While I pastor a church that gives no support to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF), I am saddened that our convention “divorced” CBF by deleting the “giving option.”

While I fully expected this to happen, it is just another evidence of “divorcing” ministry options some disagree with.

I consider the “divorce” with WMU the one that will negatively affect most churches, but the shame is the unwillingness to work alongside others who share most of our core beliefs about the Bible and the necessity of being missional people. The other shame, in my opinion, is that the Baptist State Convention as a whole has become less relevant to us.

I have friends whom I’ve worked with for years in congregational services, and while I will continue to have a partnership with the Convention on that level, there is no way I can support the Convention with the level of trust I held years ago. Furthermore, I have a difficult time really knowing what are the priorities for our Convention, and if those priorities are really about “all the churches.”

There is a disconnect between the Convention and us, the churches, and I’d like to see the Convention try harder to serve “all” Baptists in North Carolina.

Wayne Proctor
Eure