Fred Shuttlesworth To Be Honored At CBF

Last week, EthicsDaily.com ran an article of mine about Alabama Baptist minister and civil rights icon Rev. Shuttlesworth who is being presented with the Whitsitt Baptist Heritage Society's Courage Award on Thursday, June 19 at 9am in Ballroom E, Memphis/Cook County Convention Center. Here's a snippet from my article:

While not as well known as Martin Luther King Jr., Fred L. Shuttlesworth was the Baptist pastor most responsible for the success of the civil rights movement in the Alabama city known as "Bombingham." Fifty racially motivated bombings between 1947 and 1955 epitomized southern resistance to integration.

Shuttlesworth's biographer, Andrew Manis, recognized the Birmingham minister as the "unsung hero" of the civil rights movement and a "prophet of social justice." Shuttlesworth became an ordained Baptist minister in 1948 and was subsequently the pastor of several Baptist churches in Alabama and Ohio....

As the leader of the civil rights movement in Birmingham, Shuttlesworth was the uncompromising confrontational prophet against the evils of segregation. Even some African-Americans questioned his style, but in the end, they admitted that he was a man of "raw courage" who instigated the "public acts that lit the fire in Birmingham."

This event which is being held during the General Assembly of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is free and open to any and all - Baptist and non-Baptist alike. I've personally extended an invitation to 25 or so Baptist congregations from the Memphis area, African-American and Anglo. So, here is your invitation:

The Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, one of the great heroes of the Civil Rights Movement, is being honored on June 19th at the Memphis/Cook County Convention Center (9 a.m., Ballroom E) by the William H. Whitsitt Baptist Heritage Society. Each year, the society gives a Courage Award to a Baptist who has made a difference for Christ because of his or her courageous faith.

Past recipients include President Jimmy Carter, Rev. John Porter of Birmingham, Molly Marshall of Central Baptist Theological Seminary, and Cecil Sherman, one of the "founders" of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

We are extremely excited to be presenting our Courage Award to Rev. Shuttlesworth this year and we would like to invite you and the members of your congregation to attend.

Our meeting is free of charge; all our welcome. Our meeting is taking place at the site of the annual meeting of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

I personally think the hour with Rev. Shuttlesworth (who will be introduced by Andrew Manis, who has written the definitive biography of him) will be a great experience.

The leaders of our society thought our meeting would be even better if we invited members of Memphis Baptist churches to share this occasion with us.

Please contact me at Doug_Weaver@Baylor.edu if you have any questions. We would love for you and any and everyone from your church to help us honor Rev. Shuttlesworth!!

Blessings,

Doug Weaver, Editor
The Whitsitt Journal

Director of Undergraduate Studies
Associate Professor of Religion
Department of Religion
Baylor University
254-710-7283

Spread the word. Thursday, June 19, 9am, Ballroom E, Memphis/Cook County Convention Center. Remember, it's free. Too often in the past folks see this annual event of the "Whitsitt SOCIETY" advertised and think a membership or ticket is required. Not so.

I'm looking at the list of scheduled CBF workshops that conflict with this one-hour celebration to honor the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth. There are some pretty decent workshops scheduled. There are workshops scheduled on all things missional, poverty, mental health, Islam, Film/Discussion on relationships with Jews, Baptist media, and buildinging a distinctively Baptist church.

All great workshops but none compares with a chance to hear one of our nation's most influential civil rights leaders who like my other two heroes, Dr. King and Congressman John Lewis, is a Baptist minister.

Be part of this historic occasion.

Daniel Vestal on Being Missional & Being Baptist

Recently Daniel Vestal, executive coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, visited Calvary Baptist Church here in Waco and preached on "Being Missional and Being Baptist."

The CBF has posted a similar sermon by Vestal on the same subject here.

His conclusion:

Can you imagine the transformation that would take place in the world if Baptist churches discerned God’s mission in the world and discovered their participation in it? It would be revolutionary. Can you also imagine the energy that would take place in Baptist churches if they discovered and interpreted the Baptist vision for the 21st century in missional terms? It would be revolutionary. In Cooperative Baptist Fellowship we are working and praying for such transformation and energy.

