Is CBF a Part of the SBC?

by John Tyler                                                                                                 Vol. XIV, No. 3, March 2001

Cooperative Baptist Fellowship - www.cbfonline.org February 11, 2001

People often ask me, "Is CBF a part of the SBC or is CBF a totally independent Baptist organization?" Here is my answer: CBF is a new and independent Baptist organization. It is not connected in any way whatsoever with the SBC.

I answer this way for several reasons. When a Baptist organization is a part of a parent Baptist organization:

1. The two organizations will share governance in some manner, but CBF has no governing presence in the SBC, and the SBC has no governing presence in CBF.

2. The two organizations will have some kind of shared budget, but CBF receives no money from the SBC, and the SBC receives no money from CBF. In fact, in the mid-1990s the SBC instructed its agencies and institutions to refuse gifts from Baptist churches and individuals if those contributions were channeled through the Fellowship (a method many churches were using at the time).

3. The two organizations will work together harmoniously on various projects and ministries, but the SBC does not work with CBF on any projects or ministries, and CBF does not work with the SBC on any projects or ministries.

4. The two organizations will share a common understanding of Baptist life, but the SBC has a very different understanding of Baptist life than does CBF, and the SBC seems to remind us daily of the difference.

5. Each organization, as part of the same "family", will support the mission and work of the other, but CBF cannot and does not support the broad work of the SBC, and the SBC does not support the work of CBF. (Despite this clear separation, individual Baptists in both organizations do work together on individual projects from time to time in various fields of ministries where both are part of a larger, cooperative effort of Christians.)

As you can see, the Fellowship is an organization that is totally independent structurally and missionally from the SBC.

From separate to adversarial

The SBC has no ambiguity about how to answer our question. The new leadership of the SBC will tell you in no uncertain terms that the SBC has nothing whatsoever to do with CBF. In fact, the SBC's press agency, Baptist Press, issues releases almost every week that attack the shared values, work and ministries of CBF and its network of partner churches and organizations. Personal attacks are also launched against the leaders and supporters of the CBF movement.

Some ask, "Well then, if CBF is not part of the SBC, is the Fellowship a new Baptist denomination?" My answer is, "Yes and no." I have to answer that way because the word "denomination" is used differently by different people.

CBF as "denomination-like"

Some people claim that our denomination is "Baptist", and the Baptist denomination is sub-divided into various conventions, like the American Baptist Churches in the USA, the National Baptist Convention, the Southern Baptist Convention, and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. For these people, CBF is not a new denomination; it is a new Baptist convention or convention-like organization. So these people don't think CBF is a new denomination, for CBF is Baptist through and through.

Other people hear the word "denomination" and think of a particular kind of organizational structure, of a particular way of owning and governing institutions, of a particular way of providing products and services to churches. They see a denomination's membership being comprised of affiliated churches, and they understand that voting at the denomination's annual meeting is done by messengers from member churches.

These people don't think CBF is a new denomination because our structure is totally different from a typical denomination's structure:

--we don't own or govern institutions as does a typical denomination;

--we don't produce programs and materials that CBF churches are expected or "required" to use;

--our membership is comprised of both churches and individual Christians; and

-- the voters at our annual meetings aren't a set number of messengers from affiliated churches, but rather the voters are each and every individual person in attendance who has contributed financially to the mission and ministries of CBF during the past year, either directly or through his or her church.

When these people hear the word "denomination," they shudder lest the Fellowship cloak itself with the governance, organizational structure, and methods of the past rather than the future.

A place to call home and an identity to claim

Even so, I have a feeling that most of us don't think of denomination in either of the ways I just described. When each of the vast majority of us says the word "denomination," we mean a place I can call home -- a place that gives me identity and a "handle" that I can use to help me and others understand just what kind of Baptist I am. And most importantly for us Baptists in the South at this time in history, we want a new place to call our own so we can say that we are not a part of the Southern Baptist Convention.

We want to be able to say to our friends and neighbors next June when the SBC convention is in the public press, "No, I'm not a Southern Baptist; I'm a Fellowship Baptist. I'm a different breed of Baptist altogether. So please don't think I'm part of that Baptist group you're reading about this week in the newspaper."

So when people ask, "Is CBF a part of the SBC, or is CBF a totally independent Baptist organization?", I don't think the majority of them are concerned with the classic definitions of denomination or convention. And I don't think they want for one minute to return to the outmoded organizational and missional model of the 19th-century denomination. But I do think they desperately want CBF to be denomination-like in the sense of providing a new Baptist place to call home and an identity that connects them with other Baptists who share their hopes and dreams for Baptist life.

Distinct and decidedly different

CBF is, indeed, "a new way to be Baptist." It is a new kind of Baptist organization with a new kind of governance and structure that sees the local church as the center of the universe (call it a Copernican revolution in Baptist life!). CBF is a home for Baptist churches and individuals. It is a new denomination (or at least it is denomination-like), in the way most of us use that word. And the Fellowship is decidedly not a part of the SBC.

So if you are a CBFer, and someone asks you what denomination you're a part of, look them straight in the eye, and tell them you're a Fellowship Baptist. If you aren't a CBFer, but long for the identity CBF can offer you, then I hope you will think prayerfully about joining the Fellowship family. As our Fellowship continues to mature and gets some history under its belt, everyone will know what it means to be a Fellowship Baptist.

And they will know without a doubt that it isn't the same thing as being a Southern Baptist.

[John Tyler, a layman from Webster Groves, MO, served as CBF's moderator in 1999-2000 and is a former member of CBF's Coordinating Council.]