July 2, 2025 • 19 mins
In this episode, Danny offers his experiences and insights from the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly in St. Louis. This includes references to remarks made by keynote speakers at luncheons and worship services. Danny also offers a few takeaways from the Assembly, which includes a visit to Busch Stadium to watch the Cardinals (sadly, they lost to the Cubs).
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Hey everybody, thanks for dropping by.
I just wanted to give a little bit of a report on my experience
at the Co Operative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly in
Saint Louis. And the best part about the the
experience was being able to go there and make the the trip to
the show me state with my daughter Cali.
My family and I live 12 years inMissouri in the southwest part
(00:20):
of the state in the Ozarks area.But Saint Louis and Kansas City
are the two largest cities in the state and we would enjoy
going and taking some Rd. trips there.
And just to be able to make the trip back to Saint Louis was was
really something. I have to say I was a little bit
on the fence about making the trip until it was made known
(00:43):
that part of the experience would be a night at the ballpark
at Busch Stadium and more about that in a moment.
But the the venue for the event was a Hyatt Regency hotel, which
was literally a few steps away from the Gateway Arch National
Park. And then the Mississippi River
is right there too. If you've never been to the
Gateway Arch, St. Louis is a destination place.
(01:05):
It is a phenomenal architecturalwonder.
And it's free admission. You can pay to go up in the
Arch. That's something I did about 10
years ago. Kelly and I did not do it this
time. The triple digit temperatures
kind of discouraged us from making the trip up into the
Arch. But it's a beautiful venue and
the assembly was underneath, underneath the arch, and that
(01:27):
was really part of the theme of the event and what I wanted to
do. And I try to do this because I
was grateful to represent our church and grateful our church
as part of the fellowship. I try to give a little bit of a
report to our people to let themknow some of the things that
took place. And I wanted to use this venue
to make that happen. And plus, in the off chance
there might be some of you who would be interested to get my
(01:49):
thoughts about it or just to review, I won't go into all the
particulars, but I did want to point out some of the high
points. On Tuesday, there was a
leadership event that was led byDoctor Ryan Burge.
And Ryan is the associate professor of political science
at Eastern Illinois University, and I understand he's going to
Washington University in August.Ryan is known as the numbers and
(02:11):
graphs guru, I guess for lack ofa better term.
He served as a bio vocational pastor for 17 years and until
his church eventually closed andhe wrote about this.
Really a good article. I think I found this in
Sojourner's magazine, but he talked about his own experiences
in the local church, about a church that was aging in the
declining numbers and the financial challenges.
(02:33):
And I wasn't able to be in the room for this event.
I did not register in events forthat time together, but I was
able to to get a lot of the material having not registered
for it. I did use that time, plus a lot
of the other time in sermon preparation and got to know the
Starbucks there in the hotel really well.
But anyway, some of Ryan's thoughts really resonated and
(02:55):
validated my own thinking in that there is a tendency to
romanticize the past and talk about how much better things
were back in the day. Again, Ryan is a political
scientist, and he's very familiar with these numbers.
And he says the numbers in the past don't support that mindset.
He says we were never as pious as you were led to believe.
(03:16):
It's just that we get nostalgic and grind off the parts we don't
like. We have a distorted view of the
past. And I want to thank Baptist News
Global and CBF for their information about the conference
and making that possible and available for us.
There wasn't a lot that I read about what Ryan had said that
surprised me. I had been familiar with some of
(03:38):
his other work, especially aboutthe rise of the nuns and the
duns. He says that location plays a
role in the growth, the numerical growth of a church.
And when the growth in the county goes up, that can impact
the church's growth. And of course, when the growth
in the County Down, that's also going to impact the decline in
the church, which leads me to this statement.
(04:00):
That's pretty obvious, but it's worth noting.
He says if your church isn't growing, it's not all your
fault. If your church is growing, it's
not all you're doing. And he said a couple of final
thoughts about this. God has called you to be
faithful, not successful. God sees you, God honors you.
And nothing has changed my life more than turning my heart
towards gratitude and Thanksgiving.
