For those of us who are preparing and traveling to CBF General Assembly, there is a question that is on all of our minds, “What is the future for CBF?” This is the 25th Anniversary of CBF and while it is a time to catch up with people and celebrate, it is also a time that we are all expecting a clear vision for what’s next.
CBF is no longer an awkward teenager testing boundaries and trying to find its identity. Instead, CBF is, well, a millennial. The millennials in attendance are not nones (they are attending CBF after all). These are millennials who have not given up on the church, but instead have answered calls to ministry. These are millennials who are pushing on leadership hoping to find a place to serve, a place to grow, and a place to be themselves.
Will CBF have a place for millennial ministers in their midst?
Maybe, but there is a hiring policy standing between many millennials and CBF. A hiring policy that taints the good work CBF does in caring for those in the midst of crisis because it asks members of the LGTBQ community to silence part of who they are. It is a hiring policy that excludes rather than excludes. It is a hiring policy that stands in contradiction to a theology of welcoming and affirming all people.
As we wait for General Assembly to begin, we wait hoping beyond hope, we won’t hear what we have heard for the past 25 years. We hope we won’t hear, “Hold on,” because we have held on for 25 years. It’s time to stop holding on, grasping an identity based on what we are not, and climb to the future that includes all people.