Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Executive Coordinator Daniel Vestal explains how to best respond to the earthquake in Haiti.
I wholeheartedly agree with Leonard's concerns about the Baptist movement, but I was too busy preparing for the Norman New Baptist Covenant meeting to respond at that time. Now, in a series of blogs, I plan to offer my suggestions for Baptist Identity in the 21st Century.
I would begin by reasserting the Baptist emphasis on liberty of conscience. Baptists began by dissenting from the established church and asserting their right to a free conscience on matters of religion. Our appeals for liberty of conscience were made on behalf of all people and not for ourselves alone. 78 years before the enlightenment philosopher John Locke wrote his first Letter Concerning Toleration, Thomas Helwys was writing:Men's religion to God is between God and themselves; the king shall not answer for it, neither may the king judge between God and man. Let them be heretics, Turks, Jews or whatsoever, it appertains not to the earthly power to punish them in the least measure.
45 years before Locke said it was "necessary above all to distinguish between the business of civil government and that of religion, and to mark the true bounds between the church and the commonwealth," Roger Williams warned that whenever "a gap" was opened "in the hedge or wall of separation between the garden of the church and the wilderness of the world, God hath ever broke down the wall itself . . . and made his garden a wilderness."
While John Locke could never bring himself to extend religious toleration to Catholics and atheists, revolutionary era Baptist evangelist John Leland boldly asserted:Let every man speak freely without fear, maintain the principles that he believes, worship according to his own faith, either one God, three gods, no god, or twenty gods, and let government protect him in so doing.
I value Frederick Buechner's thoughts on abortion, and I think they really ring true with what I have seen and heard today:Speaking against abortion someone has said, "no one should be denied access to the great feast of life," to which the rebuttal, obviously enough, is that life isn't much of a feast for children born to people who don't want them or can't afford them or are one way or another incapable of taking care of them and will one way or another probably end up abusing or abandoning them.
And yet, and yet. Who knows what treasure life may hold for even such children as those, or what treasures even such children of those may grow up and become? To bear a child even under the best of circumstances, or to abort a child even under the worst-- the risks are hair-raising either way and the results are incalculable.
How would Jesus himself decide, he who is hailed as Lord of life and yet who says that it is not the ones who, like an abortionist, can kill the body we should fear, but the ones who can kill body and soul together the way the world into which they are born can kill unloved and unwanted children (Mt. 10:28)?
There is perhaps no better illustration of the truth that in an imperfect world: there are no perfect solutions. All we can do, as Luther said, is 'sin bravely', which is to say, (a) know that neither to have the child nor not to have the child is without the possibility of tragic consequences for everybody, yet (b) be brave in knowing also that not even that can put us beyond the forgiving love of God. (Beyond Words: Abortion Entry. Emphasis his)
Religion Notes
Published: Saturday, May 16, 2009 at 4:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, May 19, 2009 at 8:58 p.m.
Lee called as pastor at Providence Baptist
Providence Baptist Church, a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship congregation, voted unanimously May 3 to call Julie Merritt Lee as pastor. Lee, who will assume her pastoral duties following the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly in July, is the church’s second woman pastor.
The Rev. Gail Coulter was assistant pastor at First Baptist Church in Asheville before becoming Providence’s first pastor in 2002. In addition to being the church’s pastor, Coulter also served a term as Cooperative Baptist Fellowship moderator before retiring from the pastorate in 2008.
Lee, a 2005 graduate of Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary, currently works as a pastoral resident at Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas. Wilshire began its residency program in 2002 for the purpose of preparing future ministers for moderate Baptist churches.
Providence Baptist Church, 1201 Oakland St., Hendersonville, was featured in the lead article in this week’s Associated Baptist Press e-newsletter.
Brueggemann to be lecture series speaker
The Rev. Walter Brueggemann, the first speaker in the semi-annual Walter E. Ashley Memorial Lecture Series of 2009, will be featured at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday, June 6, and 3 p.m. Sunday, June 7, at Hendersonville First Congregational United Church of Christ, Fifth Avenue West at White Pine Drive. A world-renowned Old Testament scholar and author, as well as a United Church of Christ minister, Brueggemann will be speaking on “The Psalms: Singing Trust and Telling Truth,” with each of the three lectures being a different aspect of that topic.