(04:21):
There's a note adage that says facts are stubborn things, and
the tendency is to focus on justthe quantitative aspect of
church life and church growth. But we need to recognize that
the gospel is about changing lives and the work of the church
has never been more important. And speaking for myself and
talking to others who have been in the ministry for a while when
(04:44):
I started this work, getting in the pastorate and ministry in
general, I aspire to be part of a really large church.
But now, as I have gotten a little bit older, I've come to
realize that the main focus is simply to be faithful in my
corner of the vineyard. And especially when I read about
and hear about all the moral andethical failures of church
(05:04):
leaders. I just want to finish with my
character intact. And really, day after day, I
pray. Lord, please just keep me from
evil. I thought Ryan's conference
seemed to go well and he offereda lot of great information.
On Tuesday afternoon there was atri-state gathering of the CBF,
Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia.It was more of a dessert
(05:24):
fellowship to get the three state groups together and to
follow the theme of food. This was really kind of an
appetizer for what is yet to come in October.
Being part of the leadership team here in Tennessee, we're
calling it Tag TAG Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia.
And for the first time that I'vebeen aware of this, we are
(05:44):
bringing 3 state groups togetherfor an annual meeting.
We'll gather in Chattanooga. There's some promotion work
being done, and I'm hopeful thatthere'll be some good
participation. I would envision each of the
state groups maintaining their autonomy and independence, but
hopefully we can share some resources and can reach across
state lines on different different events.
(06:05):
There were two luncheons. I want to thank Good Faith Media
for allowing me to sit at their table for the Doctor Emmanuel
McCall Racial Justice Trailblazer Luncheon.
And the event honors McCall as an African American pastor who
had a key role in CBF life. And the luncheon draws attention
to the need and purpose of racial reconciliation.
(06:26):
And a highlight is always the keynote speaker.
And this year was Tracy D Blackman.
And she challenged us to remember that annihilation is
the way of the world, but reconciliation is the way of
God. And she's a theologian in
residence at Eden Theological Seminary.
And and her key passage came from Romans 13.
To paraphrase, you know what time it is?
(06:48):
It is the moment for you to wakefrom sleep, for salvation is
nearer to us. Now, Romans 13 is one of those
few passages. I think there are three of them
out at the church sites to talk about different relationships we
have with the government. And Romans 13 has been used and
misused in different ways. It's the one that says to submit
to the governing authorities. But we were reminded that it was
(07:11):
Paul's intent to tell the churchto do what's necessary to
survive. And in a similar capacity,
that's what the church is tryingto do today.
We're trying to do what is necessary to fulfill our
mission. One of the things that Reverend
Blackman said that stuck out at me, she says if your theology
doesn't make you do something, it's not the gospel and there's
(07:32):
a lot of misinformation and disinformation in the world and
the church must stand for truth.The other luncheon that I
attended was the Baptist Women in Ministry luncheon was able to
sit at the Tennessee CBF table. The guest speaker at the
luncheon was Angela Dinker. It was really more of a panel
discussion about her book, A Disciples of White Jesus, the
(07:52):
Radicalization of American Boyhood that was released a few
months ago. She's an ordained minister with
the Evangelical Lutheran Church.And she gave a lesson and really
based her her remarks on John Chapter 11.
And she talked about how Jesus related to the news of Lazarus's
death and how he interacted withMary and Martha and really those
(08:13):
in the crowd at that moment. And as a bit of trivia, maybe
many of us have memorized the shortest verse in the Bible.
Jesus wept. Angela referenced this and this
moment in Jesus's life as a way of showing evidence about
Jesus's showing emotion and his empathy and her book and really
the remarks that she made, she talked about the importance of
(08:35):
combating this, this alternativenarrative around men, which says
the only appropriate emotion is anger.
The current cultural narrative is one that elevates violence.
And Dinker says for boys and young men growing up in this
environment, the only safe emotion you can express is
anger. If you're sad, if you're
grieving, feeling betrayed, you can be angry, but that's the
(08:58):
only acceptable emotion. And she talked about her book,
and the purpose of her book is to show a masculinity rooted in
the person of Jesus Christ. This is not the militaristic or
white Jesus that we hear about, but she attempts to bring us
back and her readers back to theJesus that is in the Gospels.
