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From Tina Bailey, Relocated to Graz, Austria
My new field personnel assignment is Minister to the Arts Community, Refugees/Immigrants, based in Graz, Austria. My new work has three primary emphases, which draw on my training and background in the arts and in trauma-informed therapy. First, I will train others,...
2023 Mission Madness was AMAZING!
This past April, our youth group participated in CBFGA’s Mission Madness in Columbus. This was my first trip as a new youth director, and I could not have asked for a better experience. The weekend was a well-organized, entertaining, purposeful reflection on our role in the redemptive work of God.
Update from Missy Ward-Angalla, Field Personnel to Uganda
March 2023 marked ten years since I moved to Uganda to begin trauma healing and empowerment programs for the most vulnerable refugees in Kampala. I am deeply grateful for the ways that CBFGA and CBF churches in Georgia have come alongside our family and ministry team...
From Karen _____, North Africa
Karen continues to serve on the pastoral team of the national Protestant church in the country where she serves as field personnel. Her work involved outreach that brings hope, humanitarian relief, and development opportunities to the sub-Saharan migrant and refugee population in her area. She spent this spring and early summer in the States, visiting with family and friends and raising program support funds for her work back overseas.
Being Salt and Light in the Year Ahead by Megan Turner Doud
HAVE YOU EVER sat down to a nice breakfast, taken a big bite of grits, and realized that salt had been left out of the grits? Not pleasant, right? Grits without salt are bland and boring. Just so, our lives as followers of Christ, without the light and seasoning of the gospel — the “good news” — are lackluster, not reflecting God’s love in the world.
From Carson and Laura Foushee, Field Personnel in Japan
Since summer 2022, the Foushees have been back in Kanazawa, Japan, where their Japanese ministry began, serving in partnership with the Japan Baptist Convention there.
Since their commissioning in 2013, Carson and Laura have served alongside a pastoral presence among congregations in the Hokuriku and Kanto areas of Japan, cultivating beloved community among Japanese and internationals.
From Anna Anderson, in Conetoe, NC
The Andersons have been busy in 2023! We began to catch a vision in Ahoskie, North Carolina, where we work with an encourager church, First Baptist Ahoskie, to reimagine the space that had once been the First Presbyterian Church. The church could no longer sustain...
Making Music for the Glory of God by Steven Norris
THE TRIP WAS A YEAR in the making. As our family wrapped up our time in Uganda in the summer of 2022, Francis Angalla and I started scheming. Music is an integral part of the healing work that Francis and Missy Ward-Angalla (CBF Field Personnel), are doing with refugees in Kampala, Uganda. Therefore, for the past year, we have been laying the foundation to co-lead a music camp, bringing together musicians from the Unites States and across East Africa for a transformative week.
Our Name Tells the Story by Jody Long
The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s annual General Assembly has come and gone. Georgia was honored to host again, welcoming multitudes of friends and Baptist family from across our Fellowship to our great state.
2022 State Gathering Report
Over 130 CBFGA folks gathered at First Baptist Church, Augusta, November 6-7 to fellowship, worship, and seek a way forward as we considered the theme “God’s Story, Your Story, My Story.” Through compelling sermons by Dr. Chuck Poole, and in engaging conversations...
BWIM of Georgia Announces Scholarship Recipient
BWIM of Georgia Announces Scholarship Recipient Baptist Women in Ministry of Georgia’s Sarah Owen Ethridge Scholarship recipient for this year is Maggie Parker Andrews. Maggie began to feel her call to ministry when she joined a youth choir called Jubilate. A combined...
CBFGA: 30 Years Strong and Moving Forward-Norma Rushing, CBFGA Past Moderator
It is time to celebrate! Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Georgia is 30 years old! During the 1980s, the fundamentalists took over the Southern Baptist Convention. At the Dallas convention in 1985, moderates knew they no longer had a home in the Southern Baptist...
The Power of Listening and Sharing Stories-Megan Turner Doud, CBFGA Coordinator for Young Baptist Ministries
When Jody and I began having conversations about a year-long theme for CBFGA for 2023, “Story” was the first idea that came to my mind. From my time working in the local congregations, serving on the Ministries Council and Discovery Team for CBF, and being a part of...
“God’s Story, Our Story, Your Story”- Jody Long, Executive Coordinator, CBFGA
Ms. Crumbliss, my beloved high school history teacher, first introduced me to Studs Terkel, one of America’s best-known oral historians. Terkel’s long and twisting career in radio and writing found focus in the mid-1960s as he published his first book of oral...
Living the Story by Jody Long
Songs like “Blessed Assurance,” “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms,” “Victory in Jesus,” and “Higher Ground” were staples in my home church. These songs and so many like them draw us together to sing in harmony the story of faith. “I love to tell the story, ‘twill be my theme in glory to tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love,” wrote Katherine Hankey, putting words and music to her longing to proclaim the goodness of Jesus and his love to the world.
Beautiful Things Out of the Dust by Steven Norris
AS WE EMBARK on a new year together as CBF Georgia, it is customary to introduce myself as the new moderator for 2023. Though born in Mississippi, I call Memphis, Tennessee, my “hometown.” I joined the staff of First Baptist Church, Griffin, in 2018 after spending sixteen years in North Carolina, where I attended graduate school and served churches as music minister and pastor. It is an honor to be here and to serve CBF Georgia in this capacity.
CBF General Assembly Suggests a Bright Future-Norma Hodges-CBFGA Moderator
Dallas was hot! But the meeting rooms were cold! We had an uplifting time at the 2022 General Assembly in Texas! Georgia was well represented. For our state meeting, on the opening evening, we joined with CBF of Alabama to eat at a Mexican restaurant. Seeing the room filled with many young faces was great. It reinforced for me that CBF is healthy and has a future. Daniel Vestal shared during his podcast that he was pleased to announce that at the 2022 Assembly he recognized only about a third of the attendees from the past, because this year’s gathering was attracting a new and diverse generation.
Does Theological Education Have a Future?-Greg DeLoach-Dean of McAfee School of Theology
When I was a kid growing up in rural Middle Georgia, I had no idea what a seminary was, let alone the purpose of one. When I told my pastor that I felt called to serve the church as a minister, he explained that I would need to go to seminary. All I knew was that it meant an additional three years of school after college, and that sounded dreary! Nevertheless, there was no question that if I wanted to serve the church as a minister, I had to go to seminary. And I am glad I did, because it is still changing my life.
Summer is for Serving-Megan Doud, Coordinator for Young Baptist Ministries
When I was a youth minister, one aspect of summer was serving. It was important for me to take advantage of the summertime when youth schedules were more flexible. We served locally and nationally. This is exactly what this summer was for our children, youth, and college students throughout Georgia.
Signs-Jody Long-Executive Coordinator, CBFGA
The question I am asked the most is, “How is your work with CBFGA?” Lately, the second most-asked question I get is, “Where is my church going to find its next pastor?” Most of the time, my response is a garbled attempt at explaining the shifting sands of church...