The June 6 topic at 10 a.m. is “Hard Road from Obedience to Praise.” The 2 p.m. topic is “Faith in the Depths.” The June 7 topic at 3 p.m. is “Faith as Gift and Impossibility.” The sermon’s title at the 11 a.m. service is “Being Present When the Will Is Read.”
Tickets to each lecture may be purchased in advance for $10 at the Main Street Visitor Center, Malaprops in Asheville, Highland Books in Brevard and at the church. If available at the door, tickets will be $20.
Scholarships available for conference
Montreat Conference Center has announced the availability of scholarship funds for “Faith and Environment: Embracing God’s Call to Be Green.” Scheduled for July 7-11, it is a new conference at Montreat.
Located on 4,000 acres in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina, 2,500 of which are protected wilderness, Montreat Conference Center is a picturesque setting for this national gathering of environmentalists and all who share a sense of responsibility for the well-being of creation. The program includes keynote lectures, worship and a variety of workshop on topics ranging from stream ecology to photography and facility greening to global hunger.
For more information about the conference, to register online and to apply for scholarships, visit www.montreat.org/current/2009-faith-and-environment.
Compiled by the Times-News staff.
All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged.
Snyder Memorial Members = Servants
20. March 2009 by J. Shore Traveling alone isn't something I normally do. I panic when I can't find my way, feel like I'm lost or even just get turned around. But when I found out that Fred Craddock was going to be at the CBFNC General Assembly, I knew I'd have to brave my fears for the chance of a lifetime.
I'd not been to Fayetteville before and was surprised at the traffic I encountered. I missed my exit to my hotel and ended up driving too far. Flustered and scared, I finally made it, checked in and rushed to find the church. Luckily, that was easier and I made it without incident.
As I pulled into the parking lot, I had a "Dorothy entering the land of Oz" experience. A nice man flagged my car down with a smile and asked me how I was. He wanted to make sure I found not just a parking space, but a good one. He inquired if I needed to unload anything and then sent me to another smiling and waving man. That gentleman, too, asked me how I was and welcomed me to the church (that I hadn't even entered yet). I parked and started walking in to be greeted by two more men who showed me where registration was. I felt like royalty!
Registering for the conference was a breeze and as soon as I got my nametag, another person was there asking me where they could help me go. Literally, every corner of the church was covered by a volunteer. It was amazing and helped ease my stress from my travels right away.
My night continued on in similar fashion, every time I even thought about something I might need, someone from Snyder Memorial was right there. At dinner time, a sweet lady named Olivia insisted that she take my tray and put it away for me. I tried to explain to her that my mother would have me insist on putting my own dishes away and her response was, "but if you don't let me do it, I won't have anything to do!" I felt guilty for not letting her take it the first time she asked!
Worship was fulfilling. Hearing Fred Craddock was amazing. My brain is still trying to absorb all the information I received. But the members of Snyder Memorial Baptist Church - the "red shirt crew" - will forever be etched in my mind beside the word "servant".
CBFNC is grateful to be part of the larger CBF movement of God's people. Though funded and organized separately from CBF, we seek to be the face of CBF in North Carolina by supporting and promoting CBF ministries in our state and beyond, including global missions and theological education.How to break this down to non-CBFers: I'd describe CBFNC and it's relationship to the larger CBF or CBF (National) as being like:
The polity of autonomy is closely related to the polity of congregational governance. Just as each Baptist priest with soul competency is equal to all other Baptists in a church, so each church is equal to every other church. No church or ecclesiastical organization has authority over a Baptist church. Churches can properly relate to each other under this polity only through voluntary cooperation, never by any sort of coercion. Furthermore, this Baptist polity calls for freedom from governmental control.[10] Exceptions to this local form of local governance include a few churches that submit to the leadership of a body of elders, as well as the Episcopal Baptists that have an Episcopal system.Baptist polity also carries over into our various other assemblies as well.
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Inc. (CBF) — "a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission of Jesus Christ and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice." CBF does not consider itself a denomination, but rather a fellowship of churches and Christians. According to its Website, CBF does not have or exercise authority over its partnering churches and individuals. It cites its valuing of autonomy and freedom as a reason for its type of organization.[1] However, it shares certain characteristics of a religious denomination, including national offices; theological seminaries that, while their boards are not appointed by the CBF, are recommended for their seminarians; missions funding; and distinct philosophical and theological views.
In contrast to the Southern Baptist Convention from which it emerged, there are a number of philosophical and theological differences. For example, in its 2000 Baptist Faith and Message, the Southern Baptist Convention stated that women should not serve as pastors. However, the belief that God calls both men and women into ministry—including that of pastor— was one of the founding principles of CBF.
