When I attended the CBF General
Assembly at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Atlanta last week, I realized that the
last time I had been in the hotel was December 1969 when I attended Mission 70,
a program put together by six Southern Baptist Convention agencies that
attracted 5000 college students and young adults.
With music written especially for the event,
original drama, and speakers like Coretta Scott King and NBC commentator John
Chancellor, meeting planners sought to engage a young adult generation that included
both those immersed in social activism and those who were just on the periphery. We were challenged as Christians to take up
the tasks of justice and reconciliation in order to make a difference in the
world.
As a Vietnam
veteran and a student in his final year of seminary, I was a bit on the edge of
the action. I had a wife, one child and
one on the way, and I was looking for a place to do collegiate ministry (what
we called Baptist Student Union at that time).
I was still wondering what shape my own ministry would take.
Many of my peers who were at that
meeting eventually gave up on Southern Baptists in particular and Baptists in
general. They went in a number of different
directions, but the momentum for social change generated by Mission 70 stayed
with them. Many did make a difference,
but often outside the church.
Similarly, the calls to social action,
justice, and reconciliation were all part of the 2014 CBF General Assembly and
presented in several forums. We have
come a long way, but there is still so much more to do.
This commitment to change the world is very
attractive to the young adults that CBF is seeking to engage in its work. If CBF is to continue to be a vital “denominetwork,”
we need new leaders, fresh ideas, and youthful enthusiasm. The leaders of Mission 70—people like Lloyd
Householder and Ed Seabough—knew this was true.
I think that the leaders of CBF and its partners realize it, too, and
are investing in a new generation in an intentional way. Who knows
where that will lead?
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