ATLANTA (ABP) — The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has received another anonymous multimillion-dollar contribution for global missions, this one from a member of a Georgia church.
Bill Coates, pastor of First Baptist Church in Gainesville, Ga., presented CBF with a check from a family in his church Jan. 13, the first payment toward the $2 million pledge.
In the last two years, CBF has received two anonymous gifts totaling $9 million, both designated primarily for global missions. Without those gifts, CBF leaders said recently, the organization likely would have had to lay off some of its 150 missions workers. At the donor's request, the latest gift will fund missions projects of the national CBF and CBF of Georgia.
“It will have a significant and positive impact on our missions program, and we are very grateful,” said Frank Broome, CBF of Georgia coordinator.
“This gift is an extraordinary example of Christian stewardship and generosity,” said Daniel Vestal, the Fellowship's national coordinator. “We are very grateful to the donor for the gift as well as the spirit and humility in which it has been given.” “First Baptist Church of Gainesville is blessed to have this family among us,” said Coates, the pastor. “They are repeatedly generous with our own congregation and with the larger purposes of the church beyond our local community.”
-30-