....
[edit] Leadership
All members are entitled to vote at the General Assembly. The General Assembly elects a Coordinating Council, which meets three times a year to plan missions and ministries. This council is led by a moderator, who also is elected annually by the General Assembly.
A Coordinating Council elected by the General Assembly meets three times a year to plan the Fellowship's missions and ministries. The council is led by a moderator, elected annually by the General Assembly. A CBF Resource Center staff of approximately 62 persons provides leadership and support services through offices in Atlanta and Dallas. Chief executive officer is Daniel Vestal, who assumed the position of coordinator in December 1996 after nearly three decades as a Baptist pastor.
History
CBF began as a grassroots movement of Baptists in May 1991 after years of strife within the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), and ultimately the fundamentalist takeover (also called "conservative resurgence")[2] of the Convention by theological conservatives.[3] The conservative resurgence leaders considered biblical inerrancy and a perceived liberal drift at Southern Baptist seminaries as the primary issues in their struggle against moderates in the SBC. The strategy of the conservative takeover was to elect the SBC president a sufficient number of times to gain a conservative majority on the boards and agencies of the Convention. This was accomplished through the president's power to make appointments.[4] Conservative leaders have successfully elected all presidents of the SBC from 1979 to the present.[5]
The new Southern Baptist Convention leadership continued addressing social issues, but took a more conservative perspective than in years past. These included abortion, where support for Roe V. Wade in the 1970's was replaced with a more conservative view, as well as conservative views on religious liberty, church-state separation, roles in marriage, and women in ministry. Frustrated moderates met in 1990 in Atlanta, Georgia, and organized the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. It was the opinion of the moderates that the conservatives had departed from Baptist distinctives.[6].
Core values and other beliefs[7][edit] Four freedoms
CBF maintains that it exists because of the belief in historic Baptist principles of soul freedom, Bible freedom, church freedom and religious freedom.
Soul freedom is the belief in priesthood of the believer and the affirmation that every person has the freedom and responsibility to relate directly to God without the imposition of creed or control of clergy or government.
Bible freedom is the belief in the authority of scripture, which under the Lordship of Christ, is central to the life of individuals and churches. Every Christian has the freedom and right to interpret and apply scripture under the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
Church freedom is the belief in the autonomy of every local church as free, under the Lordship of Christ, to determine their membership and leadership, to order their worship and work, to ordain whomever they perceive as gifted for ministry, and to participate as they deem appropriate in the larger body of Christ.
Religious freedom is the belief in freedom of, for and from religion, as well as separation of church and state. CBF supports this principle through its affiliation with the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty.
CBF's other core values include biblically-based Global Missions, the resource model of discovering and providing resources to empower churches and individuals to their mission and calling, a commitment to justice and reconciliation, a belief in lifelong learning and ministry for both laity and clergy, trustworthiness and effectiveness.
[edit] About the Bible
The Fellowship believes in the divine inspiration of the Bible and its authority in the lives of Christians, who are free to follow and interpret it under the Lordship of Christ. Christians are responsible under God for their interpretation of Scripture. In regards to scriptural inerrancy, the Fellowship's position is that the Bible neither claims nor reveals inerrancy as a Christian teaching.
[edit] About women in ministry
Affirmation of women in ministry was one of the founding principles of the Fellowship. The New Testament is acknowledged as providing two views of the role of women—a literal approach of submission to men or an inclusive approach. A key biblical passage is Galatians 3:27-28:
As many of you as are baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus (NRSV).
CBF interprets this passage as affirming that men and women are created by God, redeemed by Christ, and gifted by the Spirit truly without distinction or partiality. Therefore, they encourage both men and women to exercise their Spirit-given gifts in the church’s work, worship, and leadership, and to celebrate the truth that the Spirit grants such gifts without respect to gender. A number of CBF partner churches have women pastors and women deacons.
[edit] About evangelism and missions
CBF engages in global missions, believing that each person is called to help fulfill Christ's Great Commission. Furthermore, CBF Global Missions believes the Bible teaches that God is the one triune God who created people in God's image. People are separated from God by sin for which Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer for all people. The Holy Spirit is instrumental in convicting, teaching and empowering individuals and churches to the mission of Christ in the world. Each believer and every church is responsible for sharing the gospel with all people through redemptive ministry to the spiritual, physical and social needs of individuals and communities.
