by Gary Grey
As leaders in organizations, we are always looking for analogies to help people understand the need for cooperation rather than competition. A young woman was giving a speech about this and said, “If my parents had believed in competition instead of cooperation, I wouldn’t even be here to speak to you today!”
The need for cooperation is even greater when one part of an organization is having some trouble during a time when resources are limited. The part of the organization having the worst time may be considered a lost cause or worse, even though in better times it was considered indispensable.
I think a good analogy for our present situation is a rope or a cord. Ecclesiastes 4:12 says, “And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.” Ben Franklin said, just before signing the Declaration of Independence in 1776, “We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.” Nothing could be more true regarding our Fellowship. Our Fellowship is like a threefold cord, hard to break as long as we “hang together,” but more easily broken if we view our work in piecemeal fashion.
In 1959, after a decade of growth, our Fellowship was going through some growing pains, and some issues threatened to unravel our threefold cord. Tribune Editor Keith Bassham has written and spoken on this, and the Tribune archives have the facts. President Art Wilson and the BBFI directors held regional meetings with pastors across the country in 1960, and the result was a new constitution which he presented in September.
According to the Tribune article reporting the meeting, Wilson said that the process led him and the directors to determine the true purpose of the Fellowship. Those purposes were:
1. To carry on unitedly a world missionary program for the purpose of reaching for Christ and training as many souls as is possible — hence our missions department.
2. To operate a training institution for prospective missionaries, pastors, and other Christian workers for the purpose of more perfectly equipping them in their God-called endeavor — hence our college department.
3. To participate in Fellowship meetings always and primarily for the express purposes of enhancing and advancing these two espoused causes and secondarily for edifying and strengthening each other through the preaching of the Word at such Fellowship meetings.
What Art Wilson described is something like a threefold cord, with everything depending upon everything else for success. The workers, pastors, and missionaries are trained by our colleges, and the churches send the students to the colleges for the training, and all of us meet, encourage, and raise funds with one another for these purposes.
But the idea behind the cord or rope is more than just a sense of togetherness. Rope making is one of the oldest technologies in the world. Long ago, our ancestors learned they could take smaller and weaker fibers from plants, weave and twist them together, and turn them into longer and stronger strands for work. Today, the same principle works to build steel cables for bridges and skyscrapers.
Each of us, left to ourselves and our own local ministries, is somewhat weak and vulnerable when compared to our strength when we unite in fellowship. A very large church might be able to support a few missionaries on their own, but when your church and my church partner with thousands of others, we can send a multitude of missionaries and church planters to the field, and a host of students to our colleges.
And when our Fellowship departments — the Mission Office, Baptist Bible College, Boston Baptist College, National Church Planting Office, and the Tribune — are all healthy and well supported, our Fellowship is a strong cord as well.
There’s something else about ropes we need to think about. Ropes can be used for pulling, but not pushing. There is no room in our Fellowship for people to try to push things a certain way. You can’t push a rope. We all need to pull together, everyone taking a share of the load, hanging together.
I admit we have room for improvement, but now is not a time to give ground on any aspect of our Fellowship. We still have a commitment to the Great Commission and to biblical doctrine. Our generation has an opportunity to repeat the sacrifices and passion of our founders and past leaders. Let us respect our history and our calling as part of the Baptist Bible Fellowship.
I hope to see you all at the May Graduation Fellowship Week next month. Plan to be there. Attend the meetings. Participate in the May College Offering. Let’s keep the threefold cord strong for the next generation.