Jesus does not represent wealth or power at all costs, which
(09:20):
when you think about it, that would have Jesus giving in to
the temptations of Satan in the desert.
I also pointed out some statistics that white men are
more likely than any other demographic group in the United
States to be a mass shooter, andwhite men are more likely than
any other demographic to die by suicide, which I found
(09:40):
incredible and tragic. I found her presentation
interesting and educational, andespecially her acknowledgement
and her story of being a mother and a minister and an author.
And her remarks validated some of my own thinking about how we
tend to make Jesus into our own image and can project that war
view onto others. And I agree that we need to go
(10:03):
back to the Jesus of the Gospelsand allow that narrative to
shape our worldview. There were two worship services
and I thought they were a very meaningful the Hatfield preached
at one of them. She is the pastor of First
Baptist Church, Jefferson City. They're in Missouri.
She preached on Come to the Waters from Isaiah 55 and she
(10:24):
used the Mississippi River as a visual and she told the story of
John Berry and Mary Meacham and again this story was was so
powerful. John was the enslaved son of a
Baptist preacher and purchased his freedom at the age of 21 and
walked 700 miles to Virginia to free his father and eventually
(10:47):
followed his still enslaved wifeand children to Saint Louis with
just $3 in his pocket. They educated Black children in
their house until Missouri outlawed Black education in
1847, and then John was arrestedand their basement school
closed. But here's the thing.
The state of Missouri owned the land, but the federal government
(11:09):
had jurisdiction over the Mississippi River.
So John had this vision of, and he followed through on this.
He bought a Steamboat. He filled it with desks and
books, and he anchored it just offshore in the river, creating
what newspapers called the Floating Freedom School.
I thought this was a great message and I'd encourage you to
(11:29):
listen to it online. And Paul Baxley is the executive
coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
He preached a message from Ephesians.
Jesus Christ is our cornerstone and keystone.
He said that Jesus is the first stone.
Jesus is the last stone, and in him everything holds together.
Just a few thoughts that stuck out at me.
(11:50):
He says it's not that when we come to Jesus that our
differences disappear. That would be even boring for
moderate Baptist. What a God who raises the dead
does is desires to resurrect people into a relationship with
one another, where their differences radiate brightly in
the image of God. And they bring all that they
have and all that they are to sing praise to him and live a
(12:12):
life in this world that is a foretaste of the world that is
to come. And he emphasized that Jesus is
the orientation and Jesus is thefocus.
And he referenced Diedrich Bonhoeffer's book Life Together,
which is a book I've let our ownchurch on a study on in the past
in referencing the importance ofChristian community in and
(12:33):
through Jesus Christ. One of the things about the
General Assembly, there's not a lot of voting on different
things. There aren't any resolutions to
vote on. There really wasn't anything
controversial to speak of, Not that I missed any of that.
We did vote on a budget which was a reduction of about 8
percent of last year's budget. A number of missionaries took
(12:54):
early retirement and that explained the reduction from
last year. We did vote on a governing
board, missions council, ministries council and a
nominating committee. Of the high points for me were
the recognition of the missions personnel and sending out of the
chaplains, and they brought the chaplains on the platform and
they were anointed and given a stole as a way of commissioning.
(13:15):
The moderator was Juan Garcia and in his farewell address he
did this in Spanish and the English translation was provided
on the screens and in his remarks he focused on the
Baptist principle of dissent against injustice.
One of his key statements was dissent against any ideology
that seeks to replace Christ with political power,
(13:37):
nationalism, lies or fear. As Baptist, we must oppose any
attempt to Co opt the gospel forpolitical gain or to use the
name of Jesus instead of proclaiming him as good news for
the oppressed, the poor and the marginalized.
Now I found his remarks inspiring and timely, and mainly
because they brought our attention back to our historical
(13:59):
roots. Baptists were once a minority
group who fought for the rights of the minority opinion.
And it's easy once you gain position and power and a
prominence even that we might forget about our heritage.
But to me, this was one of the high points of the assembly.
