2004 December/January

CBF DECEMBER 2004/JANUARY 2005

fellowship!

C O O P E R AT I V E B A P T I S T F E L L O W S H I P

INSIDE

New Yorker Ministers to AIDS Community

Offering for Global Missions Serves Children

Scholarships Lighten Students’ Financial Loads

Berryman Leads African-American Network

CBF Reports Record Contributions

W W W. T H E F E L L OW S H I P. I N F O

Covenant Connects Fellowship to Local Church Ministry Among Navajo A N AT I O N AT T H E C R O S S R O A D S

just got another traveling companion.

The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship recently signed a four-way covenant with Calvary Love Ministries of Gallup, N.M., and two Texas Baptist churches that “calls us into the heart of Christian ministry among the Navajo,” according to Tom Ogburn, the Fellowship’s associate coordinator for volunteer and partnership missions.

“We (Navajos) are at a spiritual crossroads,” CLM director Andrew Begaye insists. “We have to answer the question ‘What is Native American Christianity?’ and we have to answer it soon. For too long our people have been told that if you become a believer in Jesus you have to become like the white man. Somehow, despite that, God’s mercy has taken place [continues p. 2]

Linda Lapointe photos

TOGETHER, ONE PERSON, ONE CHURCH, ONE TEAM in the field can make a difference in the lives of the most neglected. Together, contributions to the Offering for Global Missions build Christ-centered, collaborative and holistic ministries. See pages 6-7 for more information.

George Touchton and a building crew from University Baptist Church in Houston, Texas, raise the cross on the new Cedar Ridge Fellowship Church, a new church start on a Navajo Native American reservation in New Mexico.

COOPERATIVE BAPTIST FELLOWSHIP’S MISSION: SERVING CHRISTIANS AND CHURCHES AS THEY DISCOVER AND FULFILL THEIR GOD-GIVEN MISSION.

GLOBAL MISSIONS & MINISTRIES 2

and faith has taken deep root into many hearts and minds.”

Begaye, an Athapascan Navajo, spent 20 years working with the North American Mission Board. In 1997 Begaye formed CLM — which helps plant four to five Navajo churches a year. CLM is, in Begaye’s phrase, “an interdependent and cooperative fellowship of churches” working with Native American, Hispanic, Asian and Anglo churches from five major denominations, three para-church organizations and seven independent ministries – plus CBF. The organizational shift didn’t disrupt the relationships University Baptist Church of Houston and Broadway Baptist Church of Fort Worth had with Begaye. They already had been bringing groups to the Navajo reservation, which is the size of West Virginia, for years, and they kept right on.

Now they will serve as ministry models A young girl's face lights up after successfully turning on a flashlight. for other Fellowship churches that want to be involved, explains Ogburn, “focusing other Navajos much better than we can.” on leadership training, church construction and holistic Marion agrees, “We go to work with them, not for them,” ministry endeavors including home renovations and comshe says, “to encourage their community church outreach.” munity empowerment activities.”

The formal agreement pledges the Fellowship to con“Andrew is a rare human being,” says Claudine Marion, tribute $4,000 in 2003-04, $3,500 in 2004-05 and $3,000 the Broadway Baptist staff liaison to CLM. “He is committed in 2005-06 to the CLM operating budget while also: to the idea that Navajo culture can be incorporated into • Promoting and fulfilling volunteer needs for CLM Christian faith and other ministries and programs Navajos have great respect • Receiving and distributing contributions to CLM for him because of that.”

• Providing prayer support for CLM programs Broadway takes people • Informing CLM of training and network connections from other churches each that could strengthen its ministry. year, hoping they will lead The two local churches will provide annual contributions their congregation to take of $4,000 to the CLM operating budget in addition to conannual trips. University tinuing their volunteer participation.

Baptist, which has built a Potential projects include construction of a discipleship Navajo church building a and leadership training center on CLM’s 100 acres outside year for the past 15 years, of Gallup. The plan calls for using volunteer labor and about also involves other $50,000 in materials to build the center while recruiting churches from as far away long-term volunteers for months-long, years-long or even as Kansas and Colorado. lifetime commitments. f!

“Our intent is to do For more information on Calvary, visit www.calvarylove.org. things that make it possible For more on University and Broadway, go to www.ubc.org and for the Navajo to sustain www.broadwaybc.org, respectively. For more on the the work,” says Wally Fellowship’s partnerships, go to www.thefellowship.info/ Long, a University Baptist Global Missions/gmpartnerships/. member. “Navajos can A Navajo woman studies a Bible written in share the gospel with By contributing writer Craig Bird, San Antonio, Texas her native language.

C O O P E R AT I V E B A P T I S T F E L L O W S H I P

www.thefellowship.info

GLOBAL MISSIONS & MINISTRIES

Fellowship Churches Respond to Meet Christmas Needs

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Courtesy Second Baptist Church

I N L I T T L E R O C K , Ark., it’s Christmas shoes and clothes. In Murfreesboro, Tenn., it’s a Christmas meal. In both places, it’s Cooperative Baptist Fellowship churches meeting community needs at Christmas.

For nearly 90 needy children in Little Rock, Second Baptist Church buys clothes, shoes and coats. First Baptist Church, Murfreesboro, hosts a Christmas party for more than 125 area domestic violence victims.

Second Baptist Church’s Dame Christmas Memorial purchased $7,500 in clothes and other necessities for needy children last Christmas. Started in 1982, the ministry is sustained by the charitable trust of the late George Members of Second Baptist Church in Little Rock, Ark., shop with community residents Dame. In the 1920s, the church provided muchas part of the Dame Christmas Memorial ministry. needed shoes for Dame and food for his family at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Dame later became a federal Providing a Christmas Meal government employee who invested wisely, according to First Baptist Murfreesboro’s involvement started in 2000 his brother. when its local domestic violence center asked to use the The church church’s facility for its annual Christmas party. When lay Advent Devotional selects children ministry coordinator Kristina Brown asked how the from applications AN ONLINE ADVENT devotional will be church could provide further assistance, the center staff submitted by local available through a project sponsored members “were actually stunned,” she says. Brown and the

by Passport Inc. and the Fellowship. school counselors. church’s lay ministry team ensured that all the food, Following the Star (www.followingthe The applications are volunteers and decorations were provided. star.org) will host a daily devotional collected by a team “I have been so pleased with the outpouring of love from centered around the Advent themes of of lay volunteers our church folks,” Brown says. “They have a real heart for hope, joy, love and peace starting on who assess the helping others in need — especially those that are hurting.”

Nov. 28 through Jan. 6, 2005. The site information and try Now in its fifth year with more than 40 church volunteers is geared toward youth, but provides a to, “in a fair and and numerous others who contribute food and money, the meaningful devotional experience for balanced way, select people of all ages. Following the Star event includes a full meal with holiday music, a free family as many children as is produced by Passport Inc. and is portrait donated by a local photographer, a visit by Santa possible,” says co-sponsored by Cooperative Baptist Claus, and a time for families to open gifts donated by area James Thomason, Fellowship and AlabamaCBF. Devotions businesses. At the end of the party, volunteers distribute the church’s minisare written by Passport summer the remaining food among families. staffers, Student.Go field personnel, ter to senior adults.

“The party provides a safe haven and a relief from some pastors and youth ministers.

Church volunteers stress financially and emotionally,” says church member meet the family at a Kippy Todd, who has volunteered each year. f! local department For more information about First Baptist Murfreesboro’s store, purchasing clothes for children 15 years old and involvement, contact Kristina Brown at (615) 893-2514 or younger. “There are big shopping carts piled and piled kbrown@fbcmboro.org. For details about the ministry at with clothes they love,” says ministry co-chair Stasia Burk.

Second Baptist, contact James Thomason at (501) 374-9284 or “The kids are just so excited and the families are very jthomason@2bclr.com. grateful.”

The church also supplies each family with a food box.

By Carla Wynn, CBF Communications

www.thefellowship.info DECEMBER 2004/JANUARY 2005

FAITH FORMATION

‘Companions in Christ’ Encourages Spiritual Growth in North Carolina Church

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daughter, Blythe Taylor, and found an answer to her quest for a meaningful ministry.

“I met someone who had been part of the pilot program for ‘Companions in Christ’ through Upper Room,” recalls Carol, a member of Wingate Baptist Church in Wingate, N.C. Although the retreat wasn’t about “Companions in Christ,” hearing about the woman’s experience with the small-group study impressed Carol. She discovered that St. John’s Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C., where Blythe serves as associate minister, was hosting a training session prior to the 2003 General Assembly.

