MORE LIKE A FAMILY REUNION: THE 2019 BGAV ANNUAL MEETING

MORE LIKE A FAMILY REUNION: THE 2019 BGAV ANNUAL MEETING

by Will Cumbia

The frigid morning air curled in around our ankles, while the smell of fresh baked cookies greeted every person who arrived. A volunteer, one of the veritable army of our hosts from Bonsack Baptist Church, greeted me enthusiastically. Already handshakes, hugs, the soft drone of conversation, and laughter filled the space.

We call it an Annual Meeting, but really it feels much more like a family reunion. Folks who come from different places and walks of life, resuming conversations from past years as if almost no time has passed at all, share hugs and handshakes and catch up on all that’s transpired since they last saw each other.

There are nametags. There is a bountiful amount of food, coffee, lemonade, and cookies. Certainly business was done at the 196th Annual Meeting of the Baptist General Association of Virginia (BGAV), but it was just as much the 196th annual family reunion of Virginia Baptists.

This was my third time attending the BGAV Annual Meeting. Each time I attend, the meeting becomes more and more special as I grow into my Virginia Baptist family.

John Upton spoke of the deep roots of the BGAV, roots that I especially appreciate as they parallel my own. John Weatherford, a Baptist pastor jailed in 1773 for preaching without a license, is an ancestor of mine. More recently, my grandfather, Dr. Phil Cumbia, was a Baptist minister in the Northern Neck and the Richmond area his whole life. These Baptist roots indeed run deep and have continued to deepen over the course of my life.

As a student at William & Mary, I was actively involved in the Baptist Collegiate Ministries (BCM), even staying on as a staff member for a year after I graduated in 2016. The BCM was crucial to my faith walk; it was an open and loving community that walked with me through a serious faith deconstruction and a deep season of anxiety and depression. I would certainly have walked away from the church had it not been for this community.

It was through the BCM that I heard about the Kairos Missions Initiative (KMI), a yearly missions team of young adults sent by the BGAV. I was blessed to go on the May 2015 KMI trip to Romania—my first time on a plane and my first time out of the country. This trip expanded my limited scope of mission work, helping me realize that is was never about saving people, but far more about others teaching me about the Kingdom of God.

My work with Kairos reawakened a call to mission and ministry work in my life that led me to serve as a BGAV Venturer in Austria for the past two years. I continue to follow that call as I support the BGAV’s focus:refugees missions partnership as the partnership Field Coordinator in Europe.

The past two years have been a wild roller coaster journey, as I have lived and worked in a foreign place with a colorful, international community. God has blown my wildest dreams out of the water, and my concept of God’s Kingdom grows daily. My heart has been set on fire for God’s righteous justice to be realized on earth. Seeing the gross injustices that too many people face in the world, I am impatient for justice to come.

Serving abroad means I have experienced a great deal of reverse culture shock when visiting the U.S., especially American churches. Attending the Annual Meeting was no exception. For the past two years, I have gotten used to working in Baptist Unions of 40 churches and being surrounded by mostly refugee church members. This has given me new eyes to see the American church. To be perfectly frank, I am quite frustrated with the church in America. Just as Kristen White preached about during the meeting, I worry that our American churches are far too comfortable.

Yet attending the Annual Meeting was a balm to my jaded spirit. Walking around the Annual Meeting, grace and hope chipped away at my negativity. In my anger and frustration, I had been asking so many questions of the church.

What are we doing to take care of the orphans? And then I saw HopeTree Family Services, loving the fatherless and those in need of a home.

How are we taking care of the widow? And I saw LifeSpire and the homes they provide for the elderly.

What are we doing about raising up leaders in the church? And I saw the rows of excellent theological schools BGAV works with, including McAfee School of Theology, where I am currently taking online classes.

What are we doing to care for those in prison? And I saw GraceInside, building community with our incarcerated brothers and sisters.

How are we encouraging women to follow God’s call on their lives? And I saw the outstanding, powerhouse women of the Woman’s Missionary Union of Virginia and Virginia Baptist Women in Ministry using their gifts to make a huge impact for God’s Kingdom.

What are we doing to feed the hungry and uplift the downtrodden? And I saw the yellow-and-blue-clad volunteers of Virginia Baptist Disaster Response, who have tirelessly worked to feed and support those in dire need of aid.

How are we loving the stranger both near and far? And I saw Alia Abboud from Lebanon, Toma Magda from Croatia, Walter Klimt from Austria, Kate Ayers from ReEstablish Richmond, and Virginia Baptists around them ready to pray for refugees, serve them abroad, and give towards refugee ministries.

How are our churches engaging in art and creativity? And I heard the beautiful voices of the Uptick Artists band mix and mingle as they weave together old and new, hymn and inspiration, in worship that honored God.

What are we doing to heal a broken world and fight for reconciliation? And I looked down from the running track of Bonsack’s recreation center and saw a room filled with God’s people all with a variety of theological opinions, thoughts, backgrounds, and practices— all loving each other well.

We are far from perfect, but I am filled with hope when I looked around at this beautiful mess of churches, organizations, and image bearers of God that is the BGAV. Yet still, I pray we do not become complacent.

I pray that we are not so comfortable that we do not take the injustices of the world as pressing issues that God calls us to engage with now. I pray that we are not so focused on our own self-preservation as a church that we forget the least of these in our communities both far and near. I pray that we can continue to push for unity and recognize that we have more in common, that brings us together in God’s mission, than we have differences that separate us. I pray that we continue to push for greater diversity and representation in our body.

As our keynote speaker, Scot McKnight, pointed out, we live in a world that calls us to choose sides. To divide. To call our neighbors enemies. In this divisive world I see the BGAV positioned perfectly to be a prophetic presence. A deeply rooted tree that can stand firm in the middle of the storm and show a new way. To provide a space where all can love each other despite differences. A foretaste of the radiantly colorful and expansive Kingdom of God.

This is a difficult place to be. It takes wisdom. It takes patience. It takes grace and mercy. But these are the gifts that God will give us in abundance if we only ask.

Being at the Annual Meeting filled me with a deep sense of gratitude. I am so incredibly thankful that firstly, I am a part of a body that believes in a risen Christ who has already saved the world, and secondly, that I am not alone in the fight for justice and goodness. How blessed am I to serve God with this beautiful family.

With more hugs and handshakes, we bundled up and bid goodbye to our closest relatives and to our new family members we never knew we had. I look forward to next year’s family reunion.

Will Cumbia is currently serving as the field coordinator for BGAV’s focus:refugee missions partnership in Austria.