Keynote speaker Julie Pennington Russell, pastor of First Baptist Church in Decatur, Ga., brought two messages on the assembly theme “Incoming Call: Hearing and Responding to God’s Call.”In a sermon based on Jesus’ call of the first four disciples in Mark 1:16-20, Pennington-Russell noted that some readers are disappointed that Mark presents Jesus full-grown, with no story about Jesus’ birth. “We like the Christmas Jesus best,” she said -- “weak and wordless.”
Mark offers little detail about how Jesus called out the disciples, “but maybe he leaves it out because the process is not the point,” she said. “The point is that Jesus comes to us and calls us to follow him. It’s about personal commitment to the person of Christ." Jesus said ‘follow me’ – not a denomination or program or task or creed, she added.
“If our first calling is to follow Jesus, it gives us tremendous freedom to grow and be shaped along the way,” Pennington-Russell said: “Jesus doesn’t put us in vocational straightjackets.”
To sense the direction Jesus would have us to go, she said, believers must learn to be still and hear the Spirit speaking.
In a brief business session, participants approved a 2008-2009 program budget of $1.1 million, up 19 percent from the previous year’s budget of $915,000. During the 2007-2008 fiscal year, CBFNC received $2.4 million, including funds channeled to CBF national, Baptist colleges and institutions in North Carolina, and other ministry partners.
Steve Little, an attorney who is a member of First Baptist Church in Marion, was elected as moderator-elect, to serve in 2009-10. Greg Rogers, pastor of Oakmont Baptist Church in Greenville, took the gavel for 2008-09 from Gail Coulter, pastor of Providence Baptist Church in Hendersonville, who presided this year.
In her moderator’s remarks, Coulter thanked CBFNC and the five CBF-related churches that helped to sponsor Providence when it began in 2002. Providence “is one of the strongest small churches to be found,” she said. Coulter retired from the pastorate March 31.Coulter highlighted CBFNC accomplishments during the past year, including “phenomenal growth in the Missions Resource Plan and undesignated giving,” the addition of new program staff, new missions initiatives, leadership development efforts, and the establishment of the Lolley Fund for theological education.
CBFNC is currently assisting with six Hispanic and two Anglo church starts, with plans to help launch several more in the near future.
Coordinator Larry Hovis praised Forest Hills Baptist Church for its assistance in hosting the event, and announced that next year’s meeting will be held at Snyder Memorial Baptist Church in Fayetteville, with Fred Craddock preaching. The dates will be March 20-21.
In a closing message, Pennington-Russell said urged attenders to surrender themselves as “instruments of God.” Jesus never said “Go and do some witnessing,” she said. Rather, “he said ‘you will be my witnesses.’”
Those are very different things, Pennington-Russell said. To be a witness is “to be an instrument for the purposes of God on this earth.”
For related blogs, learn about the Baptist Women in Ministry N.C. meeting and a banquet that kicked off the Lolley Fund for theological education.
[Photos: Above: Julie Pennington-Russell. Below: Larry Hovis thanks Gail Coulter for her service as moderator in 2007-2008.]
3 comments:
I wonder if the growth is not being helped some, or a lot, by the BSCNC becoming more narrow in its tolerance of things it declares essential for and how we are to believe. I know that I personally have become saddened by how critical the BSCNC has become, and look much more favorably towards the CBFNC in and the amount of energy that is used to do God's work and not criticize those who do not do it "their way". I hate that there is a split, but I thank God there is an alternative.
Paul
Paul,
You are correct that much of the growth is due to the narrowing perimeters of the BSCNC and the judgmental, critical tone coming from Cary. But I must say that CBFNC has also been very smart in how it has developed and responded. Several new church starts are also figured into the growth. Several years ago, CBFNC stopped reacting to events in the state convention as a reason for being, and began to chart its own course for the future.
Several years ago CBFNC was criticized by some for not fighting for the state convention. CBFNC churches were not willing to expend energy in that fight in the same way that Texas did, and moved forward with a new agenda for ministry and service. Then at the bequest of churches, CBFNC developed the Mission Resource Plan that enabled so many congregation to exercise their freedom and continue to support important programs and institutions. This has been a winning strategy, and CBFNC is seeing the fruits of thoughtful, smart, positive and faithful leadership.
At the recent CBFNC General Assembly, I did not hear one word from the platform or in table conversation about BSCNC - the focus was on the future.
The people who heard Christ say "you will be my witnesses" appear not to have been listening with the ears of Julie Pennington-Russell. They didn't head out to do social work or get involved politically. Rather they told what they'd seen, they baptized people who believed them, and they started churches. The churches certainly went about doing good, but the best good they did was to sustain the proclamation that founded them. And yes, borrowing Julie's language, that involved "going and doing some witnessing."
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