New CBF Coordinator Speaks                                                       

                                                                                                                        Vol. IX, No. 9, October 1996

        Daniel Vestal, pastor of Tallowood BC, Houston, and “moderate” candidate for SBC president in 1989 & 90, was elected 26 September by the CBF Coordinating Council to replace Cecil Sherman as national CBF Coordinator. After his second loss in the SBC, he called a meeting in Atlanta 23-25 August 1990 to which some 3,000 responded. That group formed the nucleus of the CBF which officially organized less than a year later. After his election as Coordinator, Vestal is quoted as saying, “CBF is not something that has to do with the past but with the future. I think the Fellowship is a new thing. It is a gift of God. I feel almost a sense of reverence about the Fellowship. It is much bigger than any individual or group of individuals.” [Fellowship News, September 1996]

           [Editorial Comment: Although at their annual General Assembly in June the Fellowship defeated a motion to become a new denomination, their actions, their organization, and now Vestals words should make it clear to even the most uninformed Southern Baptist that the CBF is going its own way. It will never return to the SBC. As Vestal said, “It is a new thing.” That being so, Southern Baptist churches in Virginia must understand that the Baptist General Association of Virginia encourages churches to leave the SBC and support the CBF (through the WM-3 budget track {see the Virginia Baptist Annual 1995, p 39}, through a number of organizations funded in the WM-2 budget track which are closely allied with the CBF {such as the extremely liberal seminary in Richmond}, and through hundreds of thousands of dollars flowing from the BGAV budget to schools such as the University of Richmond and Averette College which long ago departed from orthodox biblical belief and other far left groups like Americans United and the Baptist Joint Committee). No church that intends to remain Southern Baptist should continue to affiliate with the BGAV. TCP]