It’s not enough for believers to “walk the walk,” Fred Craddock told participants attending the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina’s 2009 General Assembly Mar. 20-21. “Somebody needs to talk the talk.”
Craddock, a retired professor perennial cited as one of America’s top preachers, spoke to an enthusiastic group of more than 1,000 registrants to Snyder Memorial Baptist Church in Fayetteville. In two sermons packed with his trademark stories, he focused on the difficulty of hearing Christ’s message and the challenge of sharing it with others.
“The principle pain in hearing is that we just don’t want to hear some things,” Craddock said. “We avoid things we don’t want to hear because they might disturb us.”
Read More: Here.
Preaching Style
There are at least three major features of Craddock's new homiletic that distinguish it from traditional homiletics. First, instead of using a traditional deductive approach, in which three points are named and illustrated, in his sermons, Craddock advocates an inductive style. Critiquing traditional homiletics--called the "old homiletic"--Craddock turned toward induction, in which the preacher re-creates for the listener the inductive process of study used to create the sermon itself. A second unique feature of Craddock's new homiletic is that a sermon should seek to create an experience for the listener, rather than attempting to gain the listeners' assent through sermons utilizing deductive, linear logic. As a result of Craddock's inductive model, the role of the listeners fundamentally changes: no longer are listeners passive recipients of a conclusion already reached by the authoritative preacher, to which they must acquiesce. Rather, in Craddock's scheme, the listeners are active participants in the sermon by virtue of the sermon form itself, which enables the hearer to "finish" the sermon that is intentionally left open-ended. Third, Craddock emphasizes that the form or genre of the biblical passage to be preached should shape in some way the form taken by the sermon. While Craddock does not require that a sermon slavishly adhere to the biblical form--a psalm need not be preached entirely as a poetic sermon--he argues that various biblical forms seek to accomplish a variety of rhetorical aims and as such, the sermon should attempt to "do what the text does" in both the "what" (content) and the "how" (rhetorical strategies) of the text.Craddock offers an inductive approach to preaching with an aim of active participation by the listener in the movement of the sermon as well as in the discerning of the message. His grounding principle is that good preaching is a socializing force that creates community.[3]
Often characterized as preaching with a style that is "folksy,"[4] Craddock is a strong supporter of using humour in sermons.[5] Newsweek ranked him as one of America's greatest preachers.[2] Craddock's new homiletic has influenced further generations of homileticians who have developed new sermon forms while holding to certain values found within the new homiletic: narrative preaching, phenomenological preaching, and conversational preaching, to name a few.
Squandered Missions
JOURNAL EDITORIAL STAFF
Published: November 16, 2008
Those darned moderates. Just when the conservatives at the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina must have thought they'd routed them all, the moderates came tiptoeing back last week. At the convention's annual meeting in Greensboro, the moderates mounted serious opposition to a motion to remove the progressive Cooperative Baptist Fellowship as a giving option for member churches, and tried to reinstate funding for the Woman's Missionary Union of North Carolina, which has had the gall to assert more autonomy over its operations.
The moderates ultimately lost out, and more of the last holdouts will almost surely now leave the convention. But the convention is the real loser, because it could reach a lot more people through missions with the CBF and the Woman's Missionary Union. Yes, the convention does a lot of good missions work, but it could do so much more.
As it is now, churches that like CBF and the Woman's Missionary Union and are unhappy with the state convention may well support those groups instead of the convention.
Some conservatives in the convention probably voted to keep up the CBF option, realizing that they would lose moderate churches if they didn't. But, true to form, most of the conservatives in the convention left no room for compromise. After all, the CBF is willing to work with churches that put gay Christians into leadership positions. And the organization doesn't require a belief in biblical inerrancy. "If we don't take a stand, this is tolerance," Eric Page of Victory Baptist Church in Columbus said at the meeting, according to the News & Record of Greensboro.
Heaven forbid that a Christian organization would show tolerance.
Draw the line in the sand instead, even if that means losing the opportunity to maximize mission-work opportunities -- and even if it means declining attendance at the annual meetings of the convention. Attendance last week was down an estimated 1,000 delegates from the last couple of years.
"Don't ever forget a Baptist will only do one thing because you tell him to, and that's to stay home," Vic Ramsey of Moyock Baptist Church in Currituck County said at the meeting. "Looking at these seats, a lot of us have taken the hint. To be that broad convention, we need lots of people."
