ATLANTA (ABP) — The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, a partnership of moderate Baptist churches and organizations, added a new, five-state regional body to its group of constituents.
The new consortium includes Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. At the Jan. 25 formation meeting, attendees representing four CBF partner churches also created articles of incorporation, bylaws and a budget.
Although officially formed, the Midwest region will not be formally recognized by the national CBF organization until a vote at the 2007 general assembly in June. There, the assembly must adopt a bylaw change recognizing the new region and approve coordinating council representatives from the Midwest region.
Tim Deatrick, pastor of Ashworth Road Baptist Church, West Des Moines, Iowa, will serve as coordinator on a voluntary basis. Ten attendees representing the additional states will act as the region's coordinating council until the new unit holds a general assembly, probably in October. Deatrick will act as moderator. Edith Little, pastor of First Baptist Church, Bluegrass, Iowa, was chosen as moderator-elect.
The group agreed on eight ministry objectives to extend their ministry throughout the region, including engaging in CBF's rural poverty initiative, Together for Hope. The plan also calls for facilitating communication of work in the Midwest and raising funds and awareness for the CBF global missions offering.
In addition to strengthening existing churches, organizers said the new body will identify and network with “fellowship-friendly” congregations and support pastors and lay leaders with training, education and fellowship. The region will also provide cooperative ministry opportunities, particularly for churches with limited resources, Deatrick said.
“We want to work toward camps, mission trips and other ministries to do together,” Deatrick said.
The idea for a new geographic region surfaced shortly after Ashworth Road, a CBF partner church, hired Deatrick as pastor.
“Our church, by conviction, was aligned with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, but there was not a lot of connection,” he said. “We wanted to be more connected on the local level.”
The five Midwestern states were part of the 10-state North Central Fellowship region, which includes Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin. Most of the region's churches are located east of the Mississippi River, and most meetings are held in Indianapolis. Deatrick proposed the new region idea to the other pastors in the western five states.
“We looked at it as what is most practical,” he said, adding that distance and finances affected the decision. Most of the new region's churches are small, and Ashworth Road is the only congregation with a full-time pastor.
Deatrick presented the idea to national leaders, and an informational meeting was held at Ashworth Road last October. CBF national coordinator Daniel Vestal attended that session.
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