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Daniel Vestal: What is CBF?
CBF-LA Coordiantor Reid Doster
Winds of the Spirit
Who We Are
Who are we? What's the big idea?
The Fellowship idea is about partnering with all kinds of folk in following Jesus to do God’s Kingdom work.
Baptist by heritage, we are open to any who will enter into this walk with us. Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is not a denomination, but rather a network.
In Louisiana, we are a network of about a dozen churches and many Christians scattered around the state.
Together we seek to be the presence of Christ in our state and the world beyond. We partner with our national Fellowship organization in "serving Christians and churches as they discover their God-given mission."
Our National Coordinator, Dr. Daniel Vestal, describes us this way: "we are a Jesus people...we follow Jesus and seek to be like Him. We study His teachings, especially His Sermon on the Mount, to form our behavior and character.
The Kingdom He announces and embodies is our passion. The ethic of discipleship is a Kingdom ethic and it is radical. Forgiveness of our enemies, compassion for the poor, simplicity in life and speech are to mark us because that is what God's order of things is all about. Christ calls us to follow Him in His sufferings. In the cross of Christ is our salvation."
In the Baptist, evangelical tradition we believe in a personal transformational experience with Jesus that changes us, and the way we live. God calls us to change the world, to align ourselves with the Kingdom that Jesus proclaimed.
We partner with churches in missions, outreach, church planting, education and fellowship. Together we are Church -- God's instrument for reconciliation in our world.
The task is much larger than ourselves, and possible only through the work of the Holy Spirit. We follow the Spirit in obedience which leads to joyful, abundant living. In the truth of Jesus we have been set free.
In the freedom of Christ we reach out to others. Knowing forgiveness and the grace of God we are compelled to go to others in both boldness and humility. Our basic litmus test is "Jesus is Lord." Grounded by biblical faith we reject the post modern view of relativism. God's truth is eternal and our salvation.
Having been set free by Jesus, we reject the new bondage of fundamentalism or any narrow interpretation of God's Good News that would quench the movement of the Spirit. We are open to all who seek to be in relationship with us, and those who need "a cup of water given in Jesus name."
Knowing that we "see through a glass darkly," we are humbled by our own fallibility, but confident in the One "in whom we move and have our being."
In short, it's about working in partnership with others
doing the tasks God has called us to do in building God’s Kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven.” That’s the Fellowship idea.