Nah. All they need is a relatively small group of committed conservatives, even if the convention has strayed from the key historical Baptist principles of autonomy of local churches and the right of all believers to interpret and follow Scriptures as they see fit, not as they're told to do. That's moderate talk, anyway.
After last week, more of the last remaining moderates will probably give up on the convention and give their money to other Baptist organizations. So be it. Why would the convention want to preach to the masses when it can preach to the choir?
Social justice, sometimes called civil justice, refers to the concept of a society in which justice is achieved in every aspect of society, rather than merely the administration of law. It is generally thought of as a world which affords individuals and groups fair treatment and an impartial share of the benefits of society. (Different proponents of social justice have developed different interpretations of what constitutes fair treatment and an impartial share.) It can also refer to the distribution of advantages and disadvantages within a society.
Social justice is both a philosophical problem and an important issue in politics, religion and civil society. Most individuals wish to live in a just society, but different political ideologies have different conceptions of what a 'just society' actually is. The term "social justice" is often employed by the political left to describe a society with a greater degree of economic egalitarianism, which may be achieved through progressive taxation, income redistribution, or property redistribution. The right wing also uses the term social justice, but generally believes that a just society is best achieved through the operation of a free market, which they believe provides equality of opportunity and promotes philanthropy and charity. Both the right and the left tend to agree on the importance of rule of law, human rights, and some form of a welfare safety net (though typically the left supports this last element to a greater extent than the right).
Social Justice features as an apolitical philosophical concept (insofar as any philosophical analysis of politics can be free from bias) in much of John Rawls' writing. It is fundamental to Catholic social teaching, and is one of the Four Pillars of the Green Party upheld by the worldwide green parties. Some of the tenets of social justice have been adopted by those who lie on the left or center-left of the political spectrum (e.g. Socialists, Social Democrats, etc). Social justice is also a concept that some use to describe the movement towards a socially just world. In this context, social justice is based on the concepts of human rights and equality.
Definition:
grace
that which affords joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, loveliness: grace of speech
good will, loving-kindness, favour
of the merciful kindness by which God, exerting his holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian virtues
what is due to grace
the spiritual condition of one governed by the power of divine grace
the token or proof of grace, benefit
a gift of grace
benefit, bounty
thanks, (for benefits, services, favours), recompense, reward.
Definition:
mercy: kindness or good will towards the miserable and the afflicted, joined with a desire to help them
of men towards men: to exercise the virtue of mercy, show one's self merciful
of God towards men: in general providence; the mercy and clemency of God in providing and offering to men salvation by Christ
the mercy of Christ, whereby at his return to judgment he will bless true Christians with eternal life.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2008
BSCNC to no longer "tolerate" CBF
Encouraged to “pull out a can of spinach” and “put an end” to toleration of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF), messengers to the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina (BSCNC) annual session pulled out their ballots and approved a new budget structure that eliminates any option for contributing to CBF.
The action came Nov. 12, during discussion of a proposal to scrap the four cooperative giving plans the BSCNC has offered for more than a decade.
The initial proposal, from the Cooperative Program Giving Committee, would have retained an option by which churches could designate 10 percent of their gifts to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF).
Matt Williamson (right), pastor of Oak Forest Baptist in Fletcher, offered an amendment to eliminate the CBF option, saying the BSCNC should not partner with an organization that might send new converts to a church that does not teach inerrancy. “I will die on the hill of inerrancy,” he said.
Eric Page, of Victory Baptist in Columbus, said keeping the option would imply that the BSCNC tolerates CBF. Like the cartoon character Popeye, he said, the convention should “pull out a can of spinach and put an end to it.”
The proposal also called for funding for theological education at North Carolina Baptist divinity schools, budgeted at 10.9 percent of the current Plans B and C, to become a sharply reduced two percent option. The proposal was approved with that option intact. The BSCNC is currently in the middle of a two-year budget cycle, so the new structure will not take effect until 2010.
(Read More: Here).
The Demonization of Moderates: NC Baptists Oust CBF
Messengers to the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina decided today that Churches will no longer be allowed to support the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship through the BSCNC beginning in 2010. Check the Biblical Recorder for the story later today.
