PHOENIX (BP)–During the two-year tenure of George W. McCalep as president of the African American Fellowship of the Southern Baptist Convention, the group organized for growth, focused on goal-setting and strategizing, and emphasized enlistment. It succeeded on all fronts, leaders said.
Numbers are up, involvement is up and areas that needed strengthening were shored up, leaders reported during the fellowship’s June 16 annual meeting in Phoenix prior to the June 17-18 annual meeting of the SBC.
“For the last two years we’ve been led by President George W. McCalep Jr.,” the group’s incoming president, Robert Anderson, pastor of Colonial Baptist Church, Randallstown, Md., in presenting a plaque of appreciation. “We appreciate Dr. McCalep’s vibrancy and all the things he did to bring people together.”
The fellowship also gathered for a June 15 worship service at Bethesda Community Baptist Church in Phoenix.
“This is a time for us to get together and talk about ways we can be more effective for the Kingdom of God, particularly with Southern Baptists,” said E.W. McCall Sr., pastor of St. Stephen Baptist Church in La Puente, Calif., and second vice president of the SBC, in opening remarks.
“By coming together we’re able to make an impact on the Southern Baptist Convention,” McCall said. “We’re here to plan and to present people who would be good workers, and we’re here to participate. … This is our convention; we’re not going anywhere. … Our purpose is to make sure we represent Jesus Christ across the land.”
Winston W. Rudolph, pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church of Christ in Pompano, Fla., brought Sunday evening’s message. With Numbers 11:17 as his text, he spoke on the themes of ownership, inclusion and attendant responsibilities.
“We need an explosion on the inside,” Rudolph preached. “Some people are suffering from rent syndrome — they have become satisfied in paying for living in another man’s house while he builds equity.
“Don’t get hung up on making yourself at home in another man’s home,” he said. “It’s not only morally wrong, it’s economically wrong. When it’s another man’s house, you don’t have to fix anything, but when it’s your house, you fix it right away.”
In another pointed reference to generalized historical attitudes, Rudolph told 300 or more listeners: “There is danger in wanting to be like another person, danger in imitating anything other than God. … Are you ready to make provision for what He has already set your table for?”
The African American Fellowship is now organized into local area, state and time zone districts. Among reports presented during the Monday afternoon business session from the three subgroups:
— African American churches in the Central time zone held an economic development seminar on Feb. 1, reported regional director Willie Jordan, pastor of St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church in Harvey, Ill.
— At the request of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, several African American churches from the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware recently ministered in revivals in Native American churches in Oklahoma, reported Byron Day, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church, Laurel, Md.
— Mark Croston, pastor of East End Baptist Church in Suffolk, Va., and immediate past president of that state’s group, reported on “pastors and friends” ministry workshops, a multi-church mission trip of about 50 people to the Caribbean and an upcoming church growth conference.
— Dennis Young, pastor of Missouri City Baptist Church and president of the Texas state group, was unable to attend the fellowship’s meeting, reported Roy Cotton, regional church planting director for the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Cotton gave an open invitation to a leadership conference slated for July 8-11 at Brentwood Baptist Church in Houston.
In Texas, giving to the Cooperative Program by African American churches increased significantly in each of the last three years, Cotton reported — 33 percent in 2000, 38 percent in 2001 and 39 percent in 2002.
New officers for the African American Fellowship were elected by acclamation: president, Robert Anderson, pastor of Colonial Baptist Church in Randallstown, Md.; vice president, Mark Croston of East End Baptist Church; secretary, Frankie Harvey, a member of Nacogdoches (Texas) Baptist Fellowship; treasurer, Leon Johnson, pastor of Bread of Life Baptist Church in Chicago; parliamentarian, Michael Thompson of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ohio; and historian, Robert Franklin, pastor of Greater Missionary Baptist Church in St. Louis.
Four officers at large were elected: Jesse Thompson, pastor of Union Baptist Church in Baltimore; Wayne Chaney, pastor of Antioch Baptist Church in Long Beach, Calif.; Eric Redmond, pastor of Hillcrest Baptist Church in Temple Hills, Md.; and Roscoe Belton, pastor of Middlebelt Baptist Church of Inkster, Mich.
Gary Frost, the North American Mission Board’s strategic initiatives group vice president, made two appeals:
— African Americans need to be involved in Strategic Focus City efforts in the nation’s largest cities.
— African Americans should consider God’s call to the ministry of strategic planning for Baptist associations. The Southern Baptist Convention has about 1,200 associations, Frost said, noting that African Americans are directors of mission in only three of them. Philadelphia and Cleveland both are searching for a DOM, he said.
In new business, the African American Fellowship voted to contribute $1,000 to the work of the Black History Project spearheaded by the Black Southern Baptist Denominational Servants Network; affirmation was given to the re-election of E.W. McCall Sr. as the SBC’s second vice president; and African Americans were encouraged to seek appointment on the SBC’s Committee on Committees, Committee on Nominations and Executive Committee.
Tom Kelly, who recently retired as director of the California Southern Baptist Convention’s black church relations department, received special recognition and a plaque from the African American Fellowship for his “outstanding service to the Lord in missions and faithful service to the African American Fellowship,” outgoing president George W. McCalep said.
Kelly, in retirement, will serve as African American volunteer mobilization specialist with NAMB.
In his final address as president of the Fellowship, McCalep reported on a vision God has given him.
“I do not consider myself a prophet and do not have the gift of prophecy,” McCalep said. “But God is sovereign and God told me when black men stretch their hands to God in submission and adoration, God is going to have a revival in the land that is unsurpassed and unparalleled.
“God wants to use the most oppressed people, the sons of former slaves and still the most discriminated [against] men on earth, to bring revival to all His people,” McCalep continued. “How’s this going to take place? There is a movement in the country called the Cushite movement. Five hundred men showed up two weeks ago at Greenforest. Though there was no advertising, no special invitations, men showed up from North Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee.”
A second Cushite conference is set for July 19 at Greenforest Baptist Church in Decatur, Ga. McCalep also spoke of his next book, “When Black Men Stretch Their Hands to God: Messages Affirming Biblical Black Heritage.”
The African American Fellowship was founded in 1992.
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