by Keith Bassham
Financial conditions may be tight, but I have observed nothing resembling a slowdown going on among the churches fellowshipping through the BBFI this summer. Just after an encouraging meeting in May in Springfield and getting the June Tribune off to the printer, my wife and I headed to Boston where I was to be the commencement speaker the next week. Along the way, we spent Sunday morning with Bible Baptist Church in Wilmington, OH, and celebrated with them in a dedication and anniversary service. I was particularly interested in this event because one of my first news stories written for the Tribune was about the new church plant in Wilmington and their young pastor Kelly McInerney in 1995 (see the new report in this issue).
It’s a great Fellowship story — from the storefront to a beautiful acreage and campus, the church (and the pastor) has grown to become a great church, sending missionaries, planting new churches, and providing an example of what can be done with work and dedication.
And then we were off to Boston, where I was greeted by another Fellowship success story, Boston Baptist College, a fount of missionaries, pastors, church planters, and dozens of church workers serving around the world. The college’s enthusiasm for the Lord and His work is contagious, and President David Melton and his staff are building a great institution for our Fellowship’s future.
The bottom line is this. While I know both Kelly and David are more than aware of today’s financial challenges, they, and hundreds like them, are refusing to acknowledge a recession in God’s work, and there are bright spots for our Fellowship all over this country, indeed, and around the world. Look to these bright spots and encourage yourselves, as I do, and remember the words of Tribune founder Noel Smith, who said, “My brethren, these facts ought to elevate our thought about the cheap and degrading plain of petty emotional strife and sectarian outlook and motivation. They ought to water and refresh our spirits. They ought to kindle a glow in our hearts. They ought to infuse legitimate pride and dignity into our individual and corporate characters. They ought to lead us to a new dedication, as individuals and churches, to the universal work of our universal Savior. Let men do as they will. The world is big enough for all kinds of men and all kinds of movements. But let us as Baptists retain our corporate character and keep in the mainstream of the deep waters of our long continuity. If ‘independents’ want to keep their canoes and paddle around in the ponds, let them do it. But let it be said of us that we go down to the sea in ships and do business in great waters.”
Oops. We aim for zero defects in the Tribune, but we are fallible. Last month we failed to note that Jerry and Nancy Novak, missionaries to Kenya, received their BBFI 30-year pins in our report on the May Graduation Fellowship meeting.