(Editor’s note: This story is a republished version of one of four content items, originally posted on ABPnews.com on Sept. 16, that were lost due to a hacker attack on our website later that evening.)
ATLANTA (ABP) — Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Executive Coordinator Daniel Vestal announced Sept. 15 the membership of a special panel to study ways the group and its partners can most effectively minister in the future without competing for resources.
Daniel Vestal
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In a special communication to CBF supporters, Vestal also encouraged them to provide feedback to the 2012 Task Force via the organization’s website.
“With ‘an abundance mentality’ let’s explore ways to increase resources for the mission we have been given,” Vestal wrote. “Let us not be afraid to consider different models (new and old) of connection and collaboration for effective ministry. In the coming months let us attend to our organizational and institutional well-being. Let us seek ways to be more effective and fruitful, more vibrant and vital.”
The task force — first contemplated at a special retreat on the future of CBF and its 20 partner agencies convened by Texas Baptist philanthropist Babs Baugh in April at a Georgia conference center — was appointed by CBF moderator Hal Bass, dean of the Sutton School of Social Sciences at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Ark.
Chaired by David Hull, pastor of First Baptist Church in Huntsville, Ala., the panel is made up of ministers, CBF national and state staffers, executives of CBF partner agencies and laypeople from CBF partner congregations. Besides Hull, members are Stephen Cook, pastor of First Baptist Church in Danville, Va.; Alan Culpepper, dean of Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology in Atlanta; Susan Deal, an associate pastor at College Park Baptist Church in Orlando, Fla.; Ray Higgins, coordinator of CBF of Arkansas; Laura Hoffman, a member of Third Baptist Church in St. Louis; Holly Hollman, general counsel of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty in Washington; Tony Hopkins, pastor of First Baptist Church in Greenwood, S.C.; Larry Hovis, coordinator of CBF of North Carolina; Kasey Jones, pastor of National Memorial Baptist Church in Washington; Ruth Perkins Lee, minister of students at First Baptist Church in Auburn, Ala.; Rene Maciel, president of Baptist University of the Americas in San Antonio; Connie McNiell, CBF’s coordinator of administration in Atlanta; and Jean Kenlan Willingham, a member of the CBF Foundation board and former moderator of CBF of Florida.“The composition reflects a wide diversity within CBF,” Vestal said.
The panel will that will report at next year’s CBF General Assembly in Tampa, Fla., and the 2012 meeting in Fort Worth, Texas.
David Hull
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It comes at a time of financial plateau and regular budget cutbacks for the 20-year-old organization formed by moderates and progressives disenchanted with the rightward lurch of the Southern Baptist Convention during the 1980s and 90s.
“We recognize that having a collaborative funding approach, where partners — whether it’s state, regions or identity partners like Baptist Joint Committee, Baptist Center for Ethics, press organizations, whether it’s theological schools — we need to be able to come together and say for the next 20 years what is our strategy going to be for getting the dollars to where they need to be that they can be used best and so we send a message to individual Christians and congregations that is a consistent message of how we can best fund God’s enterprises,” immediate past CBF moderator Jack Glasgow said, in discussing the study during the CBF General Assembly last June in Charlotte, N.C.
Along with funding, the task force will examine ways to streamline organizational structures to help churches and other ministries respond more effectively to global needs and help churches and individuals to embrace their identity as part of the CBF.
Vestal encouraged CBF supporters to learn more about the task force’s work, read biographical sketches of its members and provide feedback on the 2012 Task Force page on the organization’s website.
“[L]et this Task Force hear from you,” he said. “Several have already done so, but I hope you will feel free to write/call any or all of them. You can also send your comments through the 2012 Task Force website. And then as more formal listening opportunities unfold, please participate.”
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Robert Marus is managing editor and Washington bureau chief for Associated Baptist Press. ABP Senior Writer Bob Allen contributed to this story.
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Related ABP stories:
CBF to evaluate structure, funding in two-year study (6/25/2010)
CBF leaders, partner executives discuss organization’s future (5/3/2010)