For the past 5 days I’ve had the opportunity to be in Greensboro, North Carolina for both Greensboro Sessions for college students as well as the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) General Assembly. At tonight’s worship service Suzii Paynter, CBF’s new Executive Coordinator, challenged us that we can either be alone or be a fellowship. As I thought about her words, I could not help but reflect on the times this week that I have seen this fellowship in some very real ways:

I have seen our fellowship in the conversations we’ve had at Sessions. I, along with 13 college students and 5 adults, arrived in Greensboro on Monday and spent the next few days discussing issues related to race and faith. We faced tough dialogue on civil rights, the checkered history of the church and how our generation can move forward in a fight that has not yet ended. I saw our fellowship in the concern etched in the faces of the students who will not stand for racial discrimination; especially in their church. As our footsteps echoed those of the Greensboro Four, all the way into the actual lunch counter at Woolworth’s, I saw our fellowship as we came together to commit to changing the church to a place where all of God’s children are welcomed, loved and equal.

I have seen our fellowship as I sat in the sanctuary of First Baptist Greensboro for the Baptist Women in Ministry 30 year celebration worship service. I saw it in the smiles on the faces of those who have fought a long fight for women to follow the call of God on their lives, no matter where it might take them. I saw it in the triumph on the faces of the ministers who stepped into the pulpit, a place they were not welcome just 30 years ago, as they knew that being a woman no longer limited where God could call them.

I have seen our fellowship in the commissioning service for new CBF field personnel and chaplains. Men like my friend Kody Whitt and others who are being sent out by CBF to change the world by following where God has called them to go. As Paynter said tonight: “we are visible and we are real… a fellowship united in missions.”

I saw our fellowship at the Baptist Joint Committee Luncheon as those who spend tireless hours on Capital Hill shared their victories made while following their call to seek religious freedom for all people.

I have seen our fellowship in the hallways of the conference’s hotel as old friends came together through hugs and smiles and as new friends were made as people who had never before met found family in the Christ that unites us.

There are many ways that I have seen our fellowship this week, but perhaps the greatest way happened following Suzii’s words tonight. As Suzii and her husband, Reverend Roger Paynter, invited us to the table, I saw our fellowship as thousands of people of all backgrounds came together to share in the remembrance of Christ in whose name we were gathered. It was a beautiful glimpse of the Kingdom of God right there in a hotel ballroom.

These glimpses of our fellowship give me hope. We live in a world of uncertainty, a world that pushes us toward individualism and the tendency to try life alone. This week has truly shown me that I am not alone, that I am surrounded by a people who are coming together, in the words of Suzii Paynter, to “change the religious landscape of our world,” as we seek to unite with all people, not just each other.

As a young Baptist I am thankful for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and for the hope it instills in me. I am thankful that our fellowship’s existence means that we do not journey alone. I am thankful that we can come together as a “love letter” to not only our Baptist churches and ministries, but to all who desperately need the love and hope of the gospel. I believe they will see through us not just the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, but a people who are on a bold mission to share Christ’s love in the places where it is needed most. A mission that is unending until, in the words of Reverend Wendell Griffen this week, “some glad morning when God will say to us: ‘well done my good and faithful servant, well done.”

I leave this week even more thankful to be a Cooperative Baptist and can’t wait to see what God has in store for our fellowship in the years to come.