Cooperative vs. Cooperating Baptist Fellowship of Oklahoma
by Dr. Dan Hobbs
CBFO Historian
 

I

On February 29, 1992, the Cooperating Baptist Fellowship of Oklahoma was born. The Oklahoma Fellowship was an outgrowth of the Oklahoma Baptist Heritage Conference held at Norman First Baptist Church on February 28-29, 1992, featuring Dr. Cecil Sherman and Dr. Grady Cothen as speakers. Cecil Sherman was the newly elected Coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship formed just a few months earlier—on May 9-11, 1991—at the Omni in Atlanta, Georgia. Grady Cothen was formerly President of Oklahoma Baptist University from 1966-1970, and was President of the Baptist Sunday School Board from 1975-1984.

Following the end of the Heritage Conference on Saturday morning—Leap Year Day—a meeting was convened in Hallock Hall of First Baptist Church to discuss the future of the Moderate Baptist movement in Oklahoma. The meeting was put together principally by lay Baptists—both men and women—led by Bob Stephenson of the Norman First Baptist Church. More than 100 signatures were gathered from individuals wishing to form a state chapter of the national Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. A short business session produced a consensus that a state organization should be created, and a few volunteers agreed to sign on as incorporators of the new body. A coordinating council of 23 members was chosen and set to work. Dan Hobbs of Norman was elected as presiding officer of the fledgling group, a title that eventually became "Moderator." Marolyn Dowdy of Moore was chosen as Moderator-Elect.

On March 26, 1992, incorporation papers were issued by John Kennedy, Oklahoma Secretary of State, to the new "Cooperating Baptist Fellowship of Oklahoma." The Secretary of State ruled that the word cooperative could not be used for any kind of organization in Oklahoma except farmers’ cooperatives and public utilities. His opinion was ostensibly based on a prohibition contained in the Constitution of Oklahoma. Thus Oklahoma’s Fellowship is the only state CBF organization that is "cooperating," but not "cooperative."

The months after the incorporation of CBFO were devoted to basic organizational matters. An office with a desk and a telephone was created in Norman at the Geis Cabinet Shop, and Dale Geis was designated as Office Manager. In seven months, the Coordinating Council met seven times at four different locations. The council created committees, crafted language for the Constitution and Bylaws, and planned for the group’s first annual General Assembly in October of 1992.

Although the CBFO organization was primarily in the hands of lay people, invaluable assistance and guidance came from Oklahoma pastors such as Lavonn Brown, First Baptist Church, Norman; Gene Garrison, First Baptist Church, Oklahoma City; Steve Graham, Spring Creek Baptist Church of Oklahoma City; and Bill Johnson, Northwest Baptist Church, Ardmore. Other friendly pastors were Stephen Earle, First Baptist Church, Ponca City; and Charlie Baker, Southern Hills Baptist Church in Tulsa.

On October 30-31, the First Annual General Assembly of the Cooperating Baptist Fellowship of Oklahoma was held at the Lincoln Plaza Conference Center in Oklahoma City. The setting was elaborate. National and state Baptist personalities abounded. Dr. Jeri Graham Edmonds, noted worship leader in national Baptist circles, served as impresario and led the music. Dr. Max Lyall, a gifted organist and pianist, a faculty member at Golden Gate Seminary in California, was the featured performer and accompanist. John Hewett, pastor from Asheville, North Carolina, the first Moderator of the national Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, preached the opening sermon. Joe Ingram, former Executive Secretary and Treasurer, Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, spoke on the topic, "Who is a Baptist?" His appearance on the program rendered him persona non grata among the hierarchy at the Baptist Building in Oklahoma City, but his gracious and inclusive spirit blessed those assembled to worship.

Among the notables invited to our first meeting were T and Kathie Thomas, first missionaries ever appointed by the national Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. After the passage of a dozen intervening years, T Thomas is now the Coordinator of the Cooperating Baptist Fellowship of Oklahoma.

An interesting sidelight on the First General Assembly was the work of a modern-day Martin Luther, who tacked a sheet of paper on one of doors of a conference room with the title "95 Theses on Why the CBF of Oklahoma Should Not Exist." Not shy, the intruder signed his name. It was Wade Burleson, currently President of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma and pastor of Emanuel Baptist Church in Enid, Oklahoma.
 