I did attend a breakout session led by Doctor Pam Durso, who's
president Central Baptist Theological Seminary on cult,
(14:22):
cultural competency and congregational leadership.
We watched 3 videos on preaching, pastoral care and
hospitality. And the videos are on their
website and they deal with thesethree issues and they talk about
how we relate to them through a social, racial and ethnic lens
and about the different backgrounds of people that are
(14:43):
in the church. And really one of the things
that I learned from this is not to stereo, not to stereotype
people based on their appearance.
And again, I'd recommend going to the Central Baptist
Theological Seminary website and, and watching these videos.
Now I'm I'm doing this particular podcast as a mean of
reporting to our people about mytime in Saint Louis.
(15:03):
But if you'd like to have more information, there are a number
of new sources out there. I've been looking at Baptist
News Global and the CBF media for this.
And of course, there are others out there who might be less
charitable about the event. So I'm going to stop and I'm
going to try to give just a few takers takeaways.
The first take away was and yes,I thought going to the Cardinals
(15:24):
game was extremely fun and a great idea even though we lost 8
to nothing at the hands of the Cubs.
And kudos to CBF for scheduling a night at Busch Stadium.
It was triple digit temperatures.
We were in right field facing the sun, but we didn't melt.
We had a good time. Hundreds of people from CBF
(15:44):
came. And again, I don't know offhand
of the number of people who attended the whole event, but I
can appreciate the time we had in the bleachers that night.
I knew it was going to be a longnight before Kelly and I even
sat down the first pitch, someone on the Cubs, I hit it
out of the park. So I knew it was going to be a
long night. But I do appreciate the fact
that there were youth and children tracks available for
(16:06):
parents and to see the kids roaming around the hotel and
that reminded me of when Cali, Lucy and Matt were small and
when we would make the trip to the assembly how important
having this resource was. So I'm I simply want to thank
CBF and those in particular who work with the teenagers and the
children to provide those experiences for them while their
(16:28):
parents could do other things. Another take away for me, I
appreciated the biblical theological basis of the event
and I think one of the perceptions of the Cooperative
Baptist Fellowship, especially from other Baptist entities, is
that the CBF doesn't take the Bible seriously and I found that
to be untrue and have found it to be untrue, especially during
(16:50):
those days together. It is safe to say that not
everyone has the same interpretation on every issue
and scripture and there are legitimate places of
disagreement. No organization is perfect, and
that's true of this one. But speaking CBF seeks to be
inclusive and doesn't vote out churches who desire community
with them. And I think that means for some
(17:11):
people it is too inclusive and for others it might be too
exclusive. But the emphasis is really on
fellowship, missions, and sharing Christ through words and
actions. And because of this, there are
going to be levels of comfort and discomfort with this
approach. Which leads me to another take
away which is the CBF is 35 years old.
(17:32):
And as I've known noticed havingattended a few of these, it is
good to see different age groupsparticipate in leadership.
And I think this is encouraging.But it's also a note of caution
because, and I think this is natural as as we look at
history, that there may be thosewho do not remember or care
(17:53):
about some of the denominationalbattles that CBF went through
early on and those who were partof championing the cause for
free and faithful Baptists. But I do hope that we can
remember and will incur and continue to highlight the four
fragile freedoms that Buddy Sheridan put together for us.
(18:14):
Those freedoms of Bible, soul, church and religious freedom.
They are fragile and we do need to be a Baptist who do affirm
those things. One of the the key principles as
part of this being part of the the CBF is the the emphasis on
local church autonomy. Local church autonomy is held at
a premium in the Baptist or a confessional people rather than
(18:36):
creedal. The original creed, Jesus Christ
is Lord is the primary source. And again, there are areas of
agreement and disagreement as relates to what our primary and
tertiary matters. But I think some of that comes
to being Baptist. And the final take away I will
give, I really enjoyed going with my daughter Cali, and
(18:57):
seeing her involved in differentways and leading in different
capacities through her own organization.
