The General Assembly of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship
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Dear Friends:
This week our area has the pleasure of hosting the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly. This annual gathering offers a terrific opportunity to experience some of the many good things our congregation helps to support. We cooperate together as partners with other churches like ours and other Baptist like us who are choosing to pool our resources in collaborative ways. Through CBF, we support countless creative mission endeavors, support systems, chaplains, mission field personnel, hunger and famine relief, international agricultural assistance, medical personnel along with a whole host of other contributions to life, faith and compassionate offerings on a global scale.
We are glad beneficiaries of this international partnership of likeminded Baptists. The term “Baptist” has gotten a lot of negative press lately. But thanks to you and to many others like us in the CBF, we have the ongoing opportunity to demonstrate a better way to be what historic Baptists have been known for over the centuries.
I will attempt this Sunday to remind us all again of some of our positive roots and historic contributions to our nation and our world. In the meantime, I hope you will join me in enjoying this fine opportunity to gather with our CBF brothers and sisters Wednesday through Friday at the Hyatt Regency downtown. Registration is free and the schedule can be found on the CBF website.
Our Children and Youth Ministry Is Taking Off!
Please take note of the fine article the Chair of our Personnel Committee, Mickey Goodson, has written. He introduces our two newest additions to our FBCD staff family. Zach Mason and Jewel Cannon will be joining us as Ministry Associates (Intern was the previous title for these positions) in the third week of August. As third year students at McAfee School of Theology, they will have multiple responsibilities with classes and school projects. However, thanks to our new Pastor to Families, Andrea Corso Johnson, we already have exciting plans in place, good order and great commitments from these extraordinary young ministers. Their valuable time and excellent talents will be put to very good use!
I am thrilled with what is shaping up to be a vital fall season for ministry. I’m so grateful for the quality of candidates that Andrea has been connecting us to. Zach and Jewel represent some of the finest students at McAfee, and we are truly blessed to be sharing our ministry with their learning and enthusiastic energy.
Please be in prayer for our students as they benefit from the ministry that Andrea is beginning to organize. Pray for Zach and Jewel as our new leadership to these growing numbers of children and youth responding to their work. Lift up the many families in our area looking for a church, needing a place to connect, and being drawn to what our church will be offering.
The children, youth and families of Decatur need us. And thanks to your prayers, your gifts, your support and the strong leadership here that is now emerging, we are becoming ready to heed God’s call to meet these anxious times that are upon us.
Bless you all and have a great rest of the week!
Love,
David
David Jordan
Senior Pastor