“I went to the training session then to my pastor, Derrill Smith, and told him I felt led to do this,” Carol says.

Smith attended “Companions” information sessions offered at the Assembly and not only gave Carol the go ahead, “but he provided wonderful support for ‘Companions’ within our church,” she says.

When Wingate offered “Companions” last fall, 13 people participated in the night group and seven attended the morning session. “I had promised God that whoever came forward to take it, I would teach them,” Carol says, “I was tested on that!”

Carol calls the experience “life changing.”

“This is a small, friendly church but the spiritual element this has added has been amazing,” she emphasizes. “One lady in the morning group was 85 years old, a refugee from Cuba. She had been praying for years for a spiritual awakening in our church and she said this was it – and she got to be part of it.”

Carol says the church will continue to host “Companions in Christ” spiritual formation groups. For original participants

Church Launches Study of Vestal Book HOPING TO CHART a pathway

that will be beneficial to their own congregation as well as one that might help other churches, First Baptist Church of WinstonSalem, N.C., did a 40-day study of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Coordinator Daniel Vestal’s book, “It’s Time: An Urgent Call to Christian Mission.”

C O O P E R AT I V E B A P T I S T F E L L O W S H I P

After the church studied Rick Warren’s “The Purpose Driven Life,” the staff formed the idea of reading “It’s Time,” says Pastor David Hughes. “We determined that this year we would devote approximately 40 days to the examination of what it means to be a missional church.”

www.thefellowship.info

Courtesy Wingate Baptist Church

C A R O L TAY L O R AT T E N D E D a retreat last year with her

Wingate Baptist Church members study ‘Companions in Christ’ materials.

wanting to continue studying together, Carol intends to lead another “Companions” study, “The Way of Blessedness.”

“I can’t tell you the blessing this has been,” Carol says of both the course and the opportunity to lead the sessions. “It has been humbling for me because I know it isn’t Carol Taylor that has been doing anything. All I did was open myself up to be used – and that’s the greatest blessing of all.” f!

For more information about “Companions in Christ,” go to www.companionsinchrist.org or contact Rick Bennnett, CBF associate coordinator for faith formation, at (770) 220-1605 or rbennett@thefellowship.info.

The “Companions in Christ” series now has three additional books: “The Way of Blessedness,” “The Way of Forgiveness,” and “The Way of Grace.” Order from The CBF Store at (888) 8014223 or www.thefellowship.info.

By Jo Upton, CBF Communications

CBF Coordinator for Congregational Life Bo Prosser helped form the study. Prosser, who has written a study guide and a promotional guide for “It’s Time,” also was at First Baptist, Winston-Salem, for its launch.

During the 40 day study, Hughes focused each week’s sermon on a different chapter of the book. Also, every Sunday school class and small group were encouraged to work

through “It’s Time” concurrently or to use the book as a devotional resource.

The free promotional and study guides are available online at www.thefellow ship.info under Church Life/Congregational Life/It’s Time Study Guide.

By Gay Campbell, CBF Communications

GLOBAL MISSIONS & MINISTRIES

New Yorker Shares Hope with HIV/AIDS Community he ends a conversation. But these words are more than a greeting to Tomaselli, they’re a way of life.

Growing up in a household where his parents used insulting names instead of encouraging words, Tomaselli eventually began using drugs and contracted HIV/AIDS. Four years ago Tomaselli met Ronnie Adams, one of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s Global Missions field personnel, at a Bible study for an AIDS service organization. Filled with Ronnie Adams fear about his past, Tomaselli recalls wondering, “How can God forgive me for all the things I’ve done to support my habit for years?”

Tomaselli found words of hope from a local priest who told him, “If God can forgive the six billion people in the world, he can forgive you.”

Adams recalls the change in Tomaselli. “He accepted that forgiveness and is a strong leader. He is a more effective missionary to the AIDS community than I am,” Adams admits.

Tomaselli wants to share the peace he found with others who have HIV/AIDS. “I really love speaking about God to people, especially the lost,” says Tomaselli, who sees himself in the people he encounters. “My past is dead. When I see it, I know where I was.

“If I can preach to people with my own disease and they say, ‘Wow, if he can do it, I want to be saved,’” Tomaselli says his efforts are worthwhile.

A native New Yorker who describes himself as reading at a second grade level, Tomaselli learned the Bible by repeatedly listening to audio tapes for a year. Saying he felt like a modern-day Moses – a man with a message but without the right words – Tomaselli prayed for guidance as he learned the Scriptures and studied devotional guides.

Without money to attend Bible school, Tomaselli enrolled in a correspondence Bible study course. Now, he teaches at Bible studies, filling in when Adams is out of town.

Tomaselli says he wants to live out the verse in Isaiah 41:10: “Fear not, for I am with you.” And he wants to share his hope with others. “I love to tell people where I got it in the Bible, where I had fears in my life.”

Peace be with you. f!

By Lisa M. Jones, CBF Communications

Network to Connect Churches with HIV/AIDS Ministry AFTER SERVING as program

director of New York City’s Rauschenbusch Metro Ministries for nine years, Ronnie Adams says the HIV/ AIDS community is the most open to the gospel and to his ministry of all the work he does.

“It’s a remarkable experience seeing folks living with a life-threatening disease and how they continue on with their life and grow in their Christian experience and Christian life and live a life worthy and full in the midst of living with AIDS,” he says.

Adams visits three HIV/ AIDS service agencies and offers spiritual help, basically serving as a volunteer chaplain in a city filled with more than 100,000 people with HIV/AIDS. Adams and other members

ANGOLA MISSIONS CONNECTION Lynn Smith (left), Kentucky Baptist Fellowship moderator, greets Anna Maria de Jesus Paulo and her husband, Andre Paulo. Smith is one of seven CBF volunteers who recently traveled to Angola, providing treatment to patients at a clinic, literacy and music ministry at local churches, and ministry to children and youth.

The volunteers brought shoes and clothes, and soccer balls for

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of the Fellowship’s HIV/AIDS Task Group envision having a network of churches that are ministering to people with HIV/ AIDS and matching those congregations with CBF Global Missions field personnel.

The network would provide a source of communication, information and support for churches.”It’s such a huge issue, we need more than just personnel working on it,” Adams says.”We want to involve all persons in the CBF family who are already ministering.”

Dec. 1 is World AIDS Day. For more information about the HIV/AIDS ministry network, contact Adams at (212) 695-8365 or

ronniecbf@aol.com.

the IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) children. They also provided medicines for the clinic and left a gift to begin an ‘income-generation’ sewing project.

Courtesy Fran and Lonnie Turner

“ P E A C E B E W I T H Y O U , ” says Frank P. Tomaselli Jr. as

www.thefellowship.info DECEMBER 2004/JANUARY 2005

GLOBAL MISSIONS & MINISTRIES 6

Teacher Demonstrates Her Love for Missions Through Support of Offering for Global Missions A L O V E F O R M I S S I O N S motivates Judith Landers. A

first grade teacher at the Primary School in Smithville, Mo., for 20 years, Landers grew up in a family that strongly supported missions.

“It has been my upbringing – being involved in missions,” Landers says.

Landers’ love for missions and missionaries was guided toward further involvement by a visit to her church– Second Baptist Church in Liberty, Mo. – by Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Networking Coordinator Bill Bruster.

Judith Landers His examples of global missions work being accomplished through the Fellowship prompted Landers to commit her entire yearly tithe for 2003 to the CBF Offering for Global Missions, above her contributions to her church.

Her commitment was done in thanksgiving for the work CBF Global Missions field personnel are doing, Landers says.

About six years ago, Landers took the CBF Global Missions field personnel prayer calendar (Partners in Prayer Calendar) and e-mailed each one on their birthdays for one year. As a result, several families continued to keep in contact with

Offering for Global Missions Resources THE FOLLOWING FREE Offering

for Global Missions resources are available. Shipping will be charged.

Yearlong Resources Leader Guide. Contains stories of how CBF field personnel and partners are being the presence of Christ.

Promotional Video. Offers a visual introduction to the Offering.

others. Distribute these boxes in worship, in small group meetings or to family members.

Offering Envelopes. For pew racks and mailing.