It was good to reconnect with a number of friends, and I'll
avoid mentioning names, but I dohope that I can get several of
them on this podcast and have conversations with them about
their life and their ministries because I found them to be truly
(19:18):
inspiring. So I think that's about it for
now. The CBF assembly is in
Jacksonville next year, so untilnext time, thanks for listening.
Hey everybody, thanks for dropping by.
I just wanted to give a little bit of a report on my experience
at the Co Operative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly in
Saint Louis. And the best part about the the
experience was being able to go there and make the the trip to
the show me state with my daughter Cali.
My family and I live 12 years inMissouri in the southwest part
(00:20):
of the state in the Ozarks area.But Saint Louis and Kansas City
are the two largest cities in the state and we would enjoy
going and taking some Rd. trips there.
And just to be able to make the trip back to Saint Louis was was
really something. I have to say I was a little bit
on the fence about making the trip until it was made known
(00:43):
that part of the experience would be a night at the ballpark
at Busch Stadium and more about that in a moment.
But the the venue for the event was a Hyatt Regency hotel, which
was literally a few steps away from the Gateway Arch National
Park. And then the Mississippi River
is right there too. If you've never been to the
Gateway Arch, St. Louis is a destination place.
(01:05):
It is a phenomenal architecturalwonder.
And it's free admission. You can pay to go up in the
Arch. That's something I did about 10
years ago. Kelly and I did not do it this
time. The triple digit temperatures
kind of discouraged us from making the trip up into the
Arch. But it's a beautiful venue and
the assembly was underneath, underneath the arch, and that
(01:27):
was really part of the theme of the event and what I wanted to
do. And I try to do this because I
was grateful to represent our church and grateful our church
as part of the fellowship. I try to give a little bit of a
report to our people to let themknow some of the things that
took place. And I wanted to use this venue
to make that happen. And plus, in the off chance
there might be some of you who would be interested to get my
(01:49):
thoughts about it or just to review, I won't go into all the
particulars, but I did want to point out some of the high
points. On Tuesday, there was a
leadership event that was led byDoctor Ryan Burge.
And Ryan is the associate professor of political science
at Eastern Illinois University, and I understand he's going to
Washington University in August.Ryan is known as the numbers and
(02:11):
graphs guru, I guess for lack ofa better term.
He served as a bio vocational pastor for 17 years and until
his church eventually closed andhe wrote about this.
Really a good article. I think I found this in
Sojourner's magazine, but he talked about his own experiences
in the local church, about a church that was aging in the
declining numbers and the financial challenges.
(02:33):
And I wasn't able to be in the room for this event.
I did not register in events forthat time together, but I was
able to to get a lot of the material having not registered
for it. I did use that time, plus a lot
of the other time in sermon preparation and got to know the
Starbucks there in the hotel really well.
But anyway, some of Ryan's thoughts really resonated and
(02:55):
validated my own thinking in that there is a tendency to
romanticize the past and talk about how much better things
were back in the day. Again, Ryan is a political
scientist, and he's very familiar with these numbers.
And he says the numbers in the past don't support that mindset.
He says we were never as pious as you were led to believe.
(03:16):
It's just that we get nostalgic and grind off the parts we don't
like. We have a distorted view of the
past. And I want to thank Baptist News
Global and CBF for their information about the conference
and making that possible and available for us.
There wasn't a lot that I read about what Ryan had said that
surprised me. I had been familiar with some of
(03:38):
his other work, especially aboutthe rise of the nuns and the
duns. He says that location plays a
role in the growth, the numerical growth of a church.
And when the growth in the county goes up, that can impact
the church's growth. And of course, when the growth
in the County Down, that's also going to impact the decline in
the church, which leads me to this statement.
(04:00):
That's pretty obvious, but it's worth noting.
He says if your church isn't growing, it's not all your
fault. If your church is growing, it's
not all you're doing. And he said a couple of final
thoughts about this. God has called you to be
faithful, not successful. God sees you, God honors you.
And nothing has changed my life more than turning my heart
towards gratitude and Thanksgiving.
