| BAPTISTS TODAY
News Release www.baptiststoday.org |
October 17, 2005
ATLANTA – The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Coordinating Council unanimously
approved a new preamble for its constitution and bylaws Oct. 14, sending the
amendment to the General Assembly, which will meet in Atlanta June 22-23, 2006.
During the most recent General Assembly, June 30-July 1, in Grapevine, Texas,
the participants approved an amended constitution and bylaws, which included a
new purpose statement that reflected the wording of the Fellowship’s mission
statement. However, during the Assembly and the weeks following, Fellowship
churches and individual CBF members raised concerns that the language omitted
specific references to Jesus Christ and the Great Commission.
In response, newly-elected Moderator Joy Yee, pastor of Nineteenth Avenue
Baptist Church in San Francisco, Calif., appointed a special task force in July
to address the changes in wording.
Headed by Council member Jack Glasgow, pastor of Zebulon Baptist Church in
Zebulon, N.C., the task force presented a recommendation for a preamble to be
added to the constitution and bylaws. The wording is as follows:
“As a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches, we celebrate our faith in
the One Triune God. We gladly declare our allegiance to Jesus Christ as Lord and
to His gospel as we seek to be the continuing presence of Christ in this world.
Our passion is to obey the Great Commandment (Matthew 22:34-40) and the Great
Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) of our Lord in the power of the Holy Spirit, and
to uphold Baptist principles of faith and practice as we partner with one
another and other Christians.”
The Council unanimously adopted the preamble, in effect recommending adoption of
the proposed amendment to the full General Assembly.
“This is a fresh start to make a positive statement about who we are as
Fellowship Baptists … We have a chance to say clearly that the Cooperative
Baptist Fellowship is not reticent at all to stand up and say we are committed
to the lordship of Jesus Christ,” said Glasgow.
Glasgow said the Fellowship had three main audiences that responded to the
wording changes made this summer – individuals and churches affiliated with the
Fellowship, the general public and “unrelenting and unloving critics.”
“I believe there is nothing we can do to make them stand up and applaud us,”
Glasgow said. “But I care very deeply about those within the Fellowship and
those in the general public who want to know who we are and what we’re about.”
The task force included Glasgow, CBF National Coordinator Daniel Vestal, current
moderator Joy Yee and former moderator John Tyler, who also served on the
Council committee that drafted the amendments to the constitution and bylaws
that were approved this summer.
The Council had little discussion on the preamble, but no dissent was voiced.
“I like that it includes a larger breadth of understanding of the Great
Commission in light of the Great Commandment,” said Brian Harfst, council member
from Spotsylvania, Va. “Thank you for adding that language.”
(John Pierce is executive editor of Baptists Today, an autonomous,
national news journal based in Macon, Ga.)