Seasonal Resources Bulletin Insert. This 5" x 8" insert shows how CBF field personnel are working with others to take the gospel to people throughout the world.

Landers. A portion of her contribution was designated specifically to these field personnel families. The remainder of her contribution went to the Offering for Global Missions.

“God has blessed me and I want to be able to pass it on,” she says. “I hope that money will be a blessing and that many more people will come to know the Lord. It’s my way of sharing the word of God around the world and locally.”

A graduate of Southwestern Seminary, Landers was on staff at a church in Savannah, Ga., prior to accepting a teaching position in Missouri. Landers feels she is making an eternal difference in the lives of children in her classroom.

Tithing is a personal commitment, adds Landers, who also plans to give her tithe for 2004 to the Offering for Global Missions. “Hopefully this will inspire others to step out and stretch themselves to do a little bit more than they think they can.” This year’s Offering for Global Missions goal is $6.1 million with a challenge goal of $6.3 million. f!

For more information, or to make an online contribution to the Offering for Global Missions, go to www.thefellowship.info, call (770) 220-1653 or e-mail ogm@thefellowship.info.

By Jo Upton, CBF Communications

on a saying of Jesus and relates it to the needs and prayer requests of CBF field personnel.

Use copies during specific weeks of praying for missions.

"FOR WE ARE GOD’S FELLOW WORKERS." (1 CORINTHIANS 3:9 NIV)

Speakers List. Contains list of speakers who will share with churches or groups.

Poster. Filled with images of people touched by CBF missions efforts. One side is in English, the other in Spanish.

Global Missions Partners in Prayer Calendar. Lists the names and birthdays of all CBF field personnel and their children.

Tzedakah Box (Charity Box).

In the Jewish faith, a box is kept in the home as a visible reminder of daily giving to

Prayer Resources And Jesus Said … A Year Long Guide to Missions Praying. Each month focuses

To order, contact The CBF Store at (888) 801-4223 or www.thefellowship.info. For more information, go to

C O O P E R AT I V E B A P T I S T F E L L O W S H I P

www.thefellowship.info

www.thefellowship.info.

All Fellowship contributing churches have been sent an Offering for Global Missions resource packet. If your church has not received a packet, call (770) 220-1653 or e-mail ogm@thefellow ship.info.

CBF photo

O N A N Y G I V E N F R E E Z I N G winter day in southern Bucharest, Romania, children gleefully bound around the Ruth School’s playground. These Romany Gypsy children might come from difficult circumstances, but while they are at the Ruth School, they are happy.

“Not every child [elsewhere] is happy to be in school … that’s a testimony to the work that’s going on here,” says Andy Brockbank, executive director of Project Ruth, which oversees the Ruth School.

In addition to education, the school provides meals and hygiene programs through financial support from the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s Offering for Global Missions and a Classroom space in the Ruth School’s new facility will accommodate a new eighth-grade class. substantial volunteer force. Based on 1 Corinthians 3:9, this year’s Offering church of 400 members and an $800 per month budget theme is “Together … Being the Presence of Christ.” could never fund the school. Likewise, it would have been The Ruth School began in 1994, with a dozen Romany difficult for Americans to start the school without children learning to read. Ten years later, the school Romanian help. juggles fitting more than 160 children in seven grades into “Together, it’s a wonderful example of both partnership four classrooms. Grades one through four operate in the and sharing the vision of reaching out for the lost and for morning, and grades five through seven are held in the the needy in this community,” Binacui says. f! afternoon.

Use the contribution envelope provided in this issue to The Ruth School was aptly named by a child. “A girl enable the Offering for Global Missions to meet its $6.1 from the church suggested that we should call it Ruth million goal. Please mark your check “Offering for Global because Ruth was a foreigner, and she was welcomed by Missions.” Or go to www.thefellowship.info to make a the people of God,” says Oti Binacui, pastor of the contribution online.

Romanian church that organized the school.

By Carla Wynn, CBF Communications The Ruth School is a true partnership. The Romanian

Teens Persevere with Missions Outreach A CANCELED TRIP to Romania in 2001 has resulted in a new baptistry at a church in Belgium and a new oven in Bucharest. The Acteens at First Baptist Church in Aiken, S.C., for several years had studied about the Ruth School and spent two years raising money

to fund a trip to visit the school. But following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, their trip was canceled.

How to use the money they had been earning and saving for two years? They first bought an industrial oven for the Ruth School.

With money still left over, they decided to get involved just this fall with a partnership between South Carolina CBF

people in Romania and Belgium with the funds they raised. The old saying is true, ‘If someone shuts the door,

and the Union of Baptists in Belgium by buying a baptistry for a church in Belgium. “It has been exciting to see God work,” said Acteens leader Lori Gourdin. “Our girls have been able to touch the lives of

God always opens a window.’

We thank God for blessing us through these opportunities.”

By Sue Poss, CBF of South Carolina

www.thefellowship.info DECEMBER 2004/JANUARY 2005

GLOBAL MISSIONS & MINISTRIES

Offering for Global Missions Helps Ruth School Serve Romany Children

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F R O M A L I V I N G R O O M , to a community center, to a 8

storefront, Providence Baptist Church in Cookeville, Tenn., has changed locations a number of times, but it’s never changed its vision.

In 1996, a group of committed Baptists in Cookeville, Tenn., wanted to develop a fellowship that would be inclusive in its philosophy and actions, as well as focused upon missions.

They wanted to be true to Baptist principles but unencumbered by traditional mechanisms about “who can do what” in the activities and operations of their church.

Today in midThe Fellowship dle Tennessee, Providence Baptist Missional is an example of Church Initiative how an inclusive approach can be instrumental in sustaining the health and well-being of the fellowship. All people at Providence – younger and older, female and male, individuals and families – can participate in a variety of roles in the church. Now located in a downtown storefront, Related Resources the church has THE FELLOWSHIP PROVIDES the remained true to following resources for churches its original vision wanting to begin the missional journey: by recently inviting Melissa Roysdon to • The Missional Journey: Being the Presence of Christ Journal. A 32-page lead as co-pastor. information booklet, journal and CD. A Gayle Haggard, VHS version is available. ($9.95, plus one of the founding shipping) members of • The Missional Journey: Being the Providence Baptist Presence of Christ Journal Video. says, “I am excited Introduces the Fellowship’s Missional that we recently Church Initiative. (free, plus shipping) received the Betty • Missional Church: Bookmarks and Galloway Award, in Links. Annotated bibliography for recognition of the literature related to the missional involvement of movement. (free, plus shipping) women in leader• Missional Journey Guide. Expands ship roles in our on The Missional Journey: Being the church. I feel like Presence of Christ Journal. ($29.95 for we’ve broken workbook, CD and binder, plus through some shipping) barriers. We aren’t Order from The CBF Store at (888) trying to change 801-4223 or www.thefellowship.info. the world, just maybe one person C O O P E R AT I V E B A P T I S T F E L L O W S H I P

www.thefellowship.info

at a time.”

The church has a membership of 23 people but the church’s missions involvement provides an outreach of a congregation Caroline Glover is baptized by her mother Joyce with larger num- Glover (left) and co-pastor Melissa Roysdon. bers.

Providence Baptist gave $1,000 last year to Tennessee Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s inner-city missions effort, as well as $1,200 to missions efforts in Croatia.

Providence Baptist supports CBF Global Missions field personnel Ellen and Rick Burnette in Thailand, and recently held a missions weekend with the couple, giving them $1,000 and a CD burner to use in their work.

“Every church has to find their niche for what they do well,” says co-pastor Jim Rennell. “Even when time seems to be in short supply, we know that our people will commit resources, prayers, and time in the best way that they can.”

Providence is the only Fellowship church in a 40-mile radius.

“The co-pastors, the storefront location and their heavy missions involvement are all indicators of a missional approach to church ministry,” says Bo Prosser, CBF coordinator for congregational life. “They are putting their passions towards being the presence of Christ.”

The church began one of its biggest missions undertakings this year, co-sponsoring a Habitat for Humanity House with First United Methodist Church, a church with more than 1,000 members.

Haggard, who serves as the county’s executive director of Habitat for Humanity, says most organizations that sponsor a Habitat house have more than 500 members. Providence Baptist’s membership falls well below that mark, leading Haggard to refer to it as the “mightiest little church.” f!

For more information about the Missional Church Initiative, contact Bo Prosser at (770) 220-1631 or bprosser@thefellow ship.info.

