WASHINGTON, D.C. (ABP) — Leaders of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship endorsed the New Baptist Covenant June 27, saying the mission of the diverse Covenant coalition is consistent with the Fellowship's core values.
The New Baptist Covenant, launched by former president and Baptist layman Jimmy Carter last April, is a broad-based initiative to improve the image of Baptists in North America and unite the majority of those Baptists into a loose-knit network committed to the gospel message of Jesus and to addressing social ills.
The six-paragraph CBF statement was adopted without opposition by the Coordinating Council, the Fellowship's top decision-making body, June 27, one day prior to the Fellowship's annual general assembly. The council also approved a budget 3.3 percent smaller than the current spending plan.
Although 3,000 to 4,000 CBF members are expected to attend the two-day general assembly in downtown Washington, the body is not expected to adopt or endorse the Carter initiative.
But Covenant program chairman Jimmy Allen of Big Canoe, Ga., urged those gathered for the assembly's opening session to participate in the inaugural Covenant event Jan. 30-Feb. 1, which organizers hope will draw 20,000 people to Atlanta and launch an unprecedented ministry collaboration among the famously independent-minded Baptists.
Allen called the January event “the most significant meeting [Baptists] have had in a hundred years.” Baptists have eschewed such broad-based cooperation since before the Civil War, historians have noted.
The Coordinating Council statement said, “It is hard to imagine any development among Baptists more consistent with the spirit, ideals and core values of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship than the creation of the New Baptist Covenant.”
Paraphrasing the Covenant mission statement, the Coordinating Council said, “Our Fellowship desires to bring persons and congregations together for Christ-centered ministry. We strive to be a catalyst for renewal among the body of Christ. We seek to be the presence of Christ in ministry with the poorest and most neglected persons. We attempt to be a voice that champions historic Baptist principles of freedom and liberty.'
“How marvelous is the opportunity before us — to carry out our deepest sense of mission in covenant with a diverse group of North American Baptists,” it concluded.
So far, 40 Baptist denominations and organizations in the United States and Canada have indicated a willingness to participate in the Covenant. The organizations, which include most of the Baptist denominations in North America except the Southern Baptist Convention, encompass about 20 million Baptists.
That's more than the 16 million members claimed by the SBC, the largest Baptist group in the world. SBC leaders, who have moved sharply to the political and theological right in the last 25 years, have already cut off relations with most of the Covenant organizations and criticized the Carter initiative as a political effort.
Although the January meeting boasts some of the United States' most prominent Baptist politicians as speakers, organizers insist it is a non-partisan and apolitical event to inspire gospel-based ministry.
The Coordinating Council statement was written by Jack Glasgow, pastor of Zebulon Baptist Church in Zebulon, N.C. Glasgow is expected to be voted in as Fellowship moderator-elect June 29, which puts him next in line for the Fellowship's top elected office. In that capacity, he will lead both the council and the larger Fellowship body.
Current moderator Emmanuel McCall, a seminary professor and pastor in the Atlanta area, is the first African-American to serve in that role. He will be succeeded this year by Harriet Harral, an organizational consultant from Fort Worth, Texas, and then Glasgow.
The Washington meeting of the Fellowship is historic also because it is the first joint meeting of CBF and the American Baptist Churches, USA, The groups will hold a combined worship service June 29, in which they will commission their first jointly appointed missionaries.
In his report to the council, Executive Coordinator Daniel Vestal, CBF's chief executive, celebrated the growth of the Fellowship's ministry partnerships, particularly internationally. “These Baptist bodies around the world want to work with us, not because they want money; they just want to be treated with respect, treated as brothers and sisters,” he said.
He cited five “challenges” CBF faces: 1) “codifying” those partnerships, 2) “strategic prioritizing” of CBF's many ministries and partnerships, 3) reviving slumping contributions and fund-raising, 4) enhancing Web-based communications, and 5) increasing collaboration with CBF's partners and state affiliates.
The council approved a $16,481,000 budget for 2007-08 that is a 3.3 percent reduction from the current budget of $17,050,000. The proposed budget, which still requires approval of the general assembly June 29, cuts funding for most ministry areas, including global missions.
Only two ministry areas receive increases: “faith formation,” primarily for spiritual and “missional-church” training for congregational leaders, and “building community,” primarily for Hispanic church-planting and networking among Christian educators. Most traditional partner organizations receive cuts in the proposed budget.
Vestal said he is “not happy with” the organization's current revenues and warned that making additional cuts in CBF spending would require difficult choices.
In concluding his report, Vestal said his primary concern is communicating the gospel of Jesus. “There are still a billion people in this world who have no access to the gospel,” he said. “… My heart yearns to see people come to faith in Christ.”
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