HOUSTON (ABP) — Following a year of financial hardship, the moderator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship urged the group's General Assembly July 2 to celebrate the movement's success and potential for the future.
Jack Glasgow, pastor of Zebulon Baptist Church in Zebulon, N.C., said he is grateful for the Fellowship's mission efforts and support for Baptist congregations and the larger Christian community. He also applauded the group's stands for "justice and righteousness," growing support for the Millennium Development Goals and the work of ministry partners and CBF states and regions.
Glasgow said Fellowship life today is characterized both by enthusiasm of young leaders emerging from CBF-partner theology schools and the convictions and support of older men and women who have been part of CBF from the beginning.
"We are indeed first and foremost a fellowship," Glasgow said, "a fellowship of Jesus-loving, Jesus-serving people, seeking the inspiration and empowerment of the Spirit."
CBF moderator Jack Glasgow urges General Assembly to celebrate movement. (CBF photo by J.V. McKinney)
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Glasgow said the right biblical metaphor to describe the movement is the post-exilic world of Ezra and Nehemiah, when both those old enough to remember the days before the Babylonian exile and those who had little historical memory of that time worked together to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.
"Some have stories to remember," he said of today's CBF. "Some have stories to forget. Some come with few stories in their rear-view mirror but with burning passion for the story up ahead that is calling them to faithfulness."
Like the ancient Israelites, Glasgow said, today's CBF finds common cause. "We are to partner together and encourage one another as we build a missional fellowship of Baptist Christians and congregations called the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship," he said.
Glasgow encouraged "passionate commitment and joyful support" by Fellowship members of all stripes.
Glasgow said stories from the past are "all sacred and respected," but as the CBF increases its racial, gender and generational diversity they are "increasingly diverse."
He said various CBF constituencies could lament what they miss from the past or complain that others in the movement are too slow to embrace the future. The better path, he said, is "to find joy" in the Fellowship as it exists today.
"Let us celebrate our connections, strengthen our partnerships, step up our encouragement, accelerate our commitment and rejoice in our relationships," he said. "Like the post-exilic community in Jerusalem, there is joy that can be found in the work of renewal and rebuilding."
Glasgow described a conversation with a fellow minister who reminded him how fortunate he is to be part of "a new thing that God is doing in the world." Less than 20 years old, the CBF has already accomplished much, he said, and has great potential and a good reputation for the future.
Glasgow said the conversation reminded him that "too often we in the Fellowship are less enthusiastic" than outsiders about the movement's promise.
"It is time for us to find our joy in being part of this Fellowship," he said. "A great work of rebuilding and new building awaits our efforts."
"It will be a hard work," he said. "It will require our best strength."
"But we know where to find that strength," he said. "The joy of the Lord is our strength."
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Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.