By contributing writer Patricia Heys, Atlanta

Courtesy Providence Baptist

BUILDING COMMUNITY

Church with Smaller Membership Demonstrates Large Impact through Community Outreach

GLOBAL MISSIONS & MINISTRIES

CBF of North Carolina Builds Future for Kiev Street Children T H E S T R E E T C H I L D R E N of Kiev, Ukraine, live under

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CBFNC photos

buildings, in heating and sewage tunnels, or wherever they can find shelter. Some scrounge the streets for food, or steal, and others prostitute for money so that they can eat.

Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina (CBFNC) hopes The Village of Hope, a residential foster care facility half an hour northwest of Kiev, will give these street children a chance for a different life.

Now in its early stages, The Village of Hope is a 17-acre site with seven buildings all needing renovation.

Formerly a communist youth camp, the site has been unused since 1986. This summer 176 volunteers from CBFNC worked on completing the first building for foster care families, which could house 30 children.

“We want to bring street children into a foster care community. When they leave, we want them to have a job and be educated,” says Jim Fowler, missions coordinator of CBFNC, which has poured more than $200,000 into the project.

Working side by side with Ukrainian laborers, the 15 volunteer teams did everything from painting to roofing.

The Village is owned by Ukrainian Baptists but has an international board of directors. “It’s all about the kids; it’s not about who’s in charge,” Fowler says.

The Village of Hope has a consistent CBF presence through Gennady and Mina Podgaisky, CBF Global Missions field personnel in Kiev. The Podgaiskys coordinate the Coalition of Street Children ministries and workers, which seeks to be a network of resources and ministries to help alleviate this crisis.The abundance of street children is a relatively new phenomenon, according to Caroline Crume, a Campbell University Divinity School student who coordinated an 11member team including four other Campbell students.

When the USSR disbanded, it brought an economic collapse in many of the former republics. The inability of

Volunteers from 75 North Carolina churches renovated buildings to provide homes for Kiev street children (above, below left).

many parents to support their own children, combined with substance abuse and the inactivity of social programs and services forced many children to the streets.

“It’s a hidden problem you find only if you’re looking for it,” she says.

Some estimates indicate as many as 40,000 street children in a city of 4 million, according to Bill Mason, a Wingate Baptist Church member who has been on five trips to Ukraine.

“We can’t deal with the whole problem, but hopefully we’ll be able to house some of them,” Mason says.

Mason and his wife, Marie, spent six weeks at the Village as summer site coordinators. Bill, a retired manufacturing engineer, was on the original team that selected the property. He estimates the construction can be completed in five years if the necessary funds and volunteer teams can be secured.

“I hope it becomes a haven for the street children of Kiev, and that we would be able to house and feed and clothe and give them a better chance in life,” Marie says. “They don’t have much of a chance now; they’re just holding on.” f!

Contact CBFNC at (888) 822-1944 for information about volunteering or donations.

The Fellowship’s January 2005 missions education curriculum focuses on street children of Kiev. The December 2004 unit highlights celebrating in Singapore. (Annual subscription: adult and youth, $20; children and preschool, $80.

Shipping will be charged.) Order from The CBF Store at (888) 801-4223 or www.thefellowship.info.

By Carla Wynn, CBF Communication www.thefellowship.info DECEMBER 2004/JANUARY 2005

C H R I S T I N A S U G G S A N D Walter Henson may go to 10

different theology schools in different states — she to Campbell University Divinity School in North Carolina and he to Hardin-Simmons University’s Logsdon School of Theology in Texas — but both needed help paying for seminary. And both got it through the 2004-05 Cooperative Baptist Fellowship leadership scholarships.

The Fellowship provides a $4,000 scholarship to 77 students at partner schools. Through the scholarship, CBF helps develop congregational leaders. “We identify, support and nurture these individuals,” says Terry Hamrick, the Fellowship’s coordinator for leadership development.

The scholarship was “desperately needed” for Henson, whose wife, Lindsey, is in physical therapy school. “It’s a very hard school to pay for, so anything that helps me helps us both,” Henson says. Without the CBF scholarship and other financial aid, “I don’t think we could have both gone to school,” Henson says.

Suggs and her husband, Matt, also a full-time student, have only part-time jobs, but “unfortunately there is no ‘part-time’ rent, utilities or car payments,” says Suggs.

“This scholarship allows both of us to attend the classes we want to take, buy the books and supplies needed to be successful in our academic pursuits, attend conferences that broaden our education and expand our network of co-laborers,” she adds.

For Suggs, being a CBF scholar isn’t just about the scholarship funds. “It represents the trust and hope of likeminded Baptists across the U.S. who are investing in the

Leadership Scholars Baptist Seminary of Kentucky: Brandy Albritton, Bern Kiser, Gary Price Jr. Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond: Josh Baumgardner, Laurie Baumgardner, Casey Callahan, Amanda Hambrick, Christine Kellett, Renee Kenley, Elizabeth Lott, Susan Reed, Kim Siegenthaler Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University: Mandy Nethercut, Scott Davis Campbell University Divinity

C O O P E R AT I V E B A P T I S T F E L L O W S H I P

School: Amanda Blackwell, Emily Bowman, Rich Catlett, Mary Hollings, Brian Johnson, Jerry Layton, Christina Suggs, Rod Walls, Al Whitehouse Jr. Candler School of Theology, Emory University: Mary Catherine Cole, Sarah Doeppner, Michael Goodman, Jeremy Lewis Central Baptist Theological Seminary: Cynthia Jarrold, Patrick Hill, Dawna Payne Duke Divinity School: Ronda Cole, Alice Davis, Elizabeth Evans, Jason Jenkins,

www.thefellowship.info

future of Baptist life,” she says.

CBF scholars are chosen on the basis of financial need, Christina Suggs teaches the Bible story about the woman commit- at the well to children at Touching Miami With Love. ment to serve in Baptist life, educational promise and potential for future ministry. For Henson and Suggs, the future is here as both already serve in churches.

Henson and his wife lead Bible study for young married couples at Crosspoint Fellowship in Abilene. Suggs is minister of missions and lay ministries at Snyder Memorial Baptist Church in Fayetteville, N.C. In addition to financial support, scholars are allocated $1,000 to attend General Assembly. The Fellowship also helps with ministry placement.

Working with the scholars has been a personal encouragement to Hamrick. “The leadership of our churches is in good hands,” he says. f!

By Carla Wynn, CBF Communications

Kristopher Norris Logsdon School of Theology, Hardin-Simmons University: Brian Edwards, Walt Henson, Danyel Rogers, Josh Reglin, Marnie Sellers McAfee School of Theology, Mercer University: Linda Davis, Patrick DeVane, Rebekah Duke, Ron Handlon, Jennifer McClung, Andrew Smith, Julie Whidden, Eric Wickman, Angela Yarber George W. Truett Theological Seminary, Baylor University: Elizabeth Ashley-Pritchett, Casondra Brown, Kelly

Burkhart, Jeff Conkin, Christy Edwards, Stephanie Glenn, Katie Homiak, Roberto Rueda, Kyle Steinhauser Wake Forest Divinity School: Sarah Carver, Chad Crawford, Seth Hickman, Ray Howell IV, Jacqueline Mayo M. Christopher White School of Divinity, Gardner-Webb University: Josh Apple, Jill Awuni, Carita Brown, Rendell Hipps, Martha Kearse, Shirley Luckadoo, Kathy Naish, Richard Park, Jane Toy

Courtesy Christina Suggs

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

CBF Leadership Scholarships Lighten Financial Load of Education

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

BTSR Launches Online Certificate for Christian Ministry

For more information, go to www.btsr.edu/BTSR_ connects.htm.

By Carla Wynn, CBF Communications

New Miss America Is Member of CBF Church Photo courtesy of Miss America Organization

L I S A W I L L I A M S of Richmond, Va., wanted training as she prepared to start a ministry. Her church, New Jerusalem International Christian Ministry, wanted to start a ministry school. Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond wanted to take seminary education to the church through distance education.

Last year, all three desires meshed with the formation of the advanced congregational leadership certificate.

“It was just meant to be,” says Williams, one of nine New Jerusalem members and 15 total students who earned the inaugural certificate.

BTSR School of Christian Ministry provides ministry leaders distance education courses with the option of pursuing the certificate. Students can take individual courses or can pursue the sevencourse certificate, which requires four core classes and three classes in a concentration of the student's choosing.

