CBF becoming 'denomination-like,' Vestal tells Coordinating Council

by Greg Warner                                                                                                                                       Vol. XVI, No. 9, Nov/Dec 2003

The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is not really a denomination, says CBF Coordinator Daniel Vestal, but it is becoming more and more like a denomination and indeed functions as one for some churches. The question of what CBF will become has been a constant topic of speculation and some controversy since the organization was formed by moderate Southern Baptists in 1991. Vestal told members of the group's Coordinating Council that CBF has undergone a "progression in the development of our identity." And while no final answer has emerged, some consensus is developing around the CBF's mission, he said.

The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship most often describes itself as a "network of churches and individuals." When it was founded, Vestal said, CBF served as "a relief and rescue operation" for moderate Baptists and their causes. It soon became a movement centered on Baptist principles, he said, and in 1993 it became a "missionary sending and supporting organization."

"In the last three to five years," he continued, "we have become something of a denomination-like organization for some people." "We have about 150 to 175 churches ... that do not have any kind of relationship to the Southern Baptist Convention," Vestal said. For those churches that relate to CBF and no other Baptist body, CBF serves in the role of a denomination or convention, he said. "For a significant and growing number of them," Vestal said, CBF is becoming the most significant denomination-like organization to which they relate.

About 5,000 churches have contributed funds to and through CBF since its inception, including about 2,000 that did so last year, Vestal said. [Note: The Sep/Oct issue of CBF fellowship! states that 1,819 churches contributed in 2002-3 compared to 1,715 in 2001-2. TCP] But those churches identify with CBF in various ways and for various reasons, so those relationships become difficult to classify, he said. [Note: Vestal is accurate here. Some of those churches have CBF in their budgets. Others simply transmit designated gifts to CBF from one or more members. The CBF staff has no way to know the difference. TCP]

While CBF is taking on more traits of a denomination or convention, Vestal said, "We are not a denominational magisterium, we are not a denominational headquarters, and God knows we are not a denominational authority" for churches.

Instead, Vestal said, CBF is becoming more defined by its vision and mission. "We are gaining something of a consensus around our vision," Vestal said.

Some people use terms like denomination, convention and mission-sending organization to describe CBF, Vestal said, "but the word 'fellowship' captures us more than any other word because it describes relationships and partnership."

CBF is collaborating with the Baptist World Alliance, American Baptist Churches in the USA, the Baptist General Convention of Texas, Baptist General Association of Virginia, the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas, the North Carolina Baptist State Convention, the District of Columbia Baptist Convention, and Canadian Baptist groups, among others.

Philip Wise, pastor of Second Baptist Church in Lubbock, Texas, and chair of the Coordinating Council's finance committee, reported that through the first three months of this fiscal year, which began in July, revenues are keeping pace with the budget. That is an improvement over last fiscal year, when CBF had to reduce its budget.

The Council adopted a "not-to-exceed" figure of $16,008,000 for the 2004-05 annual budget, the same as the reduced budget for 2003-04. [ABP]