2022 Impact Report

Reina Midney (left) and Lupita Vasquez right) serve on the volunteer and staff team of Cultivate Abundance, the migrant farmworker ministry of CBF field personnel Rick Burnette in Immakolee, Fla.

OUR IMPACT—TOGETHER

Impact reports like this one tell a story. It’s a story of God inviting us into community and equipping us for faithful ministry. It’s a story of transformation—God’s transformation of the world through Jesus Christ.

And there’s little question God gives us both what we need to be vessels for transformation and to be transformed ourselves. The issue is whether we will accept the invitation, use what we’ve been given and join in God’s holy work in the world. As a Fellowship, we do this together.

I hope this report gives you a sense of the global, intergenerational, generous work of Cooperative Baptists in response to the call of the Triune God. Together, we are engaged in a mission and ministry in our communities and all around the world that is abundantly far more than anything any of us or any one congregation could do on our own.

More and more, when we Cooperative Baptists speak of “fellowship,” we refer to a community of congregations, individuals, field personnel, theological schools, chaplains, pastoral counselors and other partners from different generations and geographies that are bound together in relationship.

This community, this Fellowship, responds to crises in the United States and around the world through our disaster response ministries. We support field personnel and partners with prayer and financial support as they minister to refugees fleeing war and violence in places like Ukraine. We provide student mission and church internships to equip students, to be equipped by them and to equip the Church. We support our annual General Assembly, where you and 1,500-plus of your fellow Cooperative Baptists are able to gather, to learn and to grow. We do this and so much more.

In these pages, celebrate the power of our collaboration. Learn more about our Fellowship and the impact of our work together. And then accept the invitation to deepen this community where we are equipped for bold faithfulness.

Paul Baxley Executive Coordinator

Cooperative Baptist Fellowship

December 2022

Residents at the men’s shelter of Amani Sasa in Kampala, Uganda, receive counseling, discipleship, music therapy, and vocational, leadership, and business training. At this ministry of CBF field personnel Missy Ward-Angalla, refugee men are experiencing deep levels of healing and transformation through this holistic ministry.

OUR FELLOWSHIP

The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is a network of churches, individuals and partners inviting each other into deeper community, equipping each other for ministry and seeking the transformation of God’s world.

We pursue a bold and powerful witness in our communities and around the world that none of us can do on our own. As a Fellowship, we unleash all the powerful gifts we’ve been given to meet the urgent needs of our churches and our communities.

Our diverse community includes partners all over the world, and our Fellowship supports a wide range of missions and ministries that give people meaningful opportunities to put their faith to action. With a deep respect for freedom, diversity and equality, we encourage autonomy while inviting dynamic collaboration.

Our understanding of Baptist faith and practice is expressed by our emphasis on freedom in biblical interpretation and congregational governance, the participation of women and men in all aspects of church leadership and Christian ministry, and religious liberty for all people.

CBF is innovative congregations, gifted and called field personnel bearing witness to Jesus Christ around the world, nearly 1,200 endorsed chaplains and pastoral counselors, 17 state and regional organizations, dozens of theological schools and partner organizations and so much more.

As Cooperative Baptists, God invites us and equips us to share and spread the hope of Christ. Whether we’re feeding the hungry, advocating for the unheard, nurturing a young person’s calling to ministry, endorsing a chaplain to serve or helping families get back on their feet after a disaster, we and those with whom we minister experience transformation.

We invite you to join us. Become part of the story. Become part of this Fellowship.

(Left to right) Jewel London, Helen Moore-Montgomery, Grace Martino-Suprice and Adam Granger offer a welcome and prayer of praise during the opening worship session of the 2022 CBF General Assembly in Dallas, Texas.

LOCAL CHURCHES

CHURCH SUPPORT

The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship exists to serve churches. CBF partner congregations contribute their unique gifts and draw strength from the community the Fellowship provides. Churches strengthen each other through collaborative partnerships of mutual equipping as they seek God’s transformation of the world. Through CBF, congregations of all types find opportunities for connection, identity and shared vision. Whether pastors, church staff, chaplains, committee members or Sunday school teachers, CBF seeks to help church leaders thrive, offering consultation, conversation, leadership development and resources for equipping, networking and renewal.

Southside Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., shares its facilities with several diverse churches and nonprofit organizations.

Team members enjoy an icebreaker game at a regional leadership training event in North Africa, where CBF field personnel Karen serves among migrant and refugee communities.