Courses are four weeks long, with the entire certificate taking nine months to complete. A bachelor's degree is not required, but students must have Internet and computer access.

Concentrations are youth ministry, Hispanic/ Latino ministry, black church leadership, health ministry and parish nursing, preschool/children's ministry, substance abuse, music ministry, bivocational ministry and developing lay ministry in the church.

Classes began Sept. 6 with the first core course.

Tuition is $150 per class. Hispanic concentration classes are $50. Tuition is discounted for congregations that enroll five or more students.

The certificate program “came from a growing awareness that there are many people serving in congregations and community that don't have a foundation in theological education,” says program coordinator Kim Siegenthaler.

No grades are given, but there are mandatory assignments. Last year's “pilot test” included 36 students. f!

THE NEW MISS America is a

former tomboy who played college volleyball, a Rhodes Scholar finalist who began entering pageants to earn scholarship money for school, an aspiring doctor who plans to use her platform to fight childhood cancer and a member of a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship church in her hometown of Birmingham, Ala. Deidre Downs, 24, was crowned Miss America Sept. 18 in Atlantic City, N.J. Downs joined Baptist Church of the Covenant, a downtown Birmingham congregation, a little over a year ago and belongs to the church’s college and career Sunday school class.

Downs’ worship attendance has been irregular because of travel since winning the Miss Alabama pageant this spring.

Deidre Downs

She has spoken at the church on a Wednesday night about childhood cancer, a cause for which Downs’ deep involvement led to her also winning the Miss America “Quality of Life” award.

Downs, who wants to be a pediatrician but delayed entering medical school a year to compete for the Miss America crown, plans to use her title as a platform to raise awareness about pediatric cancer.

By Bob Allen, EthicsDaily.com

Class Notes: News from Partner Schools Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. Timothy Norman has joined BTSR as director of congregational relations, coordinating student placement in church ministry positions and promoting seminary programs as a local church resource. Norman was formerly president of the Virginia Baptist Foundation.

Ka’thy Gore Chappell is the new director of student life. She had served as associate pastor to college students at Forest Hills Baptist Church in Raleigh, N.C.

Central Baptist Theological Seminary. Central is offering four presidential forums, which are two-hour forums for local ministers. Topics include Molly Marshall on “The Changing Landscape of Theological Education,” Robert Johnson and Ron Carlson on “The Missional Church Institute,” Mike Graves on “Renewing our Preaching, Renewing Ourselves,” and Dick Olson on “Self-Care for the Minister.”

www.thefellowship.info DECEMBER 2004/JANUARY 2005

11

NETWORKING

Providing Support for Ministers Guides CBF Networking Coordinator

Anonymous Donation Given for CBF’s Hispanic Partnership AN ANONYMOUS couple has

donated $100,000 to be used by the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas (HBCT) and CBF for the joint effort of planting new Hispanic churches throughout the United States.

“We are hopeful that this is

C O O P E R AT I V E B A P T I S T F E L L O W S H I P

seed money and that others will feel inspired to give to help start new Hispanic work,” says Bill Bruster, the Fellowship’s networking coordinator.

Received in July, the donation came from long-time friends of Bruster and his wife, Charlotte.

www.thefellowship.info

work, not out of my job description, but out of my passion,” Bruster shares. “I have 17 peer-learning groups that I am looking after – a support group of pastors who come together once a month to study, pray, share and cry together.”

Bruster also meets once a year When he's not on the clock as CBF's with the urban networking coordinator, Bill Bruster enjoys pastor network, a golf, reading and traveling. group of pastors from urban settings.

As a Fellowship spokesman, Bruster remains active in the pulpit, conducting 35-40 Sunday services each year.

The Brusters live in Dallas, but love the mountains and occasionally get away to a retreat in southern New Mexico.

They have two adult children.

One of his long-term goals shows the depth of Bruster’s commitment: “I have a desire to help build something that will maintain the Baptist witness long after I’m dead and gone.” f!

Stanley Leary photo

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“ I ’ V E A LWAY S H A D a passion to minister to ministers,” says Cooperative Baptist Fellowship networking coordinator Bill Bruster, “and to help good churches find good pastors as leaders.”

A native of Oklahoma, Bruster is a graduate of Southwestern Seminary and Oklahoma Baptist University, where he met and married his wife, Charlotte. The couple left Oklahoma for Arkansas, where Bruster served as pastor at First Baptist Church in Siloam Springs for six years.

Continuing as an active pastor for various congregations for more than 35 years, Bruster transitioned easily into his role at the Fellowship 10 years ago.

“When I went to work for the Fellowship, I was the western coordinator and took care of developing the organization west of the Mississippi,” Bruster says.

When Daniel Vestal became CBF coordinator, he asked Bruster to develop the state and regional organizations.

Initially Bruster helped hire people and “get them up and running.” With those organizations in place, he began developing a number of networks among state and regional coordinators. Bruster works with the African-American Network headed by Edgar Berryman, the Asian Network with Coordinator Yoo Jong Yoon and the Hispanic Network directed by Bernie Moraga.

Bruster explains a network as “any organization of people who come together to get something done.”

Although each ethnic network has a coordinator, the positions are only part time. Bruster works closely with the coordinators, guiding their work as they introduce other churches to the Fellowship. Bruster cited Berryman’s work to enlist African-American churches to connect to African churches and minister to AIDS victims as an example.

Bruster’s work continues to evolve. “I do a lot of placement

To connect to a Fellowship network, contact Bruster at bbruster@thefellowship.info or (214) 282-2146.

By Jo Upton, CBF Communications The money will be used to support an agreement made during the 2003 General Assembly in Charlotte, N.C., when final approval was given to a landmark partnership between CBF and the HBCT to start 400 new Hispanic churches during the next eight years. The original agreement also pledged that the HBCT and the Fellowship would work

together to train, equip and encourage church leaders nationally.

“This generous donation will be used to honor our commitment to a long and fruitful relationship with the Convencion,” Bruster says.

By Jo Upton, CBF Communications

BUILDING COMMUNITY

Berryman Leads Fellowship African-American Network E D G A R B E R R Y M A N , the new national coordinator for Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s African-American network, is committed to strengthening the African-American presence within the Fellowship.

“The network will be able to bring more African-Americans into the mainstream of CBF, and that’s really exciting to me,” Berryman says.

CBF Networking Coordinator Bill Bruster selected Berryman after a twoyear search for a network coordinator.

Berryman, of Carthage, Miss., was Edgar Berryman born in Holmes County, which he says is one of the poorest counties in America. “I joined CBF because they are willing to do ministry in these places where people would otherwise be forgotten,” he says. The Fellowship’s rural poverty initiative, Partners in Hope, is a long-term commitment to 20 of the nation’s poorest counties, including Holmes County, Miss.

Berryman, who serves as a CBF-endorsed chaplain at Mississippi Baptist Hospital in Jackson, entered the ministry as a second career.

From 1977-1980, Berryman was in the U.S. Army stationed at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Ga. He then spent 10 years as an electronics technician. In 1993, he felt a call to ministry and six months later was pastor of Mount Olive Primitive Baptist Church in Carthage.

While serving as pastor, Berryman says he felt “a gradual pulling at my heart to become a hospital chaplain.” He left Mount Olive after what he describes as “three meaningful and productive years of service.” He completed four units

New Endorsees THE FELLOWSHIP recently endorsed the following chaplains and pastoral counselors, bringing the total number to 442:

Hospice Chaplains: Miriam Dakin, volunteer chaplain, Middle Tennessee Medical Center Hospice of Murfreesboro, Murfreesboro, Tenn.; Hank Demous, Hospice of EAMC, Auburn, Ala.; Pam Foster, Vitas Innovative

Healthcare, Fort Worth, Texas; Debbie Kubo, VistaCare Healthcare, Dallas, Texas Hospital Chaplains: Doug Cobb, Scott and White Memorial Hospital, Temple, Texas; Shay Crenshaw, UNC Hospitals, Chapel Hill, N.C.; Kerri Kroeker, CPE resident, Care and Counseling Center of Georgia, Decatur, Ga.; Ken Lake Jr., CPE resident, UNC Hospitals, Chapel Hill, N.C.; Kenn Lowther, The Ohio State

of clinical pastoral education and pastoral care specialist training.

