CBF Notes--Winner sermon

Sermon by Lauren Winner, Duke U. professor; Worship service, CBF, 6/25; Charlotte

LW is a big mix: Baptist grandmother, Episcopalian mother, reformed jewish father. She is Episcopalian now.

Long story about her home church and a pie social and lost car keys and video discussion.

CBF asked her to speak hopefully @ mainline churches. 1 John may have been response to new teaching arising in that contemporary situation that seemed at odds with old teaching. How to wrestle through discernment amidst fracturing and fragile community? There is mainline anxiety now: less $, less stature. LW says this is good for the churches.

In 1950, Christian Century did a piece on 12 mainline churches doing it right. There were 2 baptist churches included, one in Apex, NC (Olive Branch BC). It had a community center in this agricultural community that served many functions.

Fosdick’s 1930 hymn “God of Glory” has verse saying ‘grant us courage.’ The ‘us’ includes mainline churches but also the nation-state.

In ‘90’s, Christian Century did follow up on those 12 mainline churches profiled 40 years previously. Book came out on this by Randall Baumer, Grant us Courage. Here, ‘us’ is just mainliners. ‘Us’ has changed over the decades.

We can’t go back to seeing ‘us’ as at one with nation-state. Mainline anxiety leads to strange questions. These come from false sense of powerlessness. It is easier to feel powerless than to be a disciple. Handwringing is abdication.

Apex church in 1950 was engaged in total life of its community. Discerning needs and involving ourselves in those needs is discipleship. We are called to total involvement in the community.

What present do we want to craft? We don’t want or need to be in the nation-state. We don’t need to be anxious mainliners. We need and are called to be kingdom makers and cross bearers.

CBF Notes--Vestal address

Dan Vestal, Exec Coordinator Address; CBF, 6/25; Charlotte

Applying test to CBF. There is evidence of renewal in Baptist life. ‘Community’ is term used intentionally.

Nod to late Cecil Sherman, one of the organizers of CBF.

CBF has a task force to ask three questions: 1)what is best model of community to foster collaboration, as opposed to competition, between churches? 2)what is best way to focus and streamline organizational structures for local churches? 3)how can CBF get Baptist churches to be a part of this?

1 Cor 3.9—God’s servants working together. Fellowship defines identity and determines how we do missions—partnership. There mutuality of care for well-being of the other; no control, no institutional self-preservation. How can CBF live this out into the future? 1 Cor 3.9 is who we are. When we work out of who we are, there is natural and supernatural work happening.

notes from cbf--bill leonard sermon notes

Bill Leonard, Sermon; CBF, Charlotte, 6/24; Joel 2.28-29 and 1 John 3.1-2

Early Baptists were outcasts and mocked. Began with audacious faith. Membership grounded on personal experience, not geography. Enforced by Holy Spirit, not by the state. They saw believers church. Then and now Baptists are at odds with culture of the day.

We must make our confession of sins and faith; not just our confession of faith. Grace is a gift, not an entitlement.

Cannot assume people know what we mean when we talk about Jesus. Must keep retelling the old story. Baptism is not an end but a beginning.

Salvation is not a transaction but a conversion that takes place day after day, every day for the rest of our lives. Some of us get saved ‘hard’—like that morning we went to hell and lived to tell about it. Not all come to faith that way.

First great witness by Baptists to the world was to church freedom and conscience freedom.

What compels us now? Worship is witness linking ordinary and sacred time. Communion and social ministry is witness. Where do witness and conscience intersect or collide?

Southern white Baptists trashed their witness with slavery and Jim Crow. How do we trash our witness now?

Highland Baptist in Louisville is part of an alliance that sends clergy and laity to gang murder sites and places memorials at those spots. They hope to stop murders but at the least there is a witness.

Wilshire Baptist in Dallas planted a church in Rockwell. It did its ministry. Now it will close. It is not a failure of witness; not every calling has to last forever.

Does your church have a witness in the world?

Judson and wife left on a boat to India as Episcopalian missionaries. After much bible study on the trip, they became Baptists. They were sent as Congregationalists. Became Baptist because the truth compelled them. There was cost to their family. There was also witness.

We are knit together. Merton called the Church a body of broken bones.

Stop worrying about names and reclaim witness. Turn loose consciences instead of fighting culture wars. We are children of God knit together by grace.

Notes from CBF--economic development and microfinance

I'm at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in Charlotte. Thanks to the church for sending me. Having been away from CBF life for 15 years, my time here has served as a good reacclimation.

In the interest of sharing what I've learned, I'll post over the next few days notes from workshops, addresses and sermons. Here's the first:

Economic Development Ministries; Don Durham (President of CBF Foundation); CBF, Charlotte, 6/24

CBF is supporting microenterprises as one option among others within its investment portfolio for their constituents.

