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CBF leader lauds predecessor, founder
Norman Jameson, BR Editor
May 03, 2010
2 MIN READ TIME

CBF leader lauds predecessor, founder

CBF leader lauds predecessor, founder
Norman Jameson, BR Editor
May 03, 2010

Daniel Vestal succeeded

the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s (CBF) founding coordinator Cecil Sherman,

who died April 17, and called Sherman “a modern Baptist prophet.”

“He’s irreplaceable and

irreplicable,” Vestal said. “I’ve never known a more principled person than

Cecil. When it came to matters of conscience he was uncompromising. He resisted

fundamentalism and legalism with tenacity. He was a prophetic preacher, and a

prophetic leader before there was a CBF.”

Sherman served two

years as Baptist State Convention of North Carolina president and was pastor

for 20 years of First Baptist Church in Asheville before returning to his

hometown of Fort Worth, Texas, to lead Broadway Baptist Church as pastor. He

left Broadway to become CBF’s first coordinator in 1991.

“Cecil was a very

effective congregational pastor,” Vestal said. “He cared about people. He

mentored students with a pastoral spirit. Maybe one of his most lasting

legacies will be his Sunday School lessons, which he did for years with Baptist

Sunday School Board, then with Smyth and Helwys.

“It’s ironic that one

of his lasting legacies will be his love of scripture and exposition of

scripture. What fundamentalists have said all these years is that we don’t love

the Bible. He spent hours studying and teaching the Bible.”

Vestal said his wife

once told him she can “soar as a Sunday School teacher because of the

fundamentals of Cecil’s lessons.”

“His influence

continues to live on and he will continue to have impact,” Vestal said.

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