Tracking CBF
Vol. VIII, No. 3, March 1995
The coordinating council of the CBF met 15-18 February [1995] in Fort Worth. Two matters taken up at this meeting are of general interest: the financial report and adoption of the CBF's first mission statement.
Finances: In 1994 CBF reportedly received contributions from 1,377 churches (There are 39,910 churches in the SBC.) and 2,308 individuals. CBF received checks from 1210 churches in 1993. Executive Director Cecil Sherman indicated about 800 churches appear "almost certainly" to have made CBF a budget line item, while the others allow individual church members to designate money to CBF. The states with the largest number of churches sending checks (either from the church budget or one or more members' designations) are: NC 287, VA 243, TX 194, GA 124, KY 87, SC 81, TN 62, MO 49, AL 38, MS 25, and AR 20.
In summary Sherman said, "We lost ground in eight states, did not change in 13, and gained in 16 states.”
Turning to dollar terms, in 1993 CBF received $10,944,328, in 1994 $10,955,212... a 0.1% increase compared to 50% and 60% increases in 1992 and 1993 respectively. This slight rise, however, ignores the fact that in June 1994 the SBC voted to cease accepting contributions through the CBF. While some churches stopped contributing to CBF after that decision, others diverted money that had been designated to the SBC to the CBF. Because of the last half changes from SBC to CBF Sherman reported that the CBF portion of the total budget giving gained "19.72 percent over last year (1993)." 1995 may prove to be a clearer indication of CBF financial strength.
Mission Statement: For four years CBF has had no mission statement, but one was approved at the coordinating council meeting. The statement begins with a paragraph called "Our Mission" which states, "We are a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission of Jesus Christ and a commitment to Baptist principles and practice. Our mission is to network, empower and mobilize Baptist Christians and churches for effective missions and ministry in the name of Christ." Listed in the four-page document as commitments the group shares are soul freedom, Bible freedom, church freedom, and religious freedom.
Under the heading "We are committed to lifelong learning for ministry" one of the two paragraphs reads: "We are committed to Baptist theological education that affords intellectual and spiritual freedom to both students and professors in an atmosphere of reverence for biblical authority and respect for open inquiry and responsible scholarship."
[Editorial Comment: Read the above quotation with wisdom and insight. And you would do well to read the "Anti-Heritage" article in this Banner. It is probably a safe assumption that the CBF's ideal seminary would be much like Southeastern from 1950 to 1988 except even more liberal.]
Up-to-Date: The December Banner carried an article describing the criticism of CBF by a charter member, Richard L. Atkins of Winter Park, FL. The 16 February issue of the liberal paper Baptists Today reports that some CBF leaders asked Atkins for his suggestions and includes his recommendations. The piece includes his 19 point agenda. It is too long to reprint in toto, but a few of his more interesting proposals are listed below with the enumeration he gave them. The brackets following each point are Banner editorial comment.
"1. Prepare our CBF people for separation from the Southern Baptist Convention by speeches and articles. Move away from most associations with the SBC, while at the same time continuing to use as-yet-uncorrupted resources." [Atkins, whom I do not know, appears to be a badly mistaken but forthright and honest man. I commend him for acknowledging that CBF intends to break away from the SBC.]
"3. Promote enthusiasm at our CBF assemblies; ... We go wild at football games, but we go cold and `high church' at CBF assemblies. We need preaching which calls out more 'amens!' and even hand-clapping and cheering. Who wants to travel a great distance to attend a beautiful funeral service?" [Let's face it folks, when an individual, pastor, or church leaves the full authority of God's inerrant Word, they don't have much excitement. Why is it conservative preachers are more fired up in their delivery and the response more enthusiastic? It is because there is soul stirring fire in the God who is revealed in the Words of His inerrant, perfect, written Book. All that we know about Jesus we find in the Book. All that we can teach about salvation for unworthy sinners like you and me we read in His Book. All that we can comprehend about the law of God, about the commands of God, about the mercy of God, about the grace of God, about the commission of God to go and tell, is in the Book. Those who hold the Bible as anything other than perfect, as anything other than as pertinent to our day as it was 2,000 years ago have very little to clap or `amen' about. They may indeed preach a beautiful service, but as Atkins notes, it is a funeral service, unfortunately their own.]
"10. Issue a pamphlet defining the limits for avoiding a slide into real liberalism. Baptist folks need some assurance that essentials of true Christian faith are still intact in the moderate camp.
"11. Do NOT publish new articles of faith. Let us be without creedal statements." [Anyone notice a disconnect here? In number 10 Atkins calls for "limits," a commitment to "essentials." But in 11 he urges no CBF "articles of faith," no "creedal statement." As the 1940s song went, "You can't have one without the other." CBF seems to have hoisted itself on its own petard: By denying the inerrancy of God's Book CBF turns its back on the only reliable foundation for sure agreement. "Creed" comes from the Latin verb credere which simply means "to believe." If one has no creed, he claims to believe nothing. Perhaps he doesn't realize it, but Atkins is asking the impossible: assurance without belief, intact faith without a statement of what that faith is. It is easy to see that CBF has a serious problem.] [BP & Baptists Today]