“Being able to provide pastoral care across racial, ethnic and economic lines has been most rewarding,” he says.

As network coordinator, Berryman hopes to increase the Fellowship’s African-American presence, which will offer greater diversity that is integral “whether in worship or ministry or missions,” he says. His dream is for more African-American Global Missions field personnel, for accredited seminary training to be made available to African-American bi-vocational ministers and for leadership training among African-American churches.

The network will also help African-American students in the Fellowship’s partner schools “make their transition from seminary to their life of ministry,” Berryman says.

Berryman has a bachelor’s degree and master of ministry degree from Carolina University of Theology in Stanley, N.C. He will complete his master of divinity degree next year. Berryman and his wife, Dorothy, have three children.

Ethnic networks exist to help integrate different ethnicities into Fellowship life, Bruster explained. In addition to the African-American network, the Fellowship has an Asian network, coordinated by Yoo Jong Yoon of Dallas, Texas, and a Hispanic network, coordinated by Bernie Moraga of Albuquerque, N.M. f!

Berryman can be reached at (601) 421-0974 or eberryman@thefellowship.info. Yoon can be reached at (214) 343-2270 or glorychurch@gbronline.com. Moraga can be reached at (505) 247-4781 or b_moraga@yahoo.com.

By Carla Wynn, CBF Communications University Medical Center, Columbus, Ohio; James Rennell, Cookeville Regional Medical Center, Cookeville, Tenn.; W. Eric Smith, CPE resident, UCSF Medical Center, San Francisco, Calif.; M. Lee Weems, CPE intern, Veterans Administration Medical Center, Alexandria, La.; Sarah Wofford, Pitt County Memorial Hospital, Greenville, N.C.

counselor in training), Tidewater Pastoral Counseling Center, Norfolk, Va. For more information about CBF chaplaincy and pastoral counseling, contact George Pickle at (770) 220-1617 or gpickle@thefellowship.info.

Information is also available under Church Life/Chaplaincy at www.thefellowship.info.

Pastoral Counselors: Cynthia Brasington, member (pastoral

www.thefellowship.info DECEMBER 2004/JANUARY 2005

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S I N G I N G , S C R I P T U R E R E A D I N G and preaching are all common parts of a Sunday service at a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship church. What sets the Fil-Am Christian Church apart is that all three are done in English and Tagalog.

The Fil-Am Christian Church of Fredericksburg, Va., is the first Filipino-American church to associate with the Fellowship, and has quickly become one of CBF’s most diverse congregations.

“This congregation has ties to other Filipino congregations that may be considering a relationship with CBF,” says Rick Clore, coordinator for CBF of Virginia. “Fil-Am Christian Church has the very real potential to open the door for others to affiliate with CBF.” Fil-Am Christian Church has a regular Sunday attendance of around 80. “We have probably averaged 90 percent attendance from the beginning, truly remarkable,” says Charlie Chilton, who helped start the church.

Chilton is the retired founding pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Woodbridge, Va., and was a missionary to the Philippines from 1970-77. Although he had to leave the missions field due to an illness, Chilton’s work in the Philippines and his fluency in Tagalog would prepare him for a new missions field in Virginia, where he would plant several Filipino-American churches, including Fil-Am Christian Church.

After Chilton retired from Grace Baptist Church and moved to Orange County, he was asked to lead a Bible study at a friend’s home. Chilton had checked the census numbers for Fredericksburg and the surrounding counties, and found a population of 5,000 Filipinos. “I told him I would come if he could get any Filipinos to attend,” Chilton says.

Thirteen people showed up for the Bible study, and

Courtesy Fil-Am Christian Church

BUILDING COMMUNITY 14

Fil-Am Christian Church Reaches Out to Community

Members of Fil-Am Christian Church gather to celebrate the Christmas season.

Chilton gave each of them a Bible written in Tagalog. “We decided to do Bible study every Friday night. During that year following, each one of those thirteen accepted Christ and requested believer’s baptism,” Chilton says.

Sue Judy was one of those thirteen. “Fil-Am Christian Church is very important to me because this is where I found Jesus, who has given me a new meaning of life and my best opportunity to grow spiritually,” Judy says.

In November 2001 that small group decided to start having Sunday services, and the Cornerstone Baptist Church in Fredericksburg agreed to let them use their facility. In November 2002, they decided to officially organize as Fil-Am Christian Church and affiliate with CBF. “We continued to grow and needed a larger space and the Friendship Baptist Church of Fredericksburg invited us to share their facility,” Chilton says. “We moved there in January 2004 and have increased on all fronts in ministry and organization.”

And this September their new pastor, Gil Diokno, arrived to lead the church toward its vision. “Our vision is to grow and grow in impact on this community and the world,” Chilton says. f!

Find out more about Fil-Am Christian Church at www.filamcc.com.

By Krista Carnet, Clarksville, Tenn.

Children gather for Sunday school activities at Fil-Am Christian Church.

C O O P E R AT I V E B A P T I S T F E L L O W S H I P

www.thefellowship.info

W I T H A L I N E U P O F S P E A K E R S that read

Russ Dilday photo/Buckner News Service

like a “Who’s Who” of Baptist missions, the We Love Missions conference convened leaders from around the world at Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio in October.

Co-sponsored by Trinity Baptist and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, the conference consisted of four worship services, including a bilingual service to conclude the event; more than 50 workshops; and a hands-on missions project. Dove Award-winning recording artist Bruce Greer was the featured musician, debuting a new compact disk called “The Mission,” composed of songs he wrote while on a CBF CBF Global Missions Co-coordinator Barbara Baldridge (center) presents a check for Global Missions trip in Asia. $3,000 to F. Marconi Monteiro, dean of student services at Baptist University of the Americas in San Antonio.

In his keynote address, award-winning author Philip Jenkins pushed the audience to The Fellowship joined Buckner Children and Family acknowledge that Christianity has a new face, and it’s not Services in partnering with Kids Hope USA to match Anglo. He said Christianity is growing in Nigeria, Brazil, church volunteers with school students in a one-hour a Mexico, Congo, China, and the Philippines, and it is week mentoring program. declining in France, England, Italy and Spain.

CBF Global Missions presented a check to Baptist “Do not reinvent the wheel,” Jenkins said. “Look at University of the Americas, signaling the continuation of a what churches in these countries are doing. We are living three-year partnership to provide book scholarships. in the greatest age of the church, but it is not coming from CBF Global Missions joined Baptist Child & Family the North to the South, it is from the South to the North.

Services of Texas, the Baptist General Convention of Texas, Maybe the first thing we need to know in an age of San Antonio Baptist Association and Trinity Baptist missions is humility.”

Church to bring about change in an impoverished west During the conference, the Fellowship announced the San Antonio neighborhood. f! formation of several new ministry partnerships and a new category of mission service called AsYouGo.

By Lance Wallace, CBF Communications

Fellowship Announces New Category of Missions Service CBF GLOBAL MISSIONS is launching a new category of missions service called AsYouGo that will enable missions workers with other sources of funding the opportunity to affiliate with CBF Global Missions.

The program will allow individuals being sent to do missions work to affiliate with CBF Global Missions even if

they are funded by churches, have full-time employment that takes them abroad or some combination of both.

The Fellowship currently has four categories of mission service – career field personnel, the short-term Global Service Corps program, Student.Go semester missions and Envoys, which are affiliated with but

not funded by the Fellowship.

AsYouGo replaces the Envoy category, according to Tom Ogburn, the Fellowship’s associate coordinator for volunteer and partnership missions.

Those who participate in AsYouGo will be called “affiliates,” and the sending churches will be called “encourager churches.”

Through AsYouGo, a church can completely finance a missions worker and have that worker identify with and join in

the work of other CBF Global Missions field personnel. The criteria for acceptance as an AsYouGo affiliate will be based on the CBF Global Missions strategy of working among the world’s most neglected.

Those interested in service through AsYouGo can contact Amy Whipple Derrick, CBF associate coordinator for Global Service Corps and Student Missions, at (205) 989-8160 or

aderrick@thefellowship.info.

www.thefellowship.info DECEMBER 2004/JANUARY 2005

GLOBAL MISSIONS & MINISTRIES

We Love Missions Conference Challenges Churches, Individuals to be ‘On Mission’

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L E A D E R S I N M I S S I S S I P P I are using the rebirth of a church in Greenville to spearhead long-term missions initiatives in the Mississippi Delta and establish a starting point for Partners in Hope efforts with the rural poor.

