told the General Assembly. Sayles, pastor of First Baptist Church in Asheville, said the team is soliciting ideas and dreams from Baptists across the state, some of which were shared during three listening sessions in Lumberton.
“Over the spring and summer our team will evaluate what we’ve heard, pay attention to our history, acknowledge our strengths and challenges, and listen to voice of the Spirit who speaks through all those avenues of input,” Sayles said. “That will allow overarching themes and possibilities to emerge.”
The vision team will develop a report to present to the CBFNC’s Coordinating Council in early 2014, he said. After considering and refining the report, the council will “recommend a sense of direction for the years ahead” at the General Assembly in Greensboro March 28-29.
“Our early sense is that we’ll ask the ‘why’ questions more than the ‘how’ questions,” said Sayles. “Why does the CBFNC exist? In what ways does it matter that we exist in this state? There are good answers to those questions, I’m confident, but we need to be clear about what they are. With those ‘why’ questions in view we can answer the ‘how’ questions.”
New offering
Part of the “how” likely will be addressed through a new annual mission and ministry offering, announced in Lumberton but to be officially launched next year in Greensboro.
“To sustain our ministries, much less grow our ministries, we must continue to expand our base of prayer and financial support,” said Lisa Rust, a Lumberton layperson and council member who unveiled the initiative. “The offering also provides an opportunity for education and identity in new ways.”
A brochure distributed at the General Assembly said the aim of the offering, with an inaugural theme of “Done in Love,” will allow churches, individuals and partners to sustain and grow the CBFNC’s mission and ministry, educate churches and individuals about the organization and encourage greater engagement, and strengthen the CBFNC’s identity.
Rust said in the year prior to the offering’s launch, “Charter Churches” will be encouraged to conduct preliminary emphases in their congregations to evaluate the promotional process and related resources. Those churches will be recognized at the Greensboro assembly.
Paynter, who was elected the national CBF’s top administrator Feb. 21, told General Assembly participants the CBFNC represents “the hope of our future” and she had witnessed its impact internationally.
Suzii Paynter, new executive coordinator for the national CBF, was greeted by well-wishers at the North Carolina Fellowship's General Assembly. (Religious Herald photo)
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“In the last eight years as director of the hunger offering for Texas Baptists, it has been my privilege to partner with mission projects around the world,” Paynter said. “As I went to these sites … I would talk to field personnel who would say that such and such church from North Carolina had been there to help. Over and over again I met you in far-flung places being the presence of Christ under the name and banner of the CBF.”
Paynter will join CBFNC executive coordinator Larry Hovis on a tour of the state April 30-May 2, with events in Asheville, Winston-Salem, Greenville, Raleigh and Charlotte.
During a business session, Rust, a member of First Baptist Church in Lumberton, was elected moderator-elect, as Ray Ammons, pastor of First Baptist Church in Gastonia, assumed the post of moderator. Outgoing moderator Donna Bissette, a Winston-Salem layperson and member of Ardmore Baptist Church there, remains on the Coordinating Council for the next year.
Also elected were treasurer Mike Eddinger of Cary and recorder Marion Horton of Knightdale, as well as additional members of the Coordinating Council, three ministry councils and the endowment management board.
The adopted budget of $1,525,682 — which will support the CBFNC’s ministries and 15 ministry partners in 2013-2014 — is 1.32 percent less than the current budget. Eddinger, the treasurer, said that the past fiscal year was the second best on record but revenues were still slightly below budgeted needs, prompting the reduced proposal as a “faithful and responsible financial plan.”
“Even with a leaner budget, the Coordinating Council is committed to maintaining a high level of service and ministry — that won’t change,” Eddinger said. “We hope to see growth in giving this year and continue to explore creative way to encourage that.”
An additional $2.4 million is anticipated through the Mission Resource Plan, which provides a channel for churches to designate funds to specific CBFNC ministries and to a variety of colleges, universities and divinity schools, social ministry organizations and identity partners.
All told, more than $3.5 million in ministry funding is expected to be channeled through the CBFNC in 2013-2014.
Embodying Christ
In other action, the inaugural Grace Note awards were presented to an individual and two churches which “embody Christ” in their efforts “to encourage, develop and facilitate understanding and responses to wealth and poverty.” First recipients of the new annual award are:
- Pat Byrd, a member of First Baptist Church in Ahoskie, who coordinates the Roanoke Chowan Christian Women’s Job Corps, a Woman’s Missionary Union of North Carolina-affiliated program which equips women for life and employment. The organization is based at First Baptist Church.
- The Baptist Fellowship of Angier, whose afternoon tutoring and feeding program is “at the core of its identity.”
- St. John’s Baptist Church in Charlotte, which every weekend provides meals for children who depend on public school feeding programs during the week, and which has renovated a portion of its building to house the homeless.
Grace Note awards will “highlight the ordinary and extraordinary work being done in our communities,” said Jason Williams of Charlotte, who chairs the CBFNC’s wealth and poverty committee.
In one of two messages during the General Assembly, Greenville pastor Greg Rogers said church leaders must model the practice of spiritual disciplines if they are to be widely adopted by congregations.
“Most of us are clueless about how to take people and shape and form them and fashion them in such a way that they talk like, look like and have the heart of Jesus,” said Rogers, pastor of Oakmont Baptist Church in Greenville. “You can’t have missional engagement without spiritual formation.”
In a “sermon in dialogue,” pastors Kasey Jones of National Baptist Memorial Church in Washington and Tommy Justus of Mars Hill Baptist Church described a deepening partnership between the two congregations.
Mars Hill has learned from its collaboration with the Washington church, said Justus. “Too often we’ve tried to show people how to do ministry,” he said. “But we learned resiliency. … We learned about feeding [hungry people], especially children. … And finally, we learned how to ask for help. It’s a hard thing to do.”
“It’s a trick of the enemy for people to allow shame to keep them from receiving help …,” said Jones. “We give thanks to God for being able to receive. If your church is struggling to get along, ask the Spirit to help you chlp away at the shame.”
Robert Dilday ([email protected]) is managing editor of the Religious Herald.