CNBC.ca - Canadian National Baptist Convention

First reading of name-change motion passes easily

By Frank Stirk
Published in The Baptist Horizon, July, August, September, 2007

RICHMOND, BRITISH COLUMBIA—Canadian Southern Baptists are now just one vote away from adopting a new name.

By a show of hands, 125 messengers from the 45 churches represented at the CCSB’s annual convention, July 3-4, voted overwhelmingly to become known as the “Canadian National Baptist Convention.” Only four people were opposed.

A second and final vote on changing the name will take place at next year’s convention in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.

If it passes there, said CCSB National Ministry Leader Gerry Taillon, “we’ll be ready, I would think, by the fall of 2008 for full implementation of the name.”
Advocates of changing the name point to the confusion that having the word “Southern” in the title can cause—and has caused.

“To the uninitiated in Baptist and evangelical life, ‘Southern’ is a geographical term,” said Taillon. “To the initiated, it reflects a heritage, a way of doing missions, a denomination [the Southern Baptist Convention, (SBC)] that’s impacting the world and world missions.”

“Our hope as Canadians is to be an indigenous movement. And so the more we can make it indigenous, the better for us for the future,” added CCSB President Jeff Christopherson, who pastors The Sanctuary in Oakville, Ontario.

The vote was the culmination of three years of prayer, study and broad consultations. In 2004, messengers meeting in Toronto voted by about a two-to-one margin to ask the National Leadership Board to look into the possibility of a name-change.

“The reason it has taken this long,” said Christopherson, “was partly out of a desire to be sensitive to the memory of Southern Baptist pioneers who began serving in Canada in the 1950s.”

“We needed to make sure we went through the process right, because we did want to honour the awesome heritage of those who went before us,” he said. “This is not about thumbing our nose at anybody.”

Taillon is satisfied the proposed new name accurately reflects “who we are” while reaffirming “our absolute loyalty and our prized partnership” with the SBC.

“‘Canadian’ reflects our identity. ‘National’ reflects the scope of our churches right across Canada from sea to sea to sea. ‘Baptist’ is our religious heritage and our faith—our confession. And ‘Convention’ is the way that we actually connect our churches together, to do more together than we could apart,” Taillon said.

But Shan An, pastor of Dixie Baptist Church in Toronto, objected during discussion of the new name to including the word “National.”

“Our vision has got to be beyond the national level. We are reaching all the world, so ‘national’ is limiting our future vision,” he said. “… Why can’t you say ‘Canadian Baptist Convention?’ … Make it simple or leave it as it was.”

 “One reason we didn’t use ‘Canadian Baptist Convention,’” Christopherson replied, “is there’s another denomination that’s just changed its name to Canadian Baptist Ministries. We just felt that was just too close to that particular name.”

As well, he said, “There are lots of examples of ‘Canadian National’ [organizations] where the ownership is Canadian and their expressions are throughout Canada.”

Taillon conceded he was at first reluctant that the CCSB began discussing a name-change, out of concern that it could distract them from their primary task of reaching Canada for Christ. But now he believes there is a “groundswell” of support for changing the name.

And not only is the SBC “completely supportive” of the name-change, so too are Canada’s other Baptist groups, he said. “They were initially a little bit concerned as to what kind of name we would pick, but the feedback that I’ve got from all of the Baptists so far has been very, very positive.”

One of the last remaining hurdles is to come up with a new French name that incorporates the same CNBC acronym. Taillon is hopeful that can be resolved by the November meeting of the National Leadership Board.