Partners in Hope, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s rural poverty initiative, reflects the Fellowship’s 20-year commitment to join forces with people in 20 of the poorest counties in the nation, all located in rural areas. Earlier this year, volunteers from four Mississippi churches joined members of Harvest Fellowship to begin transforming a portion of their church into temporary housing for missions teams who worked in the area throughout the summer.

Located in Greenville, Miss., the church building was the home of a once-thriving congregation. In recent years however, the congregation dwindled and in 2002, the remaining members donated the building to be used to establish a new church. Harvest Fellowship was born.

While Greenville in Washington County is not located in one of the 20 poorest counties, it does share a county line with both Sunflower and Issaquena counties, which are on the list.

Because of its proximity, Harvest Fellowship became a catalyst for Partners in Hope efforts.

Volunteers from First Baptist Church in Volunteers construct a bunk bed frame.

Atlanta Church Spurs Members to Hands-on Missions WHEN FIRST BAPTIST Church of

Decatur, Ga., gave away money to members that attended their annual missions worship service, it was an easy $10 to make but a harder $10 to use. The church specified that each individual or family should use the money “in direct, hands-on mission work sometime in the following week,” says Bob Williamson, the church’s

C O O P E R AT I V E B A P T I S T F E L L O W S H I P

associate pastor of discipleship, missions and executive ministries.

The participants were encouraged to provide a spending report, which the church compiled into a booklet called “$10 Testimonies.”

“There were no strings attached to the $10 except that individuals use it in ministry or missions in some

www.thefellowship.info

Leland, Miss.; Northside Baptist Church in Clinton, Miss.; and Madison Baptist Fellowship and Faith Baptist Church in Jackson, Miss., joined members of Harvest Fellowship in building new restroom and shower facilities to accommodate missions teams Volunteers install the playground at Harvest visiting the area.

Fellowship.

Nearly 30 volunteers from Tabernacle Baptist Church in Carrollton, Ga., built 32 bunk beds in the new dorm space and put in a playground at the church.

“The goal is to develop leaders in the Delta,” says Steve Street, CBF Mississippi coordinator. “Some of the people we have reached establishing Harvest will be involved in our rural poverty initiative team.” f!

Jim Newton photos

GLOBAL MISSIONS & MINISTRIES 16

Church Re-start Becomes Catalyst for Future Partners in Hope Projects

For more information on Partners in Hope, visit www.ruralpoverty.net.

By Bob Perkins Jr., Mechanicsburg, Pa.

way,” Williamson explains.

Williamson estimates that about 450 people participated Some people purchased supplies for the Ronald McDonald House and books for a community center. Some people purchased food and clothes for homeless shelters or a meal for a homeless man.

Others bought water and snacks for Decatur firefighters or gave to a missionary family serving in the Congo.

“I know a number of people who really did some creative

things with their money, and these are people who normally probably hadn’t gotten personally involved beyond giving money,” says Harriet Manley, who added $90 and purchased toys for the Decatur Cooperative Ministry waiting room.

Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Coordinator Daniel Vestal delivered the sermon during the service.

By Carla Wynn, CBF Communications

COORDINATING COUNCIL

Fellowship Reports Record Contributions for Fiscal Year at Council Meeting

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Lance Wallace photo

THE COOPERATIVE BAPTIST Fellowship announced it had received the largest amount of financial gifts in the Fellowship’s history, including the largest amount ever received for the Offering for Global Missions, at the Coordinating Council meeting Oct. 14-15 in Atlanta.

The Fellowship’s controller, Larry Hurst, presented the final, audited report for fiscal year 2003-04, which showed the Fellowship received a total of $24.26 million in revenue including $5.74 million for its annual Offering for Global Missions. Both amounts were all-time highs.

Record revenues were due in part to anonymous gifts of $5 million and $1.8 million, both designated for Global Missions, and several estate gifts. The Fellowship also received a record amount of undesignated contributions totaling $8.87 million.

The Fellowship ended the year behind its modified spending plan for revenue by $708,750 but finished with $5,845 more revenue than expenditures.

Cost-cutting measures ensured the Fellowship would finish the fiscal year in the black for the first time in three years.

For the first two months of fiscal year 2004-05, Hurst reported that revenue is $208,628 ahead of expenditures, but only $3,048 ahead of the budget.

In his report to the Council, Fellowship Coordinator Daniel Vestal announced the retirement of CBF Global Missions Co-coordinator Gary Baldridge, who is leaving to pursue a writing career. His retirement is effective Jan. 1.

Baldridge and his wife, Barbara, have shared the coordinator role since they were selected to head the CBF Global Missions initiative in 1999, succeeding Keith Parks.

The Council’s personnel committee and the Global Missions Initiative Team recommended that Barbara Baldridge continue serving as coordinator until the February Council meeting, at which time the personnel committee and the Global Missions Initiative Team will bring a formal recommendation.

“Barbara is a remarkably gifted, able and committed missions leader,” said Bob Setzer, the Fellowship’s moderator and pastor of First Baptist Church, Macon, Ga. “I’m looking forward to her continued leadership for years to come.”

The Council also responded to the following items: The Council’s Global Missions Initiative Team introduced a change in the Envoy category of service for Global Missions field personnel. A new tentmaking missions program called AsYouGo was formally launched Oct. 21-23 at the We Love Missions conference.

Children’s minister Ginny Dempsey (center) along with two children from her church, Briarcliff Baptist in Atlanta, presented the Coordinating Council with a check for $66,907, which was raised by children and youth for CBF Global Missions at Passport camps in 2004. Tamara Tillman (left) and Barbara Baldridge (second from right) of CBF Global Missions accepted the check on behalf of CBF. Passport President and CEO David Burroughs is on the right.

Upon the recommendation of its Advisory Council, the Coordinating Council voted to authorize Coordinator for Congregational Life Bo Prosser to finalize negotiations with American Baptist Churches USA on holding a joint meeting in 2007 in Washington, D.C. The Council approved a plan that integrated the communications and development functions of the staff into a new team that would be called Communications and Resource Development. This new team would include staff from communications and resource marketing as well as Tom Newsom, the Fellowship’s coordinator of development.

The Council voted to name Ben McDade, who has served as the head of the communications and marketing team of the Fellowship since August 2002, coordinator of Communications and Resource Development.

The Council offered birthday wishes to Vestal, who turned 60, Oct. 18.

CBF Foundation President Don Durham announced that funds under management are nearing $30 million and the campaign to endow the CBF Global Missions field personnel member care and wellness program is progressing.

Participants in the Church Benefits Board retirement plan has grown from 143 employers last October to 201 employers this October, according to CBB President, Gary Skeen. f!

By Lance Wallace, CBF Communications www.thefellowship.info DECEMBER 2004/JANUARY 2005

FELLOWSHIP FARE

Fellowship Roundup News from CBF’s states, regions and national offices ALABAMA

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FLORIDA

A L A B A M A C B F gathered and

C B F F L O R I D A expresses deepest

delivered hundreds of ‘care-boxes’ for hurricane victims in the Florida panhandle and southern Alabama. In addition, $100,000 worth of materials and cash, given by an anonymous donor was divided between two Mobile-area churches, First Baptist Church and Highpoint Baptist Church, for the victims of Hurricane Ivan.

Birmingham is the host city for Antiphony, the first conference for young adults and university students sponsored by CBF Global Missions and The Samuel Project, Dec. 29, 2004 – Jan. 2, 2005. Learn more about Antiphony at www.antiphony online.org.

Brad Creed, provost, Samford University, and William H. Willimon, former dean of the Duke University Chapel, will be guest speakers of the AlabamaCBF Winter Minister's Fellowship on Jan. 11 at Riverchase Baptist Church, Birmingham. For more information, go to www.alabamacbf.org.

appreciation to Lucille and Richard Smith for their 20 months of voluntary service as the interim directors of Open House Ministries.

CBF Florida welcomes Wanda Ashworth as the new director of Open House Ministries, Homestead, a partnership ministry of CBF and CBF Florida.

Kindle Conference, the Second Annual Youth Missions Weekend, will be held at Central Baptist Church, Daytona Beach, Jan. 28-30, 2005.

For details, go to www.floridacbf.org or contact John Uldrick at juldrick@mycpbc.org.

