“Teacher,
which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus
replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all
your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is
the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love
your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on
these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:36-40, NIV)
Like others who identify
with the Cooperative Baptist movement, I have been reading both the report of
the Illumination Project and responses on social media. My only conclusion so far is that we don’t
all agree on this decision. I have
friends who express widely divergent and opposing opinions, so I continue to
reflect on the implications of the decision, pray about it, and even look at
scripture like the passage above.
Of course, Jesus was not
trying to start an organization. If anything,
what he was creating was a very messy, chaotic organism which was to be led by
the Spirit of God. The two statements
above, however, might be identified as the core values of the Jesus
movement: Love God and love your
neighbor. These are both very relational
statements provided in a cruciform structure--one dealing with our vertical relationship
with God and one dealing with our horizontal relationships with other human
beings.
In like manner, my experience
with CBF has always been built on relationships. While I served as ..coordinator of the
Tennessee CBF, our most significant endeavors were based on strong relationships.
 |
| Wayne Smith, director of Samaritan Minstry |
We worked with Wayne Smith
to support Samaritan Ministry, an outreach to HIV/AIDS victims and their families in Knoxville. We partnered with Emily and Eliot Roberts as
they established a new church ministry, Neverfail Community Church, on the Cumberland Plateau, an area where meth
production and addiction continue at one of the highest rates in the US. We came alongside Martha and Chuck Strong to
assist with a new church start in Olive Branch, MS, a suburb of Memphis. The door opened for a relationship with
Central Baptist Theological Seminary to offer theological education to students
through a satellite in Murfreesboro as a result of personal contacts with friends in
Kansas City.
All of these ministries were
born out of relationships characterized by trust, respect, persistence, and
love. Their partnership honored us
because of what they were doing and by giving us, as Tennessee CBF, an opportunity
to be a part as friends and coworkers.
Wayne Smith has reminded
me a couple of times about a conversation we had while establishing the
Samaritan Ministry partnership. Wayne remembers
saying to me, “There’s one question you haven’t asked me.” Supposedly I replied, “What’s that?” He said, “You haven’t asked me my stand on
homosexuality.” My response: “Is that
important?” We trusted Wayne to do the
right thing and he did.
The partnerships we
established were based on relationship. It is amazing what you can accomplish
when you love and trust the people with whom you work. They make you a better person by expanding
your vision, affirming your gifts, and sharing their lives.
At the CBF General
Assembly last year in Atlanta, Brian McLaren suggested that the Fellowship and
its churches should be saying to potential adherents, “If you become part of
this community, we will help you become a more loving version of yourself.” In other words, we will enter into a
relationship that will help you become what God wants you to be. I would add that we will be blessed in that
partnership as well.
In our present context,
perhaps it is asking too much to expect a “denomi-network” to do the work on relationships
and inclusivity that we should do in our churches. Vital relationships grow in community at the
local level where we live, love, and struggle together. No one else can do that work for us. But I do have to ask the question right now, “Will
being part of the community called the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship help me
to become a more loving version of myself?”
I haven’t answered that
question yet. What do you think?
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