By Bob Allen
The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Governing Board discussed a forthcoming restructuring of global missions in a two-and-a-half hour executive session during the final afternoon of its Sept. 17-18 fall meeting at First Baptist Church in Decatur, Ga.
After the meeting reopened, the Governing Board approved motions recommending a plan for filling vacancies on the organization’s three leadership groups in the interim between annual meetings and policies for engagement and exploration of ministry partners.
While the bulk of the two-day fall meeting consisted of listening to reports, moderator Matt Cook told the 16-member Governing Board they look forward to a busy year.
“There are two big things that are coming down the pike that are going to give us an enormous opportunity,” said Cook, pastor of First Baptist Church in Wilmington, N.C.
“The Missions Council is working on a new strategic plan for how we do mission,” Cook said. “Mission is at the very heart of who we are as a Fellowship. That, in my mind, is a concrete example of us embracing our identity, of us knowing who we are and ministering out of it. That’s going to open a lot of doors and a lot of possibilities for us.”
The other, he said, is the launch of a major fundraising campaign starting with the CBF’s 25th anniversary General Assembly June 20-24 in Greensboro, N.C.
“It’s going to be an amazing rallying cry for our Fellowship as we together start asking the question what might God do if we all put our resources out there together and we embrace what it means to do global mission, to embrace what it means to serve churches, if we embrace the great hope and energy that young Baptists have in our midst,” Cook said.
“This year, we as a Governing Board get to serve in the midst of great possibility,” he said. “My hope for us and my challenge to us is that we live up to that moment and that we do every single thing in our power to make certain that these wonderful moments in front of us are everything God wants them to be through us.”
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