CSBC Pastors and Missionaries Overnight Fellowship

25 August 2009, Tuesday. Filipino and Korean Southern Baptist pastors and missionaries gathered together for “A Workers Night of Fellowship.” For the first time, the CSBC president initiated a cooperative missionary endeavor with the visiting workers in their attempt to reach out and minister to Filipinos in the Cordilleras.

With the gracious host, Dr. Kwang Su Lee, the unity fellowship was held at his developing mission center at Green Valley, Baguio City. As workers arrived at 5:00 PM, meeting with fellow ministers was mutual.

The unity program went smoothly as pastors and workers took initiative in taking the lead for welcoming, testimonials, prayer time, and encouraging each other. The sumptuous dinner was prepared by the ever-supporting WMU. During the break, some visitors went home, but the rest of the workers stayed overnight for fellowship.

Such joint activity is very rare. The officers and workers decided to make the fellowship a regular gathering since then.

CSBC 1st Summit Inspires Young Pro

Young Proffesionals, as a preferable name than the usual "Singles," took time during the Summit to make plans in accordance to the vision of winning the "now generation" for Christ. Dr Hermie Labon led the group with the support of key leaders from various member churches CSBC. Before the end of the month of June, the CSBC Young Pro had their fellowship with the association's president as their main speaker on "O.K. (Official Kingdom) Pro (ffesional) Ka na Ba?: How to be a Kingdom Proffesional in the Marketplace."

1st CSBCM SUMMIT

1 MAY 2009. This is our first ever summit as an association as a whole. But this event was succesful only becuase there we people who loved to work behind the stage. As the entire association were mobilized to join together in fellowship, the focus of this initial gathering was for visioncasting and challenging all departments to in line their ministries with our God-given vision.

WIN CORDILLERA FOR CHRIST

As we all know, we cannot do this alone. We need to do and penetrate various "mountains of culture" inorder to bring change or godly transformation to our communities, cities, and country. By God's grace and in cooperation with the greater body of Christ in this region, we are looking forward that Christ (not corruption) will be magnified in this land!

CSBC Pres Visits a Missionary Sending Church

Hartwell Baptist Church, a small church on top of the hill, continues to be a light that cannot be hidden. For several years, the members do not have a resident pastors, yet they continue to send missionaries to other towns and villages. The members remained joyful in fulfilling the Great Commission. Despite of meager resources, they inspire others to be more faithful in their call to reach out people for Christ. Thank you for setting an example, HBC!

CSBC CORE VALUES: WHAT MAKES US DIFFERENT

Remember: To WIN CORDILLERA FOR CHRIST is our God-given vision! But working out the accomplishment of this shared direction demands something very important: our core values.

We teach children about good manners (asal) and values because we want them to grow to be a better person. This is every parent’s dream for their children. It makes the whole family intact. As it is expected for leaders to have the right character, core values is more than just about ministerial ethics. We need a working relationship—something common, something we share together. CSBC, to make our association better and more cohesive, these are our ELITE core values .

Evangelistic. This is our prime distinctive. In order to win our communities for Christ, church leaders and members alike must have the heart for sharing the Gospel to their family and friends. Win them!

Leadership. Officers and pastors must take the lead by their personal examples. We need to walk the talk. While administrative skills do things right; we need leaders to do the right thing.

Integrity. Of utmost importance, this is the heart of CSBC leadership. Integrity will make our leaders model servants; it will cover all areas of this administration, reliability in character, finances, dealings, etc.

Teamwork. Officer cannot do everything alone. Both visionaries and “provisionaries” have to work together in unity. God calls us to be one. And together, we can achieve more. Cooperation is a must in unity.

Empowerment. The new CSBC places value on empowering leaders and churches. To make a difference in our society, churches must be equipped and empowered by its leadership.

CSBC VISION: WIN CORDILLERA FOR CHRIST

As an association, we need to see the future TOGETHER, not just look back and be tied with our past. What does God wants us to do? What do we intend to accomplish in the years to come? All of these will boil down to our God-given, God-sized VISION! Without one shared vision, we all go to various directions or nowhere.

Formulating a CSBC vision is not easy. We do not want to interfere and duplicate what each member-church is doing. Also, we have to keep in mind the purposes why we exist. It is very important, therefore, that we find that common future that describes what we see our churches doing for Cordillera as a whole!

