By Dan Lattimore
Mission service topped the agenda of the Tennessee Cooperative Baptist Fellowship as more than 220 participants at the annual meeting in Memphis April 11-12 engaged in 14 projects across the city.
Enfleshing the meeting’s theme — “Be, Love, Serve” — the projects ranged from building compost bins for an urban farm to stocking shelves at a Habitat for Humanity “ReStore.” Other initiatives included building a handicap ramp for an elderly person, planting 200 trees and painting old car tires for flower planters to beautify the community. The volunteers scattered throughout Memphis in bright yellow T-shirts displaying “Be, Love, Serve Memphis.”
The theme was also prominent at a Friday night worship service with speakers explaining biblical insight into the three words. CBF national executive coordinator Suzii Paynter, Ray Higgins, coordinator of the CBF of Arkansas, and Mollie Palmer, co-director of Together for Hope in Helena, Ark., suggested the three words encompass the gospel.
Tennessee CBF coordinator Terry Maples summarized the theme as a call to “be” like Christ with “love” the motivating force to “serve” by putting feet into action. He said that by repeating the process one grows in discipleship and makes a difference in the world.
People learn more by doing, Maples said. “While you may only remember a small fraction of what was said in a meeting, you will remember 90 to 95 percent of involvement in a service project and will be able to share that experience with others in your church.”
Paynter said other state CBF organizations incorporate mission service into their meetings but in different ways or throughout the year. In contrast, the Tennessee CBF projects were an integral part of the two-day Memphis meeting.
Often she doesn’t get to participate in the mission projects, Paynter said, but she was able to work on a blight-eradication project and added she “loved the service aspect of the meeting; it was awesome.”
The projects were organized by volunteers from Second Baptist Church in Memphis, coordinated by Catherine Piche. She was “thrilled by the turnout and the intergenerational work” throughout the mission endeavors. Other area churches providing leadership were First Baptist Church in Memphis and Trinity Baptist Church in Cordova.
“The day of mission was a first for a TCBF assembly,” said Stephen Cook, pastor of Second Baptist. “The response was overwhelmingly positive. Not only did it bring people from across the state together to engage in shared work for the common good, but it also gave the three Memphis congregations a platform for collaboration.”
Cook said he hopes the initiative will be a model for future gatherings — especially in light of a dynamic observed by participants.
“The average age of the crowd went down dramatically from Friday to Saturday and the size of the group that turned out more than doubled,” he said. “We went from hearing about the work of the church to doing the work of the church and people want to be a part of that. It was terrific!”