ARKANSAS C O O P E R AT I V E

Baptist Fellowship of Arkansas has chosen Ray Higgins, 48, of Little Rock, Ark., as its next coordinator. Higgins, Ray Higgins pastor of Second Baptist Church for the last 10 years, will begin as coordinator Jan. 1, 2005, a day after the retirement of Tom Logue, who was the group’s founding coordinator.

Logue is retiring to spend more time with his family.

C O O P E R AT I V E B A P T I S T F E L L O W S H I P

www.thefellowship.info

GEORGIA “ C U LT I VAT I N G A C U LT U R E of Call:

A Symposium on the Role of Congregations in Calling People to Ministry” was sponsored by CBF of Georgia in partnership with the Fund for Theological Education on Dec. 9 at First Baptist Church, Decatur.

The CBF of Georgia General Assembly will be held at First Baptist Church, Rome, March 4-5, 2005.

Chuck Poole will be the featured speaker.

LOUISIANA A N A N O N Y M O U S D O N O R and

member of First Baptist Church in Shreveport, La., matched his church’s $5,000 donation to purchase mattresses for hurricane victims in Florida. The church shipped 43 queen-size and 16 twin-size mattress sets to New Hope Baptist Church in Wauchula, Fla.

NATIONAL F E L L O W S H I P employee Grace Powell Freeman marked her 10-year employment anniversary in September.

Coming Attractions Dec. 29-Jan 2, 2005 Antiphony Student Conference Birmingham, Ala. Cost: $150. Includes conference fees and lodging Info: www.antiphonyonline.org Feb. 23-26, 2005 current Retreat First Baptist Church, Asheville, N.C. Cost: $100 Contact: Mary McCoy, (770) 220-1637, mmccoy@thefellowship.info March 7-9, 2005 True Survivor Training Event Dallas, Texas Sponsor: CBF congregational life Presenters: David Odom, Diana Garland Contact: Toni Draper, (770) 220-1654, tdraper@thefellowship.info For a complete schedule of events, go to www.thefellowship.info/InsideCBF/ Calendar.

NORTH CAROLINA Larry Hovis began duties as coordinator of CBF of North Carolina on Oct. 11. Hovis, 42, succeeds original coordinator Bob Larry Hovis Patterson, who announced his retirement in January. Hovis, pastor of The Memorial Baptist Church in Greenville, N.C., since March 1999, was last year’s moderator of CBFNC. He has also previously served at First Baptist Church in Mocksville, N.C., and at two Virginia churches.

TEXAS Larry Maddox of Waco was recently appointed as chaplain of the International Baptist Theological Seminary in Prague. Since his retirement as associate pastor of administration and education at First Baptist Church of Waco in 2000, Maddox and his wife, Betty, have served as longterm volunteers at the seminary.

WEST REGION Glenn Hinson, retired professor of Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, will be the keynote leader for CBF West’s 2005 annual meeting in San Diego, March 31-April 2, 2005. For more information, see the current issue of “CBFWestWord” at www.thefellowship.info/CBFWest or e-mail CBF West Moderator Patti Baynham at pbaynham@earthlink.net.

Journeys Youth Mission Camp 2005 registration is open. Dates are July 11-16, 2005. Cost is $235. For more information, go to www.the fellowship.info/CBFWest or e-mail Journeys Camp Director Mari Licking at JOURNEYSCAMP@msn.com.

CBF Adds Vestal, Pianist to General Assembly Lineup A M O N G T H E H I G H L I G H T S at the 15th annual Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly will be featured speaker Daniel Vestal, the Fellowship’s national coordinator, and guest pianist Joseph Martin.

The event will be held June 29-July 2 at Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas.

Martin, director of sacred publications for Shawnee Press, has performed as a soloist and featured orchestra artist throughout the United States and Mexico. A Dove Award-nominated composer, he has more than 750 compositions in print.

“His own particular style of playing is unique. As a solo concert artist, he’ll bring a significant amount of weight to the program,” said Paul Magyar, minister of music and worship at Tallowood Baptist Church in Houston.

Other featured events include a Wednesday evening hymn festival at Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, a Hispanic leadership conference and “Companions in Christ” training in English and Spanish.

Friday evening’s concluding session will include the commissioning of new Global Missions field personnel.

Departing from the traditional midday Thursday through Saturday morning schedule, this year’s assembly will run Thursday morning, June 30, through Friday evening, July 1, with auxiliary events being offered Wednesday, June 29, and Saturday, July 2.

General Assembly chairman Philip

Vol. 14, No. 6

FELLOWSHIP FARE

TENNESSEE Ivica Horvatic, lay pastor of the Puscine Baptist Church, and his family came in September to share with Tennessee churches about the openness to the gospel in Croatia.

Horvatic serves as coordinator of activities at the Pastoral Center, a site for education and evangelistic outreach in northern Croatia. A team from First Baptist Church, Knoxville, went to Croatia in April to help with construction of the Pastoral Center. To find out more about the TCBF partnership with the Baptist Union of Croatia or how to help with the Pastoral Center, contact Mike Young at (931) 2474851 or missions@tncbf.org.

CBF COORDINATOR • Daniel Vestal EDITOR • Ben McDade MANAGING EDITOR • Lisa M. Jones

19 PHONE • (770) 220-1600 FAX • (770) 220-1685 E-MAIL • fellowship@thefellowship.info WEB SITE • www.thefellowship.info

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Newsletter, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, P.O. Box 450329, Atlanta, GA 31145-0329

Wise said the event is especially beneficial to those interested in learning more about the Fellowship.

“Experiencing a General Assembly is one way of understanding more about CBF and what it’s doing in missions and religious education.

It’s also a way to meet the people of CBF and find out what CBF is all about,” said Wise, senior pastor of Second Baptist Church in Lubbock.

This year’s theme is “Being the Presence of Christ in All the World.”

Online registration and hotel reservations can be made at the Fellowship’s Web site, www.thefellowship.info.

By Carla Wynn, CBF Communication

www.thefellowship.info DECEMBER 2004/JANUARY 2005

I AM A CHRIST FOLLOWER ADVENT 2004

THE CHRIST I FOLLOW IS THE CRUCIFIED, RESURRECTED LORD. HIS TEACHINGS EMBODY THE TRUTH OF GOD. HIS DEEDS, CALLED MIRACLES OR SIGNS, ARE EVIDENCES OF GOD’S KINGDOM – A DIVINE O R D E R O F R E A L I T Y. HIS LIFE IS AN IMAGE OF THE GLORY OF GOD. H I S D E AT H I S A R E V E L AT I O N O F T H E L O V E O F G O D .

H I S R E S U R R E C T I O N I S T H E R E S U LT O F T H E P O W E R O F G O D .

THIS WOUNDED, EVER-LIVING ONE EMPOWERS US TO ACCEPT FORGIVENESS FOR OUR SINS A N D F R E E D O M F R O M O U R F E A R S . C H R I S T P R O M I S E S A N A B I D I N G C O M PA N I O N S H I P, I N V I T E S US TO ENGAGE IN GOD’S CONTINUING MISSION OF REDEMPTION AND SHARE IN THE WORLD’S SUFFERING. PA R T I C I PAT I O N I N C H R I S T M E A N S PA R T I C I PAT I O N I N A C O M M U N I T Y. S O M E I N T H E C O M M U N I T Y H AV E A L R E A D Y PA S S E D T H E D I V I D E B E T W E E N T I M E A N D E T E R N I T Y. T H E Y C H E E R U S O N I N O U R S T R U G G L E S A N D WA I T F O R U S T O J O I N T H E M . A L L I N T H I S G L O B A L COMMUNITY SHARE A MYSTICAL BOND AND A COMMON HOPE. H U M A N M I S E R Y A N D U N E X P L A I N E D E V I L C R E AT E U N A N S W E R E D Q U E S T I O N S A N D U N R E S O LV E D M Y S T E R Y. B U T I N C H R I S T I H AV E D I S C O V E R E D F A I T H , H O P E A N D L O V E .

BECAUSE OF CHRIST …

THE UNIVERSE IS SENSIBLE, D E AT H I S A C C E P TA B L E , THE WORLD IS BEAUTIFUL, SORROW IS BEARABLE LIFE IS MEANINGFUL.

By Daniel Vestal Coordinator Cooperative Baptist Fellowship 0410P006

P. O. Box 450329 Atlanta, GA 31145-0329 Address Service Requested