II

What caused the Cooperating Baptist Fellowship of Oklahoma to create a moderate state organization in February of 1992? It was not a hasty or rash decision. Beginning in 1979, when Adrian Rogers was elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention, Baptist life began to change drastically. A well-organized takeover group, led by Texas Appeals Court judge Paul Pressler of Houston and Paige Patterson, president of Criswell Center for Biblical Studies in Dallas, captured the presidency of the SBC and changed the rules to ensure that only conservatives would be appointed to committees, boards, and agencies of the convention. Within a decade, the takeover group was in complete charge of all the denominational machinery. Moderates were outvoted in every presidential election after 1979—narrowly at first, then decisively—and were left ultimately without any role in the convention except to help pay the bills.

Given the passive nature of moderates in Baptist life, even being left out of the policy-making function in the SBC would not have caused them to defect and begin a new work in opposition to the conservatives. However, when the takeover faction began to effect radical changes in Baptist theology and doctrine during the decade of the 1980s, moderate leaders such as Cecil Sherman, pastor of First Baptist Church, Asheville, North Carolina, began to sound the alarm and urge the necessity of organizing against the SBC leadership. Sherman made the first move in September of 1980, when he convened a meeting of 17 Baptist pastors at Gatlinburg, Tennessee, to discuss the takeover and to help counter the conservative direction of the convention. That group, known subsequently as the "Gatlinburg Gang," formed the nucleus of what became the "Moderate Movement" in the Southern Baptist Convention.

Lavonn Brown, pastor of First Baptist Church in Norman, Oklahoma, was one of those attending the moderate convocation at Gatlinburg, Tennessee. He was at the forefront of the loyal moderate opposition in Oklahoma, along with Gene Garrison, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Oklahoma City. Brown served on the Coordinating Council of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s national body from its beginning in 1991, and subsequently led the Fellowship as Moderator in 1997. During much of the decade of the 1980s, Gene Garrison was presiding officer of the SBC Forum, organized by moderates as an alternative to the conservative SBC Pastor’s Conference held each year just before the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. The Forum was held from 1984 through 1990, when leaders of the moderate movement in the SBC abandoned their efforts to counter the "Conservative Resurgence" which took over the Convention in 1979.

During the 1980s, SBC leaders systematically removed many of the doctrinal landmarks that had guided Baptist policy and practice for decades. The long-established Baptist position that there is a "wall of separation" between church and state came under attack in 1983 and culminated in the 1991 de-funding of the Baptist Joint Committee. In 1984, at Kansas City, Missouri, women were assigned official blame for the Edenic Fall, thereby absolving men of guilt, and effectively disqualifying women for any future leadership in the church .The "priesthood of the believer" doctrine was dismantled at San Antonio in 1988, and the notion that the pastor is "ruler of the Church" was substituted in its place. Dr. W. A. Criswell, long-time pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, was the designated spokesman when all three of those doctrinal positions were changed. His observation that "If a woman thinks she has been called by God to be a minister, she is mistaken" was decisive for the passage of the resolution on women in the SBC.

Concurrently, the battle for the Bible went on. SBC leaders insisted that people under consideration for appointment to Baptist faculties, boards, and agencies affirm that the Scriptures are inerrant before being confirmed. Meanwhile, unfounded charges by fundamentalists of rampant liberalism among faculty members in the six Baptist seminaries began to erode trust in the ability of those institutions to impart intellectual and spiritual guidance to the next generation. According to one Baptist critic, a spirit of "Creeping Creedalism" began to pollute the air of the Baptist environment.

Amid growing tensions between conservatives and moderates, an ad hoc committee was created by the SBC in 1985 to study the problems of the convention and report to the parent body their conclusions and recommendations. The "Peace Committee," as it was called, was composed of strong individuals on both the right and the left, as well as some who professed to be neutral. That committee finally made its report to the SBC at its 1987 annual meeting at St. Louis, Missouri. It was hoped that the report would bring peace and reconcile the two factions in the Baptist body; however, the result was another resounding defeat for the moderate forces, whose viewpoints were not reflected in either the tone or the recommendations issued by the study group.

Following the 1987 report of the Peace Committee, moderate leaders began to pull back from participation in SBC affairs, and when Morris Chapman was elected President of the SBC at New Orleans in 1990, there was a massive exodus of both pastors and laymen from the Convention. The stage had been set for the formation of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Atlanta, Georgia, in 1991.