(04:21):
There's a note adage that says facts are stubborn things, and
the tendency is to focus on justthe quantitative aspect of
church life and church growth. But we need to recognize that
the gospel is about changing lives and the work of the church
has never been more important. And speaking for myself and
talking to others who have been in the ministry for a while when
(04:44):
I started this work, getting in the pastorate and ministry in
general, I aspire to be part of a really large church.
But now, as I have gotten a little bit older, I've come to
realize that the main focus is simply to be faithful in my
corner of the vineyard. And especially when I read about
and hear about all the moral andethical failures of church
(05:04):
leaders. I just want to finish with my
character intact. And really, day after day, I
pray. Lord, please just keep me from
evil. I thought Ryan's conference
seemed to go well and he offereda lot of great information.
On Tuesday afternoon there was atri-state gathering of the CBF,
Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia.It was more of a dessert
(05:24):
fellowship to get the three state groups together and to
follow the theme of food. This was really kind of an
appetizer for what is yet to come in October.
Being part of the leadership team here in Tennessee, we're
calling it Tag TAG Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia.
And for the first time that I'vebeen aware of this, we are
(05:44):
bringing 3 state groups togetherfor an annual meeting.
We'll gather in Chattanooga. There's some promotion work
being done, and I'm hopeful thatthere'll be some good
participation. I would envision each of the
state groups maintaining their autonomy and independence, but
hopefully we can share some resources and can reach across
state lines on different different events.
(06:05):
There were two luncheons. I want to thank Good Faith Media
for allowing me to sit at their table for the Doctor Emmanuel
McCall Racial Justice Trailblazer Luncheon.
And the event honors McCall as an African American pastor who
had a key role in CBF life. And the luncheon draws attention
to the need and purpose of racial reconciliation.
(06:26):
And a highlight is always the keynote speaker.
And this year was Tracy D Blackman.
And she challenged us to remember that annihilation is
the way of the world, but reconciliation is the way of
God. And she's a theologian in
residence at Eden Theological Seminary.
And and her key passage came from Romans 13.
To paraphrase, you know what time it is?
(06:48):
It is the moment for you to wakefrom sleep, for salvation is
nearer to us. Now, Romans 13 is one of those
few passages. I think there are three of them
out at the church sites to talk about different relationships we
have with the government. And Romans 13 has been used and
misused in different ways. It's the one that says to submit
to the governing authorities. But we were reminded that it was
(07:11):
Paul's intent to tell the churchto do what's necessary to
survive. And in a similar capacity,
that's what the church is tryingto do today.
We're trying to do what is necessary to fulfill our
mission. One of the things that Reverend
Blackman said that stuck out at me, she says if your theology
doesn't make you do something, it's not the gospel and there's
(07:32):
a lot of misinformation and disinformation in the world and
the church must stand for truth.The other luncheon that I
attended was the Baptist Women in Ministry luncheon was able to
sit at the Tennessee CBF table. The guest speaker at the
luncheon was Angela Dinker. It was really more of a panel
discussion about her book, A Disciples of White Jesus, the
(07:52):
Radicalization of American Boyhood that was released a few
months ago. She's an ordained minister with
the Evangelical Lutheran Church.And she gave a lesson and really
based her her remarks on John Chapter 11.
And she talked about how Jesus related to the news of Lazarus's
death and how he interacted withMary and Martha and really those
(08:13):
in the crowd at that moment. And as a bit of trivia, maybe
many of us have memorized the shortest verse in the Bible.
Jesus wept. Angela referenced this and this
moment in Jesus's life as a way of showing evidence about
Jesus's showing emotion and his empathy and her book and really
the remarks that she made, she talked about the importance of
(08:35):
combating this, this alternativenarrative around men, which says
the only appropriate emotion is anger.
The current cultural narrative is one that elevates violence.
And Dinker says for boys and young men growing up in this
environment, the only safe emotion you can express is
anger. If you're sad, if you're
grieving, feeling betrayed, you can be angry, but that's the
(08:58):
only acceptable emotion. And she talked about her book,
and the purpose of her book is to show a masculinity rooted in
the person of Jesus Christ. This is not the militaristic or
white Jesus that we hear about, but she attempts to bring us
back and her readers back to theJesus that is in the Gospels.