GLOBAL MISSIONS

SHARING GOD’S LOVE IN WORD & DEED

CBF Global Missions shares God’s message of hope and love in real ways to some of the most marginalized and vulnerable people in the world—people living in extreme poverty, refugee children and families fleeing violence in search of a safe haven, women who are trafficked, and families who have lost everything through a hurricane, earthquake or other natural disaster. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, we cultivate beloved community, bear witness to Jesus Christ and seek transformational development among people and places otherwise forgotten and forsaken. Our field personnel serve alongside congregations within three primary contexts: global poverty, global migration and the Global Church.

In 2022, CBF launched a Ukraine Relief Fund for field personnel and partner efforts in response to the war in Ukraine and in support of refugees in neighboring countries.

YOUNG BAPTISTS

Resourcing and networking Young Baptists for the Christian journey is at the heart of the Young Baptist ecosystem. Through experiences, internships, ministries, programs, connections and local church support, CBF is encouraging and creating an environment in which students and young adults can thrive, be energized and have opportunities to give life to the world around them as they use their gifts in service of God and others. Young Baptists matter to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, and CBF is being shaped by their presence among us.

Student.Church participants reconnect at Passport Camps. From left to right: Heidi Ruiz, Harrisonburg Baptist Church, Harrisonburg, Va.; Halea Pitts, Fredericksburg Baptist Church, Fredericksburg, Va.; Avery Browning, Ardmore Baptist Church, Winston-Salem, N.C.

SEMINARIES (21%)

UNDERGRAD INSTITUTIONS (79%)

MALE STUDENTS (11%)

FEMALE STUDENTS (89%)

GRADUATE STUDENTS (22%)

UNDERGRADUATES (78%)

WHITE STUDENTS (81%)

BLACK STUDENTS (15%)

LATINA STUDENT (4%)

feel like I have been transformed by a renewal of my passion for ministry work. I have been serving at my church for a while and, before this internship started, would honestly have said I felt myself falling into a rut. Getting to meet and spend time with others who have a passion for spreading the Gospel has rekindled my own passion which I hope to carry it forward into the future.”

Owen Wohler, Chandler Baptist Church, Liberty, Mo., Student.Church Participant

TOGETHER FOR HOPE

TRANSFORMING RURAL AMERICA

Together for Hope is a rural development coalition engaging the 301 counties of persistent rural poverty in America. We believe asset-based community development is the best first step in fighting poverty in rural spaces. To that end, we work with communities to hear their dreams and begin to take steps toward those visions. Within these communities, Together for Hope holistically fights poverty focusing on four priorities of hope: Education, Health & Nutrition, Housing & Environment and Social Enterprise.

(Right to left) Marcus Johnson from Healthy Sumter, Rev. Wendy Peacock from Fellowship Baptist Church, Tiffany Terrell, co-founder of A Better Way Grocery, and Rachel Gunter Shapard, in front of a mobile grocery bus, which provides better food access in Sumter County, Georgia.

IMPACT SPOTLIGHT

Appalachian Gold is a new food brand featuring a series of products, including salad dressings, infused oils, hot honeys and maple syrups grown on the family farm of Jason Tartt in West Virginia. This farm and these products help drive economic development and build Appalachia’s sustainable future. Appalachian Gold draws together several organizational partners to bring the brand to life, including T & T Organics, Y’all Sauce, EDGE and Together for Hope.

“We want local communities to be proud to represent this brand. For food producers, we support their work and want to make sure they can financially continue to do it with dignity. The agricultural system does not really have a handle on supporting small farmers, Black farmers, beginning farmers or people who do things on a small scale.”

The annual commissioning of CBF-endorsed chaplains and pastoral counselors is a special service of blessing and sending forth for these ordained ministers of the Gospel.

CHAPLAINCY & PASTORAL COUNSELING

THE IMPACT OF COMPASSIONATE PRESENCE

Since 1998, CBF has endorsed nearly 1,200 chaplains and pastoral counselors to serve in specialized ministry settings. Endorsement denotes that a minister is ecclesiastically qualified and has been vetted as being spiritually, emotionally, educationally and clinically prepared to serve in specialized ministries. Ecclesiastical endorsement is an essential requirement of employment for chaplains and pastoral counselors. CBF-endorsed chaplains and pastoral counselors represent our Fellowship with excellence, serving as a critical ministry of the Fellowship, embodying compassionate presence in our communities, offering God’s love and the hope of Christ to all, as together in fellowship, we work to further God’s kingdom.

OUTREACH & GROWTH

Outreach and Growth is a team that celebrates interest of all new CBF partner congregations. CBF is inviting churches to form new vital, loving, just and needed church partnerships. The team encourages partnerships during times of prayerful discernment and discovery as well as striving to create relationships with existing CBF organizations to make the Fellowship home for all. The work of the Outreach and Growth team includes leadership of the Pan-African Koinonia (formerly the AfricanAmerican Network), as well as FAMILIA, CBF’s Latino Network.

