Senior Adult Retreat 2023

As long as I can remember, music has been a part of what being a Baptist means to me. The small church I grew up in was a “singing” church. We did not have classically trained musicians or even a professional minister of music. We did not have a pipe organ or a grand piano. We did not even have choir robes. What we did have, though, was a deep love of Jesus and a song in our hearts to sing about his love.

It was in the pews and, sometimes, in the choir loft of that church that I was first exposed to theology — a way of talking about God. The church songs of my childhood are probably ones that resonate with most of us who have been a part of a church for some time. Granted, my church preferred the more revivalistic hymns, but “Amazing Grace,” “Just As I Am,” and “How Great Thou Art” were staples in our repertoire, lifted almost exclusively from the 1975 Baptist Hymnal published by Broadman Press.

In their comprehensive book, I Will Sing the Wondrous Story: A History of Baptist Hymnody in North America, David Music and Paul Richardson write:

Throughout much of their history, the worship of Baptist churches has been centered upon the activities of preaching and congregational singing. The hymns Baptists have sung, and the books from which they have sung them, have been important shaping forces for the theology, worship, and piety of the denomination. (p.1)

When four of our Rome-area CBFGA-partner churches invited me to come to their hymn festival in early February, I knew I had to be there. “Sing Together” was an afternoon of wonderfully good music, led by passionate ministers of music, sung by a talented mass choir. Selections of hymns and anthems, combined with thoughtful reflections upon the music by the pastors of the four churches, made for an afternoon of true worship.

The real power in an event like “Sing Together,” though, rests not so much in the music but in the gathering itself. It is no secret that our broader society is becoming more fractured and segmented by the day. Nearly a quarter century ago, Robert Putnam wrote one of the salient books of our time, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. Putnam, a social scientist at Harvard University, noted that throughout its history, America has waxed and waned in its commitment to developing and maintaining communal life. At the time of his writing, he noted American society was in a declining trend:

For the first two-thirds of the twentieth century a powerful tide bore Americans into ever deeper engagement in the life of their communities, but a few decades ago — silently, without warning — that tide reversed and we were overtaken by a treacherous rip current. Without at first noticing, we have been pulled apart from one another and from our communities over the last third of the century. (p. 27)

Many of the partner churches of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Georgia face these troubling and disruptive headwinds. Political polarization, the continued effects of the global COVID pandemic, and a general religious malaise in America, have leapt headfirst into most churches. The easiest response to such unwanted intrusion is to close the doors of our buildings and our hearts, sequestering ourselves from others out of fear, disgust, or distrust. None of that seems to be the way Jesus would have us respond, though. As I often say, on our best days, CBFGA lives out its name: we are a Fellowship of Baptists in Georgia who voluntarily and joyfully Cooperate together.

CBFGA will continue to encourage churches and other partner ministries never to give up cooperating together, working alongside each other for the good of our communities and for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We will continue to promote and support gatherings of our partner congregations in service and fellowship. If your church or churches in your area want to connect, fellowship, and serve alongside each other and you need some help making such things happen, please do not hesitate to reach out to our office! If your church does not make connecting with other churches — especially other CBFGA partner churches — a priority, I encourage you to do so.

We are better individually, we are better congregationally, we are better organizationally when we live, work, and love together. The hymn “The Servant Song” says it best: “We are travelers on a journey, fellow pilgrims on the road; we are here to help each other walk the mile and bear the load.” May it ever be so!