Jesus does not represent wealth or power at all costs, which
(09:20):
when you think about it, that would have Jesus giving in to
the temptations of Satan in the desert.
I also pointed out some statistics that white men are
more likely than any other demographic group in the United
States to be a mass shooter, andwhite men are more likely than
any other demographic to die by suicide, which I found
(09:40):
incredible and tragic. I found her presentation
interesting and educational, andespecially her acknowledgement
and her story of being a mother and a minister and an author.
And her remarks validated some of my own thinking about how we
tend to make Jesus into our own image and can project that war
view onto others. And I agree that we need to go
(10:03):
back to the Jesus of the Gospelsand allow that narrative to
shape our worldview. There were two worship services
and I thought they were a very meaningful the Hatfield preached
at one of them. She is the pastor of First
Baptist Church, Jefferson City. They're in Missouri.
She preached on Come to the Waters from Isaiah 55 and she
(10:24):
used the Mississippi River as a visual and she told the story of
John Berry and Mary Meacham and again this story was was so
powerful. John was the enslaved son of a
Baptist preacher and purchased his freedom at the age of 21 and
walked 700 miles to Virginia to free his father and eventually
(10:47):
followed his still enslaved wifeand children to Saint Louis with
just $3 in his pocket. They educated Black children in
their house until Missouri outlawed Black education in
1847, and then John was arrestedand their basement school
closed. But here's the thing.
The state of Missouri owned the land, but the federal government
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had jurisdiction over the Mississippi River.
So John had this vision of, and he followed through on this.
He bought a Steamboat. He filled it with desks and
books, and he anchored it just offshore in the river, creating
what newspapers called the Floating Freedom School.
I thought this was a great message and I'd encourage you to
(11:29):
listen to it online. And Paul Baxley is the executive
coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
He preached a message from Ephesians.
Jesus Christ is our cornerstone and keystone.
He said that Jesus is the first stone.
Jesus is the last stone, and in him everything holds together.
Just a few thoughts that stuck out at me.
(11:50):
He says it's not that when we come to Jesus that our
differences disappear. That would be even boring for
moderate Baptist. What a God who raises the dead
does is desires to resurrect people into a relationship with
one another, where their differences radiate brightly in
the image of God. And they bring all that they
have and all that they are to sing praise to him and live a
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life in this world that is a foretaste of the world that is
to come. And he emphasized that Jesus is
the orientation and Jesus is thefocus.
And he referenced Diedrich Bonhoeffer's book Life Together,
which is a book I've let our ownchurch on a study on in the past
in referencing the importance ofChristian community in and
(12:33):
through Jesus Christ. One of the things about the
General Assembly, there's not a lot of voting on different
things. There aren't any resolutions to
vote on. There really wasn't anything
controversial to speak of, Not that I missed any of that.
We did vote on a budget which was a reduction of about 8
percent of last year's budget. A number of missionaries took
(12:54):
early retirement and that explained the reduction from
last year. We did vote on a governing
board, missions council, ministries council and a
nominating committee. Of the high points for me were
the recognition of the missions personnel and sending out of the
chaplains, and they brought the chaplains on the platform and
they were anointed and given a stole as a way of commissioning.
(13:15):
The moderator was Juan Garcia and in his farewell address he
did this in Spanish and the English translation was provided
on the screens and in his remarks he focused on the
Baptist principle of dissent against injustice.
One of his key statements was dissent against any ideology
that seeks to replace Christ with political power,
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nationalism, lies or fear. As Baptist, we must oppose any
attempt to Co opt the gospel forpolitical gain or to use the
name of Jesus instead of proclaiming him as good news for
the oppressed, the poor and the marginalized.
Now I found his remarks inspiring and timely, and mainly
because they brought our attention back to our historical
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roots. Baptists were once a minority
group who fought for the rights of the minority opinion.
And it's easy once you gain position and power and a
prominence even that we might forget about our heritage.
But to me, this was one of the high points of the assembly.
I did attend a breakout session led by Doctor Pam Durso, who's
president Central Baptist Theological Seminary on cult,
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cultural competency and congregational leadership.