NEW COVENANT RELATIONSHIPS

MID-ATLANTIC

SEAN ROBERDS, MID-ATLANTIC CBF EXECUTIVE COORDINATOR; MEMBER OF CBF’S OUTREACH AND GROWTH TEAM

NORTHEAST

GRACE MARTINO-SUPRICE, BAPTIST FELLOWSHIP NORTHEAST COORDINATOR; MEMBER OF CBF’S OUTREACH AND GROWTH TEAM

CBF’s Rubén Ortiz signs a Missional Relationship Covenant alongside Puerto Rican Baptist leaders on March 4, 2022. The agreement with Iglesias Bautistas de Puerto Rico was signed by by representatives of 114 churches, eight schools, and approximately 35,000 church members in Puerto Rico, making it the largest covenant of its kind in the history of CBF.

CBF FOUNDATION

SUPPORTING MISSION AND MINISTRY CAUSES

The CBF Foundation’s mission is to work alongside individuals, churches and organizations to cultivate, receive, invest and steward long-term sustaining assets and legacy gifts to support CBF mission and ministry causes. The CBF Foundation is actively addressing the current financial challenges that most of our congregations are facing through the creation of resources and training support. Through partnership with HighGround Advisors, it offers a comprehensive array of investment, legal and gift-planning expertise and services for churches, nonprofit organizations and individuals. Funding the work of the Great Commission and the Greatest Commandment within the Fellowship is the vision and ministry of the CBF Foundation.

CBF Foundation President Shauw Chin Capps smiles alongside David Wilson, a long-time CBF Global Missions supporter and advocate.

ADVOCACY

CBF Advocacy is rooted in the same spirit and call that motivate our mission endeavors: to demonstrate the love of Christ by loving our most neglected and marginalized neighbors. As Christians dedicated to service, we often encounter situations and issues in need of a strong voice. Such encounters create passionate advocates in our churches and among those serving across the globe. CBF Advocacy is about encouraging, equipping and promoting the voice of advocates in our midst as they encounter need. In doing so, we strive to exercise responsible Christian citizenship by modeling a more effective, positive and inclusive public witness for the church.

A mother and her child at a migrant shelter in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, supported by Fellowship Southwest and run by Rev. Lorenzo Ortiz.

CHURCH BENEFITS

YOUR BENEFITS ARE OUR MINISTRY

The Church Benefits Board, Inc. (CBB), is a ministry of CBF, created in 1998 by the General Assembly to provide retirement benefits for ministers and staff members of churches that are affiliated with CBF, along with CBF field personnel serving worldwide. Our mission goes beyond delivering a robust and comprehensive retirement plan benefit. CBB can help its clients maintain their benefit packages, including life and disability benefits, as well as provide medical insurance for international missions. CBB also recently launched the Financial Wellness Initiative

ministers in tackling debt and building a financial plan.

to assist

Clergy and spouses gather in Williamsburg, Va., for a Financial Wellness Retreat hosted by the CBF Church Benefits Board (CBB). CBB hosts financial wellness retreats and educational events across the United States. Learn more at churchbenefits.org/financialwellness

IDENTITY & EXPERIENCES

At the heart of our Fellowship is our work together to embrace our calling to support the thriving of congregations, to participate in Jesus’ mission and to offer a Christian public witness. Connection and community among the people and churches of this Fellowship thrive when we invite each other into relationships of equipping as we seek God’s transformation of the world. Fellowship Experiences, including General Assembly, held across CBF life, as well as the production of timely information, publications and resource content help communicate the values and identity of CBF.

Dr. Anthea Butler (left), author of White Evangelical Racism, and Dr. Beth Allison Barr (right), author of The Making of Biblical Womanhood, were featured in 2022 on the award-winning podcast, CBF Conversations.

STATES & REGIONS

Seventeen autonomous state and regional organizations (SROs) serve people and churches across the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. These SROs harness the geographic proximity they share with people and churches to form vital relationships. They provide grants to churches and organizations to support ministry, equip pastors and lay leaders, provide opportunities for growth for Young Baptists and support pastors and churches across a lifetime of ministry service. They do these things and so much more. CBF Global has sought to work alongside SROs, helping build their capacity to serve congregations and our Fellowship even better.

Youth from North Carolina build relationships during a beach retreat at Fort Caswell in Oak Island, N.C.

160 Clairemont Avenue, Suite 500 Decatur, GA 30030 800-352-8741 fellowship@cbf.net www.cbf.net