The VISION we need must be big enough to compel us to trust God. It must be something that will place all of us to fail if—that is the great “if”—God will not be with us. It must be something that we cannot do alone, but we must be united and partner together with the greater Body of Christ to accomplish. So what is that VISION?

The Cordillera Southern Baptist Churches (formerly BABBCA) envisions to: WIN CORDILLERA FOR CHRIST! This is a huge challenge to make a Christ-centered impact in the whole provinces and communities where we belong. How can we contribute to this vision? By God’s grace, we commit ourselves now “TO PLANT AN SB CHURCH IN EVERY TOWN” in the entire Cordillera region.” Planting at least one healthy, growing churches in strategic locations is not impossible to achieve with God. Our God is not small! If our God is small, then he is NO God at all!

As your new president, CHURCH, send your representatives/messengers that we may sharpen our shared direction as a whole! CSBC must be UNITED!

Towards a Visionary CSBCM

Let me greet each one of you, faithful pastor, lay leader and church member!

As the President of our very own Cordillera Southern Baptist Churches Ministries (CSBCM), formerly BABBCA, it is my honor and privilege to lead you with fear and trembling before God. But by the grace of our Lord, we, your newly elected officers, will endeavor as a team knowing that together we can achieve more.

With our new name, CSBCM’s effort to reform itself is a bold move to cope up with the challenges of times. Some of the major ones are our attempt to regain the Cordilleran identity of our local churches. Blessed with rich cultural heritage, our local churches are planted in a unique setting of these mountainous provinces. Another is in regaining our heritage as Southern Baptists. SBs are known for its commitment and cooperative program in missions by reaching out the world through the Gospel of Jesus Christ! CSBCM too, is a cooperative effort to lead local churches in reaching every possible people group for the Lord.

It is for sure, CSBCM will move forward to become stronger and better—more united. We will continue to nurture our missionary history and reach our potential destiny. Our forefathers established this fellowship of local churches as a cooperative program to fulfill the mandate of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Great Commission. But how can we effectively achieve the ultimate mission of God?

We need to identify our collective vision that comes from God. A clear vision from God is necessary for us to move forward. The Bible says, “Without vision people will perish.” Without God-given vision (indeed, a “revelation”), we do not have focus. We need to ask ourselves: what does God wants for CSBCM to achieve? Our great mandate is God-given and God-sized. We also need the same for our collective vision. In order to effectively “make disciples of all nations,” all of us must be precise to answer the question: where do we go from here as CSBCM?

We need to strike the balance between our autonomy and responsibility. Our local church’s autonomy and collective responsibility as an association must be taken into consideration. CSBCM does not exist to interfere with the activities of the church. It only facilitates fellowship to emphasize that we belong to the greater body of Christ. The church belongs to Christ, not the pastor or SCBCM. We need to extend our encouragement to one another, far beyond our church’s four walls. Again, together, we can achieve more!

We need our pastors to truly represent the local churches in our meetings. Some say, “We are too busy.” Who’s not? Many of our representatives are also very busy people, but they took time to attend monthly meetings. It is not that they don’t have time; they gave time. I believe we can improve our leadership attitude and style by faithfully representing the churches that we pastor. Remember, CSBCM is an association of churches, not a ministerial group. Let us represent the church of Christ.

We need to cultivate stronger relationships and partnership. What will happen to a CSBC if there are no genuine relationships between representatives? Each one is accountable to go beyond cultural differences, insecurities, positions, or preferences. Even if the local churches are the members of the association, pastors represent not just the local body but the agenda of God. We need to be kingdom-minded. Let us reach out to our spiritual family beyond our denomination. If we have opportunities to work with fellow evangelical Christians, let us do so in humility. Why? Simply because we cannot do the Great Commission and transform the nation alone! We need each other.

Brethren, reform is useless without a vision. Without clear and collective direction, there is no future destiny for our association. I encourage every representative to understand why CSBCM exists (our purposes). Knowledge is, indeed, power. With much prayer, it will empower us to discern God’s ultimate leading. Our commitment and involvement in our regular planning will fasten CSBCM’s qualitative and quantitative growth. To preserve unity, representatives—who happen to come and go—must think of the member churches—which happen to stay.

If we want to outlive our lives and ministries, positioning for the future requires clear vision.

Some call this process “visioneering.” But the vision must be in-line with the kingdom purposes of God and apart from Him, we will certainly fail. That vision must force us to trust Him to work through us, with us, and for our nation. So where do we go from here? Please pray that we have one answer.