We watched 3 videos on preaching, pastoral care and
hospitality. And the videos are on their
website and they deal with thesethree issues and they talk about
how we relate to them through a social, racial and ethnic lens
and about the different backgrounds of people that are
(14:43):
in the church. And really one of the things
that I learned from this is not to stereo, not to stereotype
people based on their appearance.
And again, I'd recommend going to the Central Baptist
Theological Seminary website and, and watching these videos.
Now I'm I'm doing this particular podcast as a mean of
reporting to our people about mytime in Saint Louis.
(15:03):
But if you'd like to have more information, there are a number
of new sources out there. I've been looking at Baptist
News Global and the CBF media for this.
And of course, there are others out there who might be less
charitable about the event. So I'm going to stop and I'm
going to try to give just a few takers takeaways.
The first take away was and yes,I thought going to the Cardinals
(15:24):
game was extremely fun and a great idea even though we lost 8
to nothing at the hands of the Cubs.
And kudos to CBF for scheduling a night at Busch Stadium.
It was triple digit temperatures.
We were in right field facing the sun, but we didn't melt.
We had a good time. Hundreds of people from CBF
(15:44):
came. And again, I don't know offhand
of the number of people who attended the whole event, but I
can appreciate the time we had in the bleachers that night.
I knew it was going to be a longnight before Kelly and I even
sat down the first pitch, someone on the Cubs, I hit it
out of the park. So I knew it was going to be a
long night. But I do appreciate the fact
that there were youth and children tracks available for
(16:06):
parents and to see the kids roaming around the hotel and
that reminded me of when Cali, Lucy and Matt were small and
when we would make the trip to the assembly how important
having this resource was. So I'm I simply want to thank
CBF and those in particular who work with the teenagers and the
children to provide those experiences for them while their
(16:28):
parents could do other things. Another take away for me, I
appreciated the biblical theological basis of the event
and I think one of the perceptions of the Cooperative
Baptist Fellowship, especially from other Baptist entities, is
that the CBF doesn't take the Bible seriously and I found that
to be untrue and have found it to be untrue, especially during
(16:50):
those days together. It is safe to say that not
everyone has the same interpretation on every issue
and scripture and there are legitimate places of
disagreement. No organization is perfect, and
that's true of this one. But speaking CBF seeks to be
inclusive and doesn't vote out churches who desire community
with them. And I think that means for some
(17:11):
people it is too inclusive and for others it might be too
exclusive. But the emphasis is really on
fellowship, missions, and sharing Christ through words and
actions. And because of this, there are
going to be levels of comfort and discomfort with this
approach. Which leads me to another take
away which is the CBF is 35 years old.
(17:32):
And as I've known noticed havingattended a few of these, it is
good to see different age groupsparticipate in leadership.
And I think this is encouraging.But it's also a note of caution
because, and I think this is natural as as we look at
history, that there may be thosewho do not remember or care
(17:53):
about some of the denominationalbattles that CBF went through
early on and those who were partof championing the cause for
free and faithful Baptists. But I do hope that we can
remember and will incur and continue to highlight the four
fragile freedoms that Buddy Sheridan put together for us.
(18:14):
Those freedoms of Bible, soul, church and religious freedom.
They are fragile and we do need to be a Baptist who do affirm
those things. One of the the key principles as
part of this being part of the the CBF is the the emphasis on
local church autonomy. Local church autonomy is held at
a premium in the Baptist or a confessional people rather than
(18:36):
creedal. The original creed, Jesus Christ
is Lord is the primary source. And again, there are areas of
agreement and disagreement as relates to what our primary and
tertiary matters. But I think some of that comes
to being Baptist. And the final take away I will
give, I really enjoyed going with my daughter Cali, and
(18:57):
seeing her involved in differentways and leading in different
capacities through her own organization.
It was good to reconnect with a number of friends, and I'll
avoid mentioning names, but I dohope that I can get several of
them on this podcast and have conversations with them about
their life and their ministries because I found them to be truly
(19:18):
inspiring. So I think that's about it for
now. The CBF assembly is in
Jacksonville next year, so untilnext time, thanks for listening.
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