In Oklahoma, as well as in national Baptist circles, relationships were strained and eventually broken between moderate and conservative factions. During the 1980s, the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma narrowed its leadership base by eliminating known moderates from membership on state Baptist boards and committees. Also, moderate pastors were banned from preaching—or even from appearing on the platform—at annual BGCO convention programs. The pastor and members from Norman’s First Baptist Church were excluded systematically, even though that church was consistently in the top ten churches of the state in giving to the Cooperative Program. Churches with known moderate sympathizers, including First Baptist Church, Lawton, Northwest Baptist Church in Ardmore, as well as Spring Creek and First Baptist in Oklahoma City, were also denied opportunity to participate in full fellowship.

The most egregious example of the BGCO’s persecution of moderates came in November of 1993, when the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma voted to censure Joe Ingram, its former Executive Secretary and Treasurer, for being in sympathy with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship movement. In 1992, Ingram had appeared on the program at the first annual assembly of the Cooperating Baptist Fellowship of Oklahoma.

In retribution for Joe Ingram’s transgression of "consorting with moderates," the BGCO selected a small committee to meet with their former leader—who was revered throughout his long tenure—to express the Convention’s disappointment and displeasure at the exercise of his Baptist freedom and priesthood. A man of impeccable taste and unimpeachable integrity, Joe Ingram refused to meet with the designated committee.

King Henry IV of Germany, who a year earlier had been excommunicated by the Catholic Church, went to Canossa in Northern Italy in 1077 during the cold of winter to kiss the ring of Pope Gregory VII and beg for the Pope’s forgiveness. Unlike King Henry, Joe Ingram chose integrity over submission. Impressed and grateful for his courage and grace in the face of ecclesiastical persecution, the Cooperating Baptist Fellowship of Oklahoma voted unanimously to present Joe Ingram its highest award. Unfortunately, Ingram died shortly after his censure by the BGCO, and the award was presented posthumously to his wife, Jacque Ingram, who subsequently joined the CBFO as a member of its Coordinating Council.
 

III

This year—2005—marks the thirteenth anniversary of the Cooperating Baptist Fellowship of Oklahoma. During the first four years of operation—1992-1996—CBFO’s program was largely reactionary, dictated by events taking place in the Southern Baptist Convention and the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma. In April of 1992, Keith Parks, head of the Foreign Mission Board of the SBC, resigned after coming under attack by newly elected trustees of the board. At the end of April, the Southern Baptist Convention—miffed by some of the exhibitors at the CBF General Assembly meeting in Fort Worth—ended up pulling all of its own exhibits in retribution. In 1993, Russell Dilday, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary at Fort Worth, Texas, was fired by fundamentalist trustees, primarily for being sympathetic to the CBF, but also for inviting Keith Parks to speak at the seminary. Even the Oklahoma Baptist Messenger, mostly sympathetic to the new SBC leadership, editorialized against that move.

Simultaneously, the Woman’s Missionary Union was under pressure by the SBC Executive Committee to become solely affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, and the Baptist Joint Committee, having been de-funded by the Convention, was trying to hold on to a $300,000 SBC endowment fund previously under its control.

In Oklahoma, the fledgling CBFO was having its own problems. In 1992, the Coordinating Council of CBFO divided Oklahoma into regions and began holding "Truth Squad" meetings in churches across the state. Amidst charges that CBFO was "tainting" local churches by having their meetings there, CBFO pulled out of churches and began meeting in neutral sites such as conference centers, restaurants and hotels. In April of 1992, Glenn Brown, editor of the Baptist Messenger, wrote an editorial saying that there was not room in Oklahoma Baptist life for both the BGCO and the CBFO. In 1993, Joe Ingram, former executive secretary of the BGCO, was censured for being friendly to the CBFO. Also in 1993, Gary Cook, pastor of Lawton’s First Baptist Church, was removed from a BGCO planning task force for attending a CBFO meeting and for introducing Cecil Sherman, coordinator of the national Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Atlanta, Georgia. In spite of these rebuffs, most members of CBFO continued to attend and participate in annual meetings of the BGCO.

The leadership of the Oklahoma Fellowship was in the hands of the laity almost exclusively during the early years. Dan Hobbs, a layman from First Baptist Church, Norman, was the first Moderator of the organization in 1992-93. Marolyn Dowdy, a laywoman and member of Regency Park, Moore, followed in 1993-94. Terry Hopkins, a dentist from First Baptist Church, Shawnee, took the helm in 1994-95, succeeded by Deniese Dillon, a businesswoman and member of First Baptist Church, Tulsa. The first non-lay member to become Moderator was Bill Johnson, pastor of Northwest Baptist Church of Ardmore, who served in 1995-96. The coordinating council of CBFO was characterized by its democratic organization and its support of women in ministry. The original 23-member council was divided almost equally between men and women, as well as by geographic region.