One NC Baptist fundamentalist had this to say about the decision over on his blog, Southern Baptists in NC:The reason this amendment passed is that NC Baptist are Southern Baptist they are not CBF Baptist. (This statement is something the Baptist General Convention of Texas would do well to heed.) NC Baptist are trying their best to say that we do not want anything to do with CBF. If there are churches that desire to be CBF then have at it. However, do not try to tell the world that you are Southern Baptist and be part of an organization that was organized as a result of being disgruntled with doctrines Southern Baptist believed and held dear. What does this mean for BSCNC? It means that the churches that were bypassing the convention are now going to need to stop. It means that we are in this together and thus we need to support the budget together.
Also, there needs to be a call now to the head offices in Cary that NC Baptist have clearly stated we are not CBF. Thus, an employee at the convention offices should be a member of a NC Baptist church not one that is dually aligning themselves with the CBF and the BSCNC. We had the clarion call today during the budget vote that we will not even give you an opportunity to send funds through us to the CBF. We certainly should be able to say we want you attending a BSCNC church.
And here is a response to the BSCNC's decision from a moderate North Carolina Baptist. The blog post is appropriately titled Demons.I am sitting in my office after spending the last day and a half at the Baptist State Convention of NC. I witnessed a historical moment, and it breaks my heart.
The Baptist State Convention has, for about 18 years, provided 4 giving plan options for churches to contribute their missions giving through the state convention. One of those plans, plan C, provided for 10% of our total giving to the state to go to CBF national. For years now, the multiple giving plans have been under attack, with the primary focus being on plan C. In the last couple of years, the state had determined that the 10% apportioned to CBF would not count as NC Cooperative Program giving. Last year, the state formed a committee to investigate a single giving plan that would preserve multiple options. That committee brought its recommendation today. There would be a single giving plan, and churches could check a box on their giving form if they desired a portion of their proceeds to go to CBF. An amendment was brought from the floor to remove this check box. After a secret ballot vote, the amendment passed. After years of efforts, plan C was officially dead.
This isn’t what broke my heart. Anybody with a brain has been able to see this handwriting on the wall for years. There are going to be those who argue, as there were today, that churches can just send their money directly to CBF and negatively designate the SBC out of their missions giving. CBF churches are still welcome in the Baptist State Convention of NC, they will say.
They are lying.
Those who spoke in favor of the amendment based their arguments on 2 points: CBF doesn’t affirm the inerrancy of Scripture, and CBF isn’t true Baptist. There were calls for the convention to “take a stand”. And so they did. They thought they were taking a stand against some faceless organization. Instead, they took a stand against Christian men and women I serve and work with every day. They called me, my church members, and my peers in ministry enemies. They demonized us.
That is what breaks my heart. They made people I love and respect into demons in order to get what they wanted. I could have lived with a decision that said, “We are SBC, and we want a plan that says we are SBC only.” I would not have agreed with it, but I could have respected it. I can’t respect this. Especially when I know it is going to be followed by somebody saying, “We aren’t kicking you out. You can still send your money to us.”
When the announcement of the vote was made, there was no comment or response. A couple of folks clapped, though not as many as I honestly expected. The President just moved on to the next item of business. The convention moved on and left behind Christ-loving, Christ-serving people who had just been accused of not being true Baptist or even true Christians, people and churches who have been a part of the state convention for decades. I’m sure some will say it was just an example of the convention saying, “Get behind me, Satan.”
Funny, Jesus said those words to Peter, the rock upon which he would build his church.
To those CBF pastors, laypeople, and churches who winced at being made to feel like demons, my heart hurts with you and for you. My prayer for all of us is that we will be able to put aside the hurt and anger that rises in our belly at being called a demon so that we might fully concentrate on being the rocks upon which Christ will build His kingdom.
Texas Baptists should pay attention to the fundamentalist from North Carolina cited above and the actions taken today by the fundamentalists in the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina. What happened today in North Carolina is just one of MANY examples which demonstrate that Cooperation with Fundamentalists is not possible. It just ain't.
Fundamentalism by definition seeks power and control. First, the state convention cuts the CBF option off. Second, the state convention decides to tell its employees which Baptist churches are OK to attend and join. Power and Control.
We can be nice and drop the fundamentalist tag and just call 'em Southern Baptists - as if a good many of those Southern Baptists are not fundamentalists. That what some folks here in Texas are doing. They pretend that somehow moderates and fundamentalists can work together under the same roof. They pretend that somehow a Baptist organization can be supportive of both Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and George W. Truett Theological Seminary. They pretend that a Baptist organization can support programs which affirm Women In Ministry while also accommodating an institution that wants to keep women out the pulpit and in the home; baking cookies, cleaning, and birthing babies, Quiverfull style.
