Praying and Planning

For more than a year Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has engaged in a time of prayerful discernment. We have gathered in small and large groups to discuss our future. We devoted significant time at this year’s General Assembly to conversation and prayer. We completed a survey asking those present to prioritize what we felt was most important for our ministry together. We have tried to listen to one another and to the Spirit with intentionality and sensitivity. 

I believe the good news is that this process will result in some clear data that will inform and guide our budgeting, staffing and initiatives in the years ahead. Our Moderator, Jack Glasgow and our past Moderator, Harriett Harral just spent several days with staff evaluating the process and the information gathered. In the weeks ahead the Advisory Council, the Coordinating Council and the state/regional leadership will do the same thing. In other words, the praying and planning continues.

In light of this ongoing process let me offer some hopes. First, I hope that whatever results from our praying and planning is a greater commitment to collaboration and cooperation in mission and ministry. Recently I received a letter from a pastor with the following suggestion: “I wish we would call ourselves Cooperative Baptists more, and CBF less. It just seems to me the world has no idea who we are, and our initials don’t help. There are American Baptists, National Baptists, Progressive Baptists, Southern, British, German and all kinds of Baptists, and then we have some alphabet group – CBF! I know Baptists sometimes refer to the ABC or SBC, but I never see or hear that in the general press or conversation.”

I realize that denominational systems are changing and the tendencies in local congregations are toward isolation. But I believe that cooperation is woven into the fabric of the Gospel and there is so much that we can do together that simply is impossible when we work alone. Recently I attended the opening chapel of one of our partner seminaries and heard recounted the story of its founding.  As I saw the eager faces of the young people who were enrolling in record numbers and saw the collective strength in a relatively new school I realized again that this kind of leadership formation simply wouldn’t take place without cooperative efforts. The same could be said about missionary appointments, chaplains endorsements, disaster response, church starting, congregational resourcing and so much more.

A second hope is that out of our praying and planning we will renew our commitment to being prophetic. Institutional survival is not as important as effective ministry and organizational structure is not as important as spiritual vitality. This is not to say that  institution and structure is insignificant. We must have by-laws, budgets and boards. Such essentials as governance, staff and organization are vital. But this cannot be our preoccupation, our focus, our center.

What must compel us is the love of Christ. What must consume us is the mission of God. What must possess us is the Holy Spirit. And when this is happening we will care for the most neglected, the least of these, the poor and powerless. We will speak and act on behalf of those who have no voice. We will sacrifice on behalf of those who do not know the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ. We will seek reconciliation, shalom, healing and wholeness for this broken world.

Some have the misconception that to be prophetic means we need not be pastoral or priestly. I don’t see such contradiction in Jesus. He was both, and we are called to be both. But make no mistake about it, we cannot be satisfied with the status quo of our culture or of our world. And neither can Cooperative Baptist Fellowship settle for a maintenance ministry and mentality. As much as God has blessed us in the past 17 years, we cannot rest until the kingdoms of this world have become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.

A third hope I have in our planning and praying is that we will both rejoice in what is happening and at the same time expect surprises. Both as a Pastor and as a Coordinator I have known some who always seem to be negative and critical of shared ministry. They somehow see what’s wrong or what’s lacking or what’s missing more than they see what’s right or what’s working or what’s beautiful. I must also confess that such a tendency is in me. But how can we receive the future if we cannot rejoice in the present? How can we anticipate tomorrow’s blessings if we cannot celebrate the ones we enjoy today?

Recently I asked our missions staff to give me an audit on some of our micro-enterprise ministries. The long list included small loans on everything from fish farming, to drip irrigation, to vegetable market stalls, to oil distillation. Small loans were given to businesses, church planters and community development projects. My reaction in reading the overview was simply to bow my head and say, “Thank you.” It was but another reminder of what I have believed for many years:  Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is a work of God’s grace and a renewal movement within the Baptist family.

At the same time let’s not be afraid of the surprises in store for us. Only a few days ago I met the wife of a mature pastor who was enrolling in seminary. She smiled and said to me, “I have been surprised by a call to pastoral ministry, so I am here.” Providence includes a great deal of mystery and a large measure of surprise.  So in our praying and planning let’s trust in the One who “is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to the power that is at work within us.”

Copyright 2008 The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship