The other evening I was at another informational meeting sponsored by PSW and the executive minister said that some folk have expressed thanks to him that PSW has made the moves it has - this action has helped to get the denomination off the dime.
Well, I'm not sure about that, but one thing is very clear - the American Baptist denomination will be very different in 6 months than it is now. PSW will likely distance itself and there are some other regions that may as well. At least part of the theological diversity of ABC will be gone if much of the right leaves and a solid chunk of financial support will disappear (even if regions like PSW continue to support our ABC international ministries). There are folk advocating a change in our structure that would make things much more loose than they are now. It will not be an easy time for the folk in the bureaucracy.
So what next? It could be a time to radically look at ourselves and position ourselves for a future that is very different from the past. Or it could be a time of retrenchment that would certainly spell extinction. I think the Baptist tradition is the Christian tradition most suited for a post-modern world but at this time, as far as I can see, none of the Baptist groups are capitalizing like they can or should. I think that if we can really hold on to and hold up the traditional Baptist distinctives of soul freedom, local church autonomy, the associational principle, and the authority of scripture we will be in a good place to speak to a new world searching for faith.
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Thin Places - those places or events in life where the dividing line between the holy and the ordinary is very thin... to the point that the ordinary becomes holy and the holy becomes ordinary
About Me
- roy
- - follower of Jesus (most of the time if I'm honest) - I'm pastor of the Cambridge Drive Community Church in Goleta, CA - guitarist - I play a Lowden O25C Custom acoustic, a fretless Bee Bass GrooveBee bass, & a partscaster electric that I put together. I also have a baritone ukulele that is fun to play. You can listen to some of the music I did with Alexis d by clicking below. And you can watch my sermons at Cambridge Drive Church here - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2N6eGxfyTaKjNV8r2_lQLQ
Alexis d Music
1 comment:
Greetings Roy,
I fully agree with you that what we are to become will be quite different from what we are today. Not necessarily better, but different. I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on how you believe baptists in general could be best suited to be leaders in the emergingpomomissional world. Most of what I have learned and experienced about us is that for baptists to play that role would mean a level of change we have not shown ourselves capable of accepting.
And it is not just the ABC. I became aware yesterday that another major baptist denomination (not the SBC) has finally sent out their letters to churches demanding an end to female pastors and an acceptance of the position that the gifts of the spirit, (healing, tongues, etc.) were of the Apostolic Age and are not applicable today. It just smacks of more circling of the wagons and arguing, which sadly to me, seem to be very strong baptist traditions.
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