Oklahoma was well-represented—even overrepresented—at the national CBF coordinating council in Atlanta, Georgia. Lavonn Brown, pastor of Norman’s First Baptist Church, was an original member of the Atlanta council, as was Helen Moore Montgomery of First Baptist Church, Oklahoma City. Other original members from Oklahoma were William G. Owen, Northwest Baptist, Ardmore; and Jeane Yates, College Heights Baptist Church, Stillwater. Other Oklahomans who served in the early years on the CBF council were Steve Graham, Spring Creek, Oklahoma City; Mike Boyd, First Baptist Church, Tulsa; and Dan Hobbs, First Baptist Church, Norman.

During its early years—from 1992 to 1996—the Oklahoma Fellowship operated on a small budget from funds contributed primarily by coordinating council members. Organizing and staging its annual general assembly program took most of the available budget. The first General Assembly was held in Oklahoma City in 1992 at the Lincoln Plaza Inn. A description of that event was presented in the first section of this series. The second General Assembly was held in 1993 at Tulsa’s Southern Hills Baptist Church, where Charlie Baker, sympathetic CBF pastor, had recently resigned. Hardy Clemons, CBF Moderator, and Cecil Sherman, CBF Coordinator, were featured speakers. First Baptist Church in Oklahoma City hosted the third annual General Assembly, which was highlighted by presentations from Carolyn Weatherford Crumpler, Molly Marshall, and Russell Dilday. The fourth was held in 1995 at First Baptist Church, Norman, where speakers included Ken Chafin, Bill Hendricks, and Beverly Garland.

In 1993, the Fellowship took a step forward by starting a quarterly newsletter. "New Directions" was the name of the publication, edited and written by Linda Hicks, staff member at Oklahoma City’s First Baptist Church. Early in 1994, the CBFO Coordinating Council appointed a strategic planning committee, whose specific charge was to prepare for the employment of a full-time state coordinator. On May 6, 1994, a Coordinator Search Committee was formed, consisting of Diana Boyd, Boyd Christensen, Steve Graham, Dan Hobbs, and Betty Woodward. A few months earlier, Woodward and Hobbs had been designated as interim co-coordinators for six months, by which time it was hoped that a full-time coordinator could be chosen. Betty Woodward, retired from her position on the faculty of OBU, was in charge of the CBFO office, which had been moved from Norman to Shawnee.

After almost a year and a half, during which time a fund-raising campaign had made the hiring of a full-time coordinator possible, the Coordinator Search Committee finally presented a candidate to the CBFO Coordinating Council for consideration. On August 26, 1995, Rick McClatchy, pastor of University Baptist Church in Shawnee, was elected as Coordinator of the Cooperating Fellowship of Oklahoma, effective September 15, 1995. Oklahoma thus became the first CBF affiliate to employ a full-time coordinator to lead its state organization.
 

IV

Rick McClatchy was a native Texan who graduated from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, earning both a Master of Divinity degree and a Ph. D. in church history from the largest and one of the best Protestant seminaries in the nation. He served Baptist churches in two Texas associations before coming to pastor University Baptist Church in Shawnee, Oklahoma. He participated in Oklahoma Baptist life at both the association and convention levels before being tapped by CBFO to become its new coordinator. He hoped to effect a rapprochement between conservative and moderate Oklahoma Baptists as a part of his leadership effort.

One of McClatchy’s first initiatives was to schedule a luncheon meeting with executives, pastors, and lay persons representing BGCO on one side, along with executives, pastors and lay persons representing CBFO on the other. At the appointed day, CBFO representatives assembled in good numbers, but the BGCO did not respond in kind. Anthony Jordan, newly elected executive secretary of the BGCO, did not attend, nor did other key BGCO leaders. Charles Graves, president of the state convention, did show up, but he gave the moderate forces no assurance that the differences between the two groups could be mended. Nevertheless, McClatchy counseled moderates to stay within the state convention.

After many years of trying to work with the BGCO, moderates accepted the reality that the BGCO neither welcomed their participation nor intended to work cooperatively with them. Finally, after an exasperating debate on the merits of the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message statement at the annual fall BGCO meeting—during which debate the name of Oklahoma Baptist icon Herschel Hobbs was slandered and defamed—most members of CBFO stopped attending BGCO meetings and subsequently cut their ties to that Baptist organization.

