Through years of struggle, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and CBF North Carolina worked to discern and proclaim the kind of Baptists we intended to be. We chose the word “cooperative” with intentionality and with hopefulness. I recently heard CBF Executive Coordinator Paul Baxley say in a meeting in Raleigh that “cooperation is our superpower!” He continued to share that what draws many to the CBF family is that we are not constantly fighting or trying to figure out who to kick out.
With cooperation came our shared conviction to welcome one another across differences. God knows that’s been a consistent and ever-present challenge. Nevertheless, we keep working at it because the welcome we extend to one another is the very welcome of the gospel.
After arguing for most of the letter that Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians can come together because of the reconciling work of God in Jesus Christ, Paul writes in Romans 15:7, “Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.” By his life, death, and resurrection, Christ has welcomed us into the kingdom of God, into the church that bears his name, and into the new creation already set in motion. Therefore, we extend that welcome to one another and to the world.
The welcome of the gospel is not a feature of the gospel. It IS the gospel!
Today, beyond proclaiming what kind of Baptists we are, it seems necessary to proclaim what kind of Christians we are. I believe the “welcome” of the gospel is the proclamation we need to embrace. We are Christians that welcome one another because Christ welcomed us. We are Christians that welcome our neighbors, regardless of the adjectives others use to label them. We are Christians that welcome the strangers, regardless of the status the world’s powers place on them. We are Christians that welcome the unwanted, uninvited and unloved because in the welcome of God in Christ, no one is unwanted, uninvited or unloved. No one.
Today, the “Welcome!” of the gospel is more needed than ever.
Written by Randy Carter
CBFNC Welcome Network Director and Pastor, Temple Baptist Church, Durham
