Barnabas File

When President Eisenhower left office on January 17, 1961, he warned the nation about the increasing power of “the military-industrial complex.”     This was surprising to many due to his career service in the military culminating with becoming a five-star general.     Some have suggested he did not go far enough and should have used the term “the political-military-industrial complex.”   In a Facebook post this week, a friend identified himself as recovering from the “religious industrial complex.”  I think he could have added “political” that term as well.  Many ministry leaders in the second half of the twentieth century not only grew up in the paradigm, but we helped to perpetuate it.  I know I did.   As a Southern Baptist, I grew up in a church that used denominational literature, supported denominational programs, and followed a denominational (not liturgical) calendar.  The Southern Baptist Convention and its a...

I have lost count of how many Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly meetings I have attended.     In the early days, I was working for another Baptist organization, so I took vacation days to attend (as did many of my colleagues).     There was a certain feeling of adventure of attending then, something like Luke Skywalker joining the Rebel Alliance.     Not only were we upset about the direction of the Southern Baptist Convention, but we sought the fellowship of others with the same convictions--people who were our friends and mentors--those we loved, admired, and enjoyed being with.     Of course, when I was coordinator of Tennessee CBF, I attended every year and found myself involved in plenary sessions, workshops, ancillary meetings, and hallway conversations. Even then, the personal conversations were what gave me energy and satisfaction.  After that season, I struggled a bit with my role in the gathering, although ...

The idea of how a church pursues missions has changed drastically in the last fifty years.    Although my perspective comes from being a Baptist in the South during that time, I believe that many of the changes have also impacted churches of all denominations across the United States in some way. The paradigm in which I was indoctrinated saw “missions” as something that was done somewhere else by people who were specifically called to leave their homes and do evangelistic and philanthropic work in strange and exotic places.  The denomination had overseas, domestic, and state mission boards who were responsible for this work.  The role of those of us in local congregations was to pray for the missionaries, learn about their work, provide the funds for them to pursue their ministries, and give them a platform to tell us about what they were doing.  There may have been a few local mission opportunities such as a “rescue mission” for the down a...

The Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond is closing its doors at the end of this academic year.     BTSR has blessed many through its capable administration, gifted faculty, and effective alumni.     Born with a great vision in a time of Baptist turmoil, the seminary encouraged many who were seeking an alternative path for theological education and ministry formation. In light of the seminary’s closing, Paul Baxley , senior minister of First Baptist Church of Athens, Georgia, asked these questions: “As Cooperative Baptists, are we really committed to the importance of theological education in preparation for ministry? While there is still time, are we willing to act boldly to strengthen our remaining schools so that congregations may thrive and ministers may be trained? Are we willing to envision a new covenant between our churches, our current ministers, our theological schools and those whom God is calling into ministry now and in the future?” My ans...

Former TCBF Coordinators Ircel Harrison and Terry Maples  with  present Coordinator Rick Bennett (right) If you are like me, most days you receive one or more appeals to fund some organization. Usually we know little or nothing about those organizations.   Let me share a request today for one that is important to me personally, one you probably know something about and whose mission may impact you and your church. Recent actions of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Governing Board related to hiring have been disappointing to many of us.  The Hiring Policy itself is a very positive step, but the implementation plan adopted is discriminatory.  This has harmed the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship movement in many ways.  Some conservative churches and organizations who reject the openness of the Hiring Policy will no longer support the Fellowship, while progressive Baptists and churches who love and embrace all people feel that their...

Responses to the adoption by the CBF Governing Board of a new hiring policy and the announcement of the policy’s implementation plan have been mixed.   Most seem willing to accept the new hiring policy, but many argue that the implementation plan will simply perpetuate a discriminatory approach in matters of sexuality.   This is a compromise which, in the long run, will make no one happy.  If the present implementation plan stands, the CBF “denomi-network” must be prepared to face significant consequences.  First, CBF will continue to lose those young adults who will not accept a discriminatory sexual ethic. I n a letter to the editor of Baptist News Global, divinity student Adam McDuffie wrote : “With the implementation procedure as it currently stands, excluding children of God from serving as they are called, the CBF is risking an exodus that is already beginning, and may in fact be irreversible.”  The approach adopted by the CBF ...