Barnabas File

I appreciate the work on movements that my friend StephenCurrie has allowed me to share in recent blogs.  He ends his comments on the nature of “Gospel movements” with these conclusions: “God invites human effort, and God does work through leaders and churches that care about restoration and reform.  But it is God who provides the source of movement energy through the Holy Spirit.  So we must pray fervently.  We must sow the Gospel widely and faithfully without the baggage of nuanced theological dogma or complex church practices that are more cultural than they are biblical.  Then, when the Holy Spirit stirs to generate a Gospel movement, Gospel seeds can germinate seemingly spontaneously in unexpected places.  And we can be in the right place at the right time to be part of something big that only God can do.” I got the question again last week:  “What do you think the future of CBF is?”  We have at least gotten beyond the other ques...

“Welcome to the Family” was an appropriate phrase to describe the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly that drew 1,625 Fellowship Baptists   to Fort Worth, Texas, last week.  There was no controversy, little anxiety, and a lot of family-type fellowship. The two landmark events were the retirement of Daniel Vestal, who has served as executive coordinator of CBF for 15 years, and the adoption of the recommendations of the 2012 Task Force.  Together these communicate a time of transition in Cooperative Baptist life but there seemed little concern or fear about the future.  Certainly, there may be some anxiety among Fellowship staff members during this time of change, but the average Fellowship Baptist is not overly concerned but rather seems expectant and excited about the future of the Fellowship. During the closing session, Vestal was characterized in a letter from Richard Hamm of Christian Churches Together as the person who led Cooperative Ba...

“Bein’ a cat herder is probably the toughest thing I have ever done,” says a grizzled cat herder in the EDS commercial shown during the 2009 Super Bowl.  The humorous commercial depicts the challenge of herding “10,000 short hairs” to market.  Attempting to get independent creatures such as cats to follow any kind of direction is not easy and comes with some scratches. When I see this commercial, I am reminded how challenging it is to work with Baptists.  We are congregational in polity and individualistic in practice.  As a result, those who would attempt to lead either a church or a “denomination-like” organization find themselves “herding cats.”  As Baptists, we are defensive not only about our congregational autonomy but our individual freedom as well.  We have taken the doctrine of the priesthood of the believer in one primary direction:  “It’s just you and me, God.”  If we think about the doctrine as the priesthood of ALL believers, ...