In my family we have a sort of unspoken tradition around birthdays. On each of our birthdays, my siblings and I expect that at some point in the day – maybe during a phone call or over dinner – my father will, as he does each year, tell us the story of the day of our birth. He’ll talk about the relatives that gathered, what the weather was like and even what people were wearing. When my dad tells the story of the day of my birth, he talks about how the day started overcast and cloudy, but when he walked outside that afternoon, shortly after I was born, the sun was shining brightly. Maybe that’s what the weather was actually doing on a February day in a small Georgia city. Or maybe that’s how a proud, first-time father remembers it.

Last night, during the Fellowship’s 20^th anniversary banquet, Fellowship Baptists began telling their stories about the birth of CBF. CBF moderator Christy McMillin-Goodwin remembered what it was like to be a college student at the first gathering. Central Seminary president Molly Marshall remembers the buttons reading “new wineskins” that people were passing out at the same meeting and how she was filled with hope that things might be changing. This morning, Baptist Women in Ministry executive director Pam Durso recalled that as a graduate student in the early ‘90s she didn’t have enough money to travel to Atlanta for CBF’s first meetings, so she kept up with the news from afar.

 Where were you when CBF began? Have you told someone your story? Who were you with? Why were you there? What was your hope for the future? We celebrate important events in our lives by telling stories about them – sometimes every year.