Bruce Prescott, executive director of Mainstream Oklahoma Baptists, laments the shuttering of another Mainstream Baptist organization – this time Georgia –  in a recent ethicsdaily.com article.  http://www.ethicsdaily.com/mainstream-baptist-group-in-georgia-shuts-down-cms-16879  While many of his observations are spot on, a couple are in need of a different perspective. 

He attributes this latest Mainstream demise to “historic Baptist distinctives hav(ing) lost their appeal to most Baptists in the South.”  Perhaps this group has disbanded not for lack of passion for Baptist distinctives as much as weariness of fighting battles of an era gone by.  The Mainstream groups, while well intended and needed at a certain time in our shared Baptist history in the South, were/are primarily political organizations committed to fighting the old wars.  I am of the mindset, as is usually the case with history, that we Baptists should never forget what happened; neither should we continuously obsess upon it. No good will come from fretting about a half empty Baptist cup of yesterday.  In the midst of a hurting and dying world, CBF and its many partners are focused on ensuring that our cup is big enough to hold the blessings that will come our way as together we are the presence of Christ in the world. 

At another point in his article Bruce says, “Today, 10 years after Southern Baptists traded their birthright for an authoritarian creed, a Baptist in the South who remembers what it was like to be a Baptist who is free in Christ is a dying breed. Our children have never known a time when they had reason to be proud of the Baptist name.”  I respectfully but adamantly disagree.  As the father of three children, my kids understand why my wife and I have raised them in the authentic Baptist tradition, and they have grown to claim this proud heritage for themselves.  Within the CBF family many of our “children” know and embrace the reasons to be proud of the Baptist name. For example, our partners at PassPort have enriched the lives of more than 25,000 children and youth through their hands on, missions minded ministries, packaged in the best tradition of free and faithful Baptists. I’ve had the privilege of attending one of the two Faith in 3D events at Disney, which brought together youth from CBF, Presbyterian USA and Episcopalian traditions.  I’ve experienced the joy of seeing and hearing 600 young Baptists cheer in celebration of their free and faithful Baptist tradition.    

Over the past 20 years, Fellowship Baptists have experienced the joy of seeing many of our “children” who we helped nurture in our rich Baptist tradition grow up and assume roles of leadership and effective ministry. CBF partner schools and seminaries have educated and trained more than 14,000 of our children over the past 20 years, with more than 1,600 of them receiving CBF scholarships.  Our current moderator Christy McMillin-Goodwin is a great example of one who has never experienced the dominant Baptist cultural force of the South, having been raised in a free and faithful congregation, having attended a CBF-sponsored seminary, and now serving as an ordained minister in a CBF partner congregation.  She is but one example of thousands of younger free and faithful Baptists today serving in or members of CBF partner congregations.  These individuals and the congregants they minister to are indeed proud of the authentic Baptist name and witness – in the South and elsewhere – that is alive and flourishing today. Many of us are thankful that the free and faithful Baptist culture exists today, supported and fueled by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, our 1,800 partner congregations and more than 150 ministry partners around the globe.

One may long for the former Baptist landscape before it was scorched by fundamentalism or one can take heart in the present Baptist soil that is springing forth new birth and new life through another generation of free and faithful Baptists who are proud of their authentic Baptist heritage and are optimistic about their future.

Ben McDade