ATLANTA (ABP) — A leading moderate Baptist group has signed a 10-year lease with Mercer University for offices previously occupied by the conservative Georgia Baptist Convention.
The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship will lease much of the building from Mercer University, which owns the property. The Georgia convention itself defunded the school because of a perceived drift from its Baptist roots.
The convention recently moved to new headquarters in Atlanta's northern suburbs.
CBF will rent the offices — which are part of Mercer's Atlanta campus — in an agreement that solidifies the existing partnership between the two groups. It also links CBF with other Baptist organizations that have moved or are moving into the facility.
CBF has occupied offices elsewhere on the campus since 1997, occupying space on the second floor of Mercer's McAfee School of Theology building. With the new lease, the Fellowship will move into a 19,000-square-foot space on the first floor of a facility that houses administrative offices and conference facilities.
“This new lease agreement represents a continuation of the partnership between Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Mercer University,” said Daniel Vestal, CBF's executive coordinator, in a press release. “It is a significant declaration of our commitment to the future.”
The building is also the new home of the Baptist History and Heritage Society, which moved into the facility earlier this year. The American Baptist Historical Society is scheduled to occupy space in the building as well.
“Since opening its first office on Mercer's Atlanta campus in the mid-1990s, the Fellowship and Mercer have enjoyed a productive and meaningful partnership,” said Bill Underwood, Mercer's president. “This agreement reflects our commitment to the continued growth and development of this partnership.”
CBF's move to the new office space will happen within the next year, officials said.
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