Undaunted by circumstances he could not control, Rick McClatchy turned his leadership skills away from convention politics toward new mission opportunities and cooperative ventures with other Baptist bodies. He sought alliances with American and Progressive Baptist bodies, as well as Native American churches. Over a series of years, the Coordinating Council of CBFO allocated mission funds to support several new churches in Oklahoma, as well as churches in Kansas and Arkansas.

Under the leadership of Nathan Brown, CBFO partnered with CBF national in Atlanta and Norman’s First Baptist Church to create InterAction, a new work to reach students at the University of Oklahoma. Funds were budgeted for students to attend seminary and participate in Baptist Heritage conferences. A new Baptist Studies Program was begun at Phillips University Seminary in Tulsa. A partnership was forged between CBFO and Central Baptist Seminary in Kansas City, Kansas. Steps were taken to increase financial contributions from moderate Oklahoma Baptist churches, and CBFO’s budget increased from $46,000 to about $145,000 from 1996 to 2003.

During the mid-1990’s, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in Atlanta provided an umbrella for state coordinators like Rick McClatchy to participate in a network arrangement for purposes of providing state-level policy advice to the Atlanta coordinating council and to stimulate communication among state moderate organizations. McClatchy became one of the primary leaders trusted by Daniel Vestal to give sound advice to Atlanta executives and to the coordinating council. Also, Oklahoma received a number of CBF grants to plan for new church starts within the state, and to implement state CBFO programs such as InterAction.

CBFO Leadership in the 1990’s

Oklahoma developed one of the stronger state organizations within the national CBF family, thanks to a good structure and to a high-caliber caliber leadership that emerged from the CBFO coordinating council. Comprised of outstanding clergy and lay members, both men and women, the council selected able persons and systematically trained them for leadership. Leaders generally emerged from within the committee structure, and were schooled for a year as moderators-elect before being elected by the General Assembly to preside over the work of the coordinating council. During the McClatchy era, lay moderators like Linda Hicks, Gerald Adams, Jim Huff, Pam Barnett and Betty Woodward rendered sterling service, as did clergy moderators Paul Calmes, Lavonn Brown, William Johnson and Richard Dunn.

The state CBF organization also helped provide good national leadership by sending some of their own to the coordinating council in Atlanta. Oklahoma members of the national council during Rick McClatchy’s tenure included experienced persons such as Deniese Dillon, Helen Moore Montgomery, Lavonn Brown, William G. Owen, Bob Stephenson, Gary Cook, and more recently, Darryl DeBorde. Also representing the Oklahoma-Kansas delegation on the national council was Mike McKinney of Overland Park, Kansas.

In June of 2003, Rick McClatchy resigned as state coordinator of CBFO to return to his native Texas as state CBF coordinator. The Oklahoma council gave him and wife Janie a reception on June 17, 2003, wishing them Godspeed in their new undertaking. The council then asked Dr. Lavonn Brown to function as Interim Coordinator until a search committee could be formed to seek and recommend a new person to lead the Oklahoma contingent. After eight years under their first paid coordinator, the state organization faced an uncertain future, but with a proven interim coordinator to guide them and faith in their cause, the coordinating council was determined to locate a person with experience, spiritual discernment, and charismatic leadership skills. The final installment of this series will deal with the process and the outcome of that search.

V

Rick McClatchy's resignation in June of 2003 gave the Cooperating Baptist Fellowship of Oklahoma an opportunity to review its past and make plans for the future. Under the  interim leadership of Lavonn Brown, the Coordinating Council met at First Baptist Church in Shawnee on August 9, 2003, to consider its options. More than fifty interested  people attended the open meeting, and a majority expressed their views on what CBFO should do and become in the years ahead. Financial resources were limited, and some were pessimistic about the budget. The idea was floated-perhaps emanating from Atlanta-that CBF Oklahoma should not attempt to hire its own coordinator, but should join Arkansas and perhaps Kansas in the hiring of a regional coordinator instead. Others insisted that CBFO should forge ahead with business as usual.

After a long and spirited discussion, during which some people urged caution and some wanted to move ahead, Bill Owen of Ardmore, representing the progressive element, recommended that the Coordinating Council select its own coordinator, set up a plan to raise additional funds in the months ahead, and appoint a search committee to identify a new state coordinator. The response was overwhelmingly positive. Lavonn Brown pointed out that it would require 100 people contributing at least $25 per month each to make such a plan successful. Pledges of support from those in attendance were immediately forthcoming, and it was agreed that a committee should be constituted to look for a new coordinator.

