Greetings from

Florida and the Caribbean Islands

February 7, 2024

Here's a quick look midweek to strengthen your faith and connect with your CBF family.

La Poza del Obispo, Puerto Rico

prayer from Daily Feast, Meditations from Feasting on the Word

Melissa Rodriguez accepts CBF global position Congratulations, dear friend!

Thank you Melissa Rodriguez for 7 years of dedication, commitment and professionalism that you have shown CBF FL and the Caribbean Islands.

While you came to us with many talents, we are most grateful for your accounting skills and your detailed oriented gifts. In addition, you are excellent at collaborating and engaging with others. Your social awareness skills and inviting persona immediately makes people feel at ease. Finally, you're ALWAYS a team player, open and honest, and willing to assist anyone who asks. During your tenure, you've help form and grow CBF FL/CI.

While releasing you to CBF Global will be hard :), your time with CBF FL and Caribbean Islands was here to serve as a doorway for you to enter this next phase of your successful career.

With gratitude and love, your CBF FL and Caribbean Islands Family.

The season of Lent starts next week...

2024 Emmanuel McCall Lenten Devotional series

The 2024 Emmanuel McCall Lenten Devotional series is prepared by Cooperative Baptist Fellowship family and friends. It is a project of love that is designed to be read during the season of Lent, which begins February 14, 2024.

There are wonderful reflections on God's Word, thought-provoking questions, prayers, incorporation of the arts and noteworthy information.

As the devotional is read, our prayer is that our hearts open to the call of God to speak, walk and act justly. And, may our faith, courage and boldness grow stronger.

Available in both English and Spanish.

Mark your calendar

Learning about Stefanus Alliance

Meet Ed Brown, Secretary General of Stefanus Alliance International. "Stefanus Alliance is a Christian mission and human rights organization with a special focus on freedom of religion and belief as expressed in Article 18 of the UN Human Rights Declaration. The Stefanus Alliance cooperates and works through local churches and organizations world-wide."

Engage Here

2024 CBF Florida and Caribbean Islands Spring Celebration

May 4, 2024 at First Baptist

St Petersburg (Thank you

Pastor Ben Winder for hosting us)

Apply to StudentServe

Applications are now open for StudentServe 2024! StudentServe

offers summer and fall internships for college and graduate/seminary level

students in both church and mission-partner placements.

Learn more and apply by February 16!

Apply here.

Rethinking Privilege Part One

Feb 2, 2024

Click here to read Dr. Brogdon’s February “Wisdom for the Journey” devotional.

Dr. Brogdon is a public intellectual and sought-out national speaker who serves as the Associate Professor of Preaching and Black Church Studies and Executive Director of the Institute for Black Church Studies at the Baptist Seminary of Kentucky. Dr Brogdon also led our First Theological Certificate training program in Abaco Bahamas last June.

BSK is now accepting applications for the Master of Arts in Ministry Studies program, launching in Fall 2024! The program, completed online through live Zoom sessions, is designed for people who want to grow in their calling while remaining in their full-time ministry or professional positions. The 36 hour degree program is centered around the selection of a specialty area by the student in consultation with faculty. Students may select from traditional fields of study or choose an area that is interdisciplinary. The program concludes with a Capstone project or thesis relating to the student’s area of specialization.

Learn More Here.

Thank you Pastor Dean Allen and all of Bluewater Community Church for welcoming me last Sunday. I am grateful for your welcoming and hospitable faith community. I preached and then we had a CBF FL/ CI Q&A session following a delicious lunch. Yes, of course, we had lunch! I think you all agree, the real mark of a healthy Baptist church is the number of potlucks in a given year :)

After worshiping with Bluewater Community Church, I headed East to spend the evening worshiping with Tallahassee Fellowship, led by Pastor Candace McKibben. It was another worship experience that nourished my soul... and my body - yes, we have a lovely meal and Candace sent me on the road supplied with a bag of her homemade cookies. Only 2 cookies made it to Tampa.

Left: Sharing communion with Candace's homemade bread.

Right: Engaging our ZOOM worshippers from afar.

A new parent resource from our partner, Passport.

The resource can be found on the webpage linked here.

The daily devotions on d365.org will parallel this ‘Loving Families’ resource for the week of February 5-11.

A new way to give... Giving just got easier through our Classy account using:

Venmo

Credit Card

Bank Account

Paypal

Click Here

Click here to view!

"As you explore this report, do so with gratitude for the collective impact we've made and with anticipation of the transformative possibilities that lie ahead." Paul Baxley

Read the latest Fellowship magazine HERE. PS. Check out pages 26-29!

February 2024 CBF Book Club

In My Grandmother's House by Yolanda Pierce

In My Grandmother's House follows Pierce as she reckons with tradition, building an everyday womanist theology rooted in liberating scriptures, experiences in the Black church and truths from Black women's lives.

Pierce tells stories that center the experiences of those living on the underside of history, teasing out the tensions of race, spirituality,

trauma, freedom, resistance, and memory. The paperback features a new readers' guide, written by the author, that is useful for individual reflection and group discussion.

A grandmother's theology carries wisdom strong enough for future generations. The Divine has been showing up at the kitchen tables of Black

women for a long time. It's time to get to know that God.

Learn more about CBF Book Club.

Find the free discussion guide here.

Click here

This year’s theme, “Equipping With Every Good Thing,” is based on Hebrews 13:20-21: "Now may the God of peace … equip you with every good thing to do his will, by developing in us what pleases him through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory forever and always.” The Offering for Global Missions equips the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship with the gifts and passions of 46 Field Personnel in 17 different countries and the United States, spreading the hope of Jesus Christ. When you give to the Offering for Global Missions, you also participate in this mission of Jesus Christ around the world.

This year we have a goal of $4 million. Every gift helps us reach this goal to support the presence of Field Personnel.

Make a gift to the offering here

Get your copy of the

OGM Prayer Guide below

"Writers were invited to share about someone who has made a significant impact on their lives, a spiritual guide so to speak - one who has shaped their faith, their theology or their prayer life." Thanks Meg Lacy Vega for compiling these beautiful Spiritual Guides.

Order Copies of 2023-24 Prayers of the People HERE.