Microloans use local relationships to secure loans, not traditional collateral. Most microfinance loans are for 6 months. Group of 5: 2 get loans with others as co-signers. Other three cannot get loan until first 2 are paid back. There is mutual encouragement and accountability. Once paid back, 2 more of 5 get loans. Once these are paid back, final person who originally organized group gets loan. This has 98% repayment rate. Safer to lend to entrepreneurs in underdeveloped world than to those who are listening to him in this workshop.

$1000 loan amount will yield 4 loans of $250. In 1 year, that equals 8 loans, figuring loan timeframe is 6 months. Microfinance is single best chance to escape poverty. Average microloan affects 4 people. $1000 affects 32 people in a year. Money is used but not spent. Interest free loans and non-subsidization lead to self-sufficiency.

Mentioned Phil Smith’s A Billion Bootstraps is a personal testimony from this wealthy man seeking the best return on his giving to charity. The Poor Will Be Glad is his assessment of how microfinance works and why it is effective. Smith is a believer.

Delta Jewels in W Helena AR is an example of microfinance in US. CBF does this.

Chalmers Institute (chalmers.org) helps understand the difference between sustainable ministry and handouts.

Microfinance goes with economy of scale. Some loans are larger and longer. The model is to qualify for small loan and then work up. Mix market (mixmarket.org) rates microfinance loan groups so that givers can do so effectively. Developing World (developing-world.org) also has resources for this.

putting hands together

We began our weekly prayer walks through the neighborhood two days ago. We'll leave the church every Wed at 7pm and pick a street. On that street, we'll knock on doors and ask neighbors if we can lift up a concern they have in prayer. We'll get back to the church by 8pm.

We were set to start last Wed but thunderstorms and rain postponed it. If there is inclement weather, we will not walk and will leave praying to the confines of our respective homes.

So at 7pm on Wed night several Calvary members and I walked down 19th and Colonial Sts. I really hadn't anticipated the reactions we would get--maybe that's a good thing.

Our first four houses didn't seem to have anyone home. I briefly considered that the occupants might have hidden until we left but, with yours truly excepted, we were not a motley looking crew. I don't think we would have scared anyone off. We decided early on to pray for non-responsive homes on porches, knowing that God can fill in the specifics.

Finally we found someone willing to answer the door. When I introduced myself and told her why we had knocked, she was incredulous! I think she did a double take. Her large dog seemed interested in us; he also gave her an excuse to dismiss us without engaging in conversation. We prayed next to her secured door after it was shut upon us.

We next had a young woman answer. She seemed mystified that someone would knock on the door and offer to pray for her too. Her husband/boyfriend/roommate poked his head out too. She did say that they were both BU students taking summer classes and asked us to lift that up in prayer, though once we left--not with her present. We did.

The next responsive house had an older man. He came out and talked with us at length, at least by comparison. But, as he said, his life seemed to be going well and he didn't have any concerns worthy of God's attention. We prayed for him too, after he retired inside.

Finally, and this was probably a God-thing to relieve our discouragement, we found a group of bicyclists at a house and they were very receptive to offer of prayer and joined in. That was very affirming.

All this to say that, even in the bible belt, folks are suspicious and wary. What could be more innocuous than to offer to pray with and for someone. And yet, this doesn't seem to fit the normal idea of discipleship. That being the case, maybe we need to remake and redefine discipleship.

time to Celebrate

It has been a while since I posted. A vacation, sick kids and the like will do that. I promise to increase my frequency.

Some exciting things are beginning tomorrow. Music camp commences in the morning, running from Mon through Friday. In addition to this, Mary Alice Birdwhistell, our Children’s Minister has planned some regular activities. Calvary Bible Club will kick off at the end of the month too. Keep these things in prayer—asking God to touch the lives of our young people.

Tomorrow night (Monday, June 14), Celebrate Recovery will hold an open house from 6:30-8:00pm. CR is a 12 step Christian recovery program for anyone with hurts, habits and hang-ups. I think that covers just about everyone. If it doesn’t cover you personally, I can almost guarantee that you know a family member, friend or co-worker who would benefit from this program.

There is some stigma to walking into CR that first time. Making that walk into the Welcome Center amounts to an admission that you need help. As believers in Jesus Christ, haven’t we already confessed that?!

Tomorrow night will amount to an overview of CR including testimony from folks that are in the midst of the program or have gone through it. It will be a time to rejoice in Christian transformation. Please join us.

Recent Reading:

Harry Emerson Fosdick, The Assurance of Immortality

Terry York & C. David Blein, The Voice of Our Congregation

Harry Emerson Fosdick, The Manhood of the Master

Ed DeBono, Lateral Thinking

Stephen King, Just Before Sunset

Christianity and Social Work, edited by Scales and Hugen