A search committee was formed consisting of Rusty Brock, chair, Deniese Dillon, Dan Hobbs, Melissa Johansen, Helen Moore Montgomery, Jim Huff, moderator, and Betty Woodward, moderator-elect, with Lavonn Brown serving as consultant and contact person for the committee. On Saturday, December 6, 2003, at a called meeting held at the First Baptist Church of Norman, the committee voted to recommend Frank "T" Thomas to the coordinating council to become the new state coordinator, effective January 5, 2004.  The call was approved unanimously.     

T and Kathie Thomas

T and Kathie Thomas served for many years as career missionaries for the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. From 1974 to 1992, they served in Burkina Faso, France, and Romania. During this time, T was Director of the French Baptist Home Mission Board, Director of Missions for the Paris Association, and Professor of Missions and Evangelism at the Seminary in Bucharest. In 1992, they resigned from the Foreign Mission Board and were appointed by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship to minister to the Gypsies in Romania. T was founder and director of the Gypsy Smith School for Evangelism in Bucharest. In 2000, they returned to the states and T became Coordinator of Missions for CBF of Florida, where he established five new churches before being called to Oklahoma as State Coordinator of CBFO. The Thomases have five daughters: Lindsi, Whitni, Andi, Hali, and Charli.

A New Coordinator

T Thomas made his initial appearance at a meeting of the CBFO coordinating council at Spring Creek on February 7, 2004. Council Members welcomed Kathie and T with an old-fashioned "pounding" of staples and perishables for their pantry. Jim Huff chaired his final meeting, and a budget of $175,000 was recommended for fiscal 2005.

The thirteenth annual CBFO general assembly was held at Spring Creek Baptist Church on April 16-17, 2004. Betty Woodward of Shawnee was elected Moderator for 2004-05, and Brian Brewer of Spring Creek was chosen as Moderator-Elect. Colleen Burroughs, Executive Vice President of Passport, Inc., was the featured speaker for the Friday evening session, and George Mason, Pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, spoke at the Saturday session. Selected as National CBF representatives were Rusty Brock (2005), Karrie Oertli (2006), and Beth Davidson (2007).

 Missions and partnerships dominated the CBFO agenda in 2004. Chapel Creek in Tulsa, a CBFO partner, called David Wright as pastor; NorthHaven Church, a CBFO initiative, was organized in April; Partners in Hope, an anti-poverty thrust of CBF, drew several visits to South Dakota from its CBFO partners; McCurtain County was placed on the partner list of Partners in Hope; and Hurricane Relief in the Bahamas drew a special grant. Other ministries included in the annual budget were InterAction, Phillips Seminary, Native American Church in Watonga, Hispanic Missions, Mission Madness, and Baptist World Alliance.

2005 brought additional challenges and opportunities. The fourteenth annual CBFO General Assembly was held at the First Baptist Church in Oklahoma City on April 29-30, 2005. Hardy Clemons, Pastor Emeritus, First Baptist Church, Greenville, South Carolina, was one of the featured speakers, and Paul Montacute of Baptist World Aid and Grace Powell Freeman of CBF Atlanta were the others. Brian Brewer of Spring Creek Baptist Church was elected Moderator, and Beth Davidson of Tulsa was chosen as Moderator-Elect. Rusty Brock (2006), Beth Davidson (2007), and Larry Stevens (2008) were elected as CBF National Representatives. A budget of $178,000 was adopted for Fiscal 2006.

Missions continued to be the hallmark of the T Thomas administration. A partnership was established with French-speaking churches in Canada; Tsunami relief totaled $23,000; Hispanic-speaking churches drew additional attention; and new church starts were on the planning docket, including a new church in Edmond and a new Cowboy church. Continuing mission emphases were Rural Poverty, InterAction, United Ministry Centers, Mid-American Indian Fellowships, OSU International Student Ministries, Baptist Heritage Scholarships, the Edgar Hallock  BWA Fund, and Global Missions.

 The Baptist World Alliance held its centennial conference in Birmingham, England, in July of 2005, and both T and Kathie Thomas represented CBFO at that historic meeting. The fallout from that intercontinental meeting will no doubt inspire T Thomas to new heights of energy as he leads the Oklahoma Fellowship to consider new mission opportunities and new partnership enterprises in the days ahead.