Michael Wrenn wrote:Timothy Bonney wrote:Michael Wrenn wrote:I'm disenchanted with the CBF. They seem only interested or capable of church plants in college towns or suburban areas. There are none anywhere near my rural area.
That may be a matter of resources and also demographics. It is pretty hard to start a new church in a rural area. In many rural areas where often population is shrinking and many small churches are struggling would it really be a value to the kingdom to start another church to compete with already struggling churches? Would such a church plant have much of a chance at success?
Like it or not, college towns and suburban areas is where people are moving to. Here in Iowa we see growth in the urban areas and decline in the rural population. So in small rural towns that already have many types of churches and a shrinking populace is there a real benefit to starting one more?
What if John Wesley had thought that way? There wouldn't have been all those little Methodist churches dotting the countryside around here.
I have wanted to be involved with a CBF church, but the closest one is 90 miles away.
Ed: Michael, What does the number of little Methodist churches in your corner of Mississippi have to do with CBF? John Wesley has been dead for 124 years and times have changed. Some Methodist conferences now have a program of selectively closing small marginally effective churches in places where populations have declined and encouraging them to affiliate with another Methodist church within a reasonable commuting distance.
Tim has given you a very pragmatic reason as to a probable cause for the lack of CBF churches in your area.
While we have have been active in CBF from its inception, my wife and I haven't been members of a "CBF Church" since we left Louisville in 1998, in the past 17 years our activity has primarily been participation in and support of the CBF regional organizations where we have been (Central and North East) and attending a number of national CBF Assembles. In fact Trudy served a term as Moderator of the BFNE (Baptist Fellowship of the North East) she also served on the National Coordinating Council, when she was serving two ABC-USA Churches in the Adirondacks.
And a few years ago the historic Burnt Hills BC, Burnt Hills, Ny, hosted the spring meeting of BFNE with John Pierce Editor of Baptist to day as the primary speaker.
I have been reminded as I type, a good Contact for you may be Rev. Jason Coker , pastor of the Wilton Baptist Church, Wilton Connecticut. WBC is a CBF Church and Jason is a native of Mississippi, as such he still has close ties to that area as coordinator of the CBF supported "Delta Hands for hope". You may try contacting him through the church website http://wiltonbaptist.org/
Jason is also the Recording Secretary for the National CBF restructured Coordinating Council.