Rob Nash and the CBF Enter Blogosphere

A couple of new blogs worth checking out....

Dr. Rob Nash, Coordinator of Global Missions for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, has entered the blogosphere. His blog is called Musings on the Journey.

See my past post on Nash for more background info.

The CBF has just started an online community over at http://cbfportal.wordpress.com

Their purpose is:

We’ve started this blog for those who are interested in CBF and the ministries associated with it. We hope it will do three things.

1. Allow you to find out about all the work that Fellowship people are doing.

2. Allow you to network with and find other Fellowship people.

3. Allow you to find ministries to which God may be calling you.

Here are some ways you can participate in this online community.

So, check both blogs out and don't forget to subscribe to their RSS feed.

BWA President Addresses CBF

Live from the Hotel.

Great General Session tonight.

After the missionaries were commissioned and songs were sung, President David Coffey of the Baptist World Alliance addressed the General Assembly. Coffey was introduced as THE Global Baptist leader who pushed and pushed for the CBF's membership into the Baptist World Alliance. Indeed an excellent preacher, Coffey challenged Fellowship Baptists to have an anointed ministry like Jesus' in Luke 4. He said that we should know the World like Jesus knew Nazareth. We should know the Bible like Jesus knew the Scriptures. Coffey pointed out that Jesus' reading of Isaiah 61 focused on mercy rather than vengeance. An anointed ministry would produce transformation and be prophetic.

Affirming the need to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit, Coffey was not afraid to to speak a positive word about the Charismatic Movement. In fact he adamantly stated that...

Baptists should not be afraid of charismatic practices!

Also during this portion of the sermon, Coffey declared that...

Some people are more concerned with loyalty to following their denominational guru than to the Kingdom of God.

Good words indeed.

Bill Leonard's Message for Southern Baptists and Moderates

A recent article in the St. Louis Dispatch profiled troublemaking Missouri Baptist layman, Roger Moran. Recently, according to the article, Moran declared that the Missouri Baptist Convention is on the "brink of civil war."

In years past, Moran targeted true "moderate" Baptists with his guilt-by-association tactics. Now, he's after a so-called "new generation of moderates" within Southern Baptist life who are part of the Emerging Church Movement. Moran has described the emerging church as "one of the most dangerous and deceptive movements to infiltrate the ranks of Southern Baptist life."

Without a doubt, Moran has escalated his war against "moderates" or in this case, non-fundamentalists. However, what stuck out most about this article was a quote from Dr. Bill Leonard, the Dean of the Wake Forest University Divinity School....

"The Southern Baptist Convention is growing increasingly terrified that they've spent all this time recreating the denomination in this (conservative) image, and now nobody cares," he said. "Young seminarians are challenging them on issues and saying, 'Your vision of reality is not ours.'"

Let's be honest, Leonard's statement is completely true for Southern Baptist fundamentalists and partially true for moderates.

Like in Southern Baptist life, moderate leaders are greying. Nonetheless, the "old guard" in moderate Baptist life is genuinely reaching out to the younger generation. This is quite apparent when one attends worship services and break-out sessions as the annual CBF General Assembly. Last summer, a break-out session was even held on the Emergent Church.

But moderate leaders are undoubtedly concerned about the future of Baptist life. From my experience, many seminarians who attend schools partnered with the CBF are infected with the disease of apathy. These seminarians are apathetic towards the CBF structure. They don't really care that "blood" was shed in the SBC Controversy. Some are enamored with all things emergent but could care less about their Baptist Heritage.

And that my friends is unfortunate - very very very unfortunate.

Will the next generation of moderate leaders be authentically Baptist or just nominally Baptist?

Will we remember the contributions of James Dunn, Foy Valentine, and Cecil Sherman?

Or will our Baptist heroes be forgotten?

Leonard's quote is definitely relevant for moderates and fundamentalists alike....



HT: Wade Burleson: Fellow Southern Baptists Are Not The Enemy