Early Beginnings of CB Global
CB Asian Leaders' Consultation / 1998, Caliraya, Philippines
Having been led by God to assemble together and pursue a greater degree of partnership in the next millennium among the Conservative Baptist movements in Asia, the participants to the 1998 CB Asian Leaders' Consultation agreed to designate a secretariat to be rotated among the Asian countries with CB constituency. The main function of the Secretariat is to serve as the communication center for purposes of information dissemination, coordination and implementation of agreed upon plans, programs and projects. They agreed that CB Philippines be designated as the first Secretariat until the next country is voted upon.
CB Asia Leaders' Conference / October 31, 2002, Puli, Taiwan
Recognizing that God has called this group to the task of fulfilling the Great Commission in Asia and beyond, they determined to accelerate partnerships and fellowship among the CB movements in Asia by the year 2005.
CBGlobal Consultation / April l-3, 2005, Macau
At this meeting, the main agenda was to talk about the possibility of forming a fellowship of CB association of churches worldwide which may be called CBGlobal, define its purpose statement, describe the working relationship among its member bodies, and discuss possible areas of partnerships that they can work on.
Why? From the time the Conservative Baptist Foreign Mission Society, now WorldVenture, came into existence in December 1943 and started its work of sending missionaries worldwide, a number of CB church planting movements have been organized in different countries eventually resulting in the formation of national association of Baptist churches. Some of these groups carry the name "Conservative" while others do not. While all of them come from the same family and have a common heritage, and practically share the same doctrinal beliefs, there had been no efforts to bring them together even for some time of fellowship and much less for strategic planning of working together in accomplishing the Great Commission. The nearest approximation are the pockets of regional meetings, mission exposure trips, pastoral exchange visits, that in Asia they were doing at their own initiative.
With this background, there was a need to strengthen our bond as a CB Family worldwide and work together with our various and varied resources to enhance the fulfillment of the Great Commission. Moreover, because of the changing times and the changing strategies in misions "from everywhere to everywhere," we should be able to harness what the Lord has given us individually as national association of churches and put them together to fulfill our task more effectively and efficiently.
This humble meeting of a small number of Conservative Baptist leaders from the Philippines, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan and host Macau in the summer of 2005 may well have tremendous global impact in the 21st century. The time had come for national associations of Conservative Baptist (CB) churches to recognize formally that they are members of the CB global family, that is, the family of CB churches all over the world.
The delegates adopted the position to organize into one CB Global Family, or simply, CBGlobal. Its initial members were those in attendance, namely, CB Hong Kong, CB Macau, CB Japan, CB Philippines, and CBTaiwan. Other associations of CB churches in other countries were anticipated to join CBGlobal eventually. In fact, not long after, and upon the invitation of the original members, CBAmerica and CBIndonesia voted to join CBGlobal.
At the end of the consultation, the delegates unanimously accepted the following as their purpose statement: "CBGlobal exists to glorify God by bringing CB national church associations together in unity of Christ to fulfill the Great Commission.
To accomplish this, CBGlobal will:
1. Foster unity through mutual trust and encouragement.
2. Facilitate cooperative efforts through sharing of resources.
3. Focus the church in the Great Commission through church planting, evangelism and leadership development."
The delegates unanimously agreed that the purpose statement expresses fully what was in their hearts. In drafting the purpose statement, the delegates affirmed the primary role of local churches in determining the direction of CBGlobal.
A Leadership Team was formed, composed of each country's association head or appointed
association/group representative. Rene Atienza, Philippines –Convenor, Richard Cheng, Hong Kong, Kazutoshilto, Japan, Samuel Chan, Macau and Rosa Lin Mang, from Taiwan.
A public launching of CBGlobal was discussed. They asked CB Philippines if the launching of CB Global could be held to coincide with the CB Philippines anniversary celebration on November 30, 2005. This became the public launching of CBGlobal.