JACKSON, Miss. -- Black and white Baptists should work together to cross cultural and racial barriers, according to speakers at a fall meeting of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) of Mississippi.
"The problem with the church today is that the church has been contaminated by our culture," said Jerry Young, vice president for the National Baptist Convention USA, Inc.
Young and Daniel Vestal, national coordinator of the Atlanta-based CBF were keynote speakers for the meeting, according to the Associated Baptist Press. The meeting's theme was "Partnering: An Inclusive Way to be Baptist."
A racially mixed crowd of nearly 250 CBF and National Baptists attended the meeting. At one point, everyone held hands and prayed together.
"Would to God that Southern Baptists and National Baptists and Missionary Baptists had held hands earlier and learned to work in partnership with each other," Young said. "There is no telling what God would have done if we had done this 40 years ago."
The CBF includes independent Baptist Christians and churches that financially contribute to the organization's operations. The National Baptist Convention is one of the nation's largest African-American denominations.