Naive? You Bet'cha. That's putting it charitably. Why any person who eschews fundamentalism would want a better relationship with a Baptist group completely controlled by fundamentalists is beyond my comprehension. Some Texas Baptists need to pay attention to what happened in North Carolina and Georgia this week. They need to read a book or two. A primer on fundamentalism is apparently needed. Or, just keep that head in the sand.
The ONLY Way to Cooperate With a Fundamentalist Is To Obey Him.
Labels: North Carolina Baptists, Texas Baptists
posted by big daddy weave at 11:17 am
DOCUMENT CONTINUES – Page 1 of 10
Lutherans Concerned/North America
RESPONSE TO THE ELCA DRAFT SOCIAL STATEMENT ON HUMAN SEXUALITY
Lutherans Concerned/North America (LC/NA) calls upon all ELCA members who are committed to a church that fully includes people of all sexual orientations and gender identities to respond to the Draft Social Statement on Human Sexuality. In the document that follows, LC/NA has pointed out both language that needs to be changed to be more fully inclusive, and language that affirms a vision of full inclusion.
The Draft Social Statement (see http://www.elca.org/faithfuljourney) is divided into five sections. Accordingly, the changes recommended below are organized by those same five sections, beginning with STRENGTHS in that section, followed by recommended CHANGES to each section.
Read more: Here.
proseuvcomai“proseuchomai” (prayer)---which is closely related to the Greek word for "worship:"
to offer prayers, to pray
WORDS FOR WORSHIP
proskunevw
PROSKUNEO (4352) - to worship, to kiss (like a dog licking its master's hand),
to prostrate oneself in homage. John 4v23 and Revelation 7v11
Definition to kiss the hand to (towards) one, in token of reverence
among the Orientals, esp. the Persians, to fall upon the knees and touch the ground with the forehead as an expression of profound reverence
in the NT by kneeling or prostration to do homage (to one) or make obeisance, whether in order to express respect or to make supplication
used of homage shown to men and beings of superior rank
to the Jewish high priests
to God
to Christ
to heavenly beings
to demons
Another Greek word for worship is:
latreuvw
LATREUO (3000) - to serve, minister, worship. Phillipians 3v3 and Luke 2v37 to serve for hire to serve, minister to, either to the gods or men and used alike of slaves and freemen
in the NT, to render religious service or homage, to worship
to perform sacred services, to offer gifts, to worship God in the observance of the rites instituted for his worship
of priests, to officiate, to discharge the sacred office
How’s your love life? Spiritually speaking, that is! The Act of Love prayer gets right to the heart of the matter as to what really counts as love in
God’s eyes:
O my God, I love you above all things, with my whole heart and soul, because you are all-good and worthy of all love. I love my neighbor as myself for the love of you. I forgive all who have injured me, and I ask pardon of all whom I have injured.
(Note that in many books this prayer is called simply “An Act of Love”.)
These three sentences challenge us to think about real love in a way the world around us doesn’t! The Act of Love prayer brings to mind our Lord’s two great commandments to us, expressed in the Gospels: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind [and] thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (Matt 22:37, 39).
(Note that these by no means superseded the original Ten Commandments but were meant to summarize their essence! We show our love of God in our obedience to His commandments.)
Jesus made it very clear many times in the Gospels, and in the Lord’s Prayer, that we show our love for Him in how we treat other people, and that He will forgive us as much as we forgive them. Also, we must not poison our relationships with others by being too proud to apologize when we have wronged them.
God’s idea of love is not the same as that expressed in too many songs and TV programs these days, all about sex and self-gratification. The love He seeks from us, and asks us to give others, is an agape love (from the Greek term), one intimately mingled with charity.
This love is one of God’s gifts to us. It is one of three theological virtues, along with faith and hope, each with their own prayer! Often referred to as “charity” in traditional translations of the Bible, it consists of loving God, as the Act of Love prayer states “above all things,” and loving our neighbor out of love for Him.
It doesn’t come from our feelings, that is to say, from our natural likes and dislikes, but rather from our will in our desire to please God.
This is indeed love of others for God’s sake without thinking about what we might get in return. In addition, we are called to love those who might not seem particularly loveable, as well as our enemies.
In case the notion of loving your enemies seems like too tall an order in a world saturated with conflict, consider that, as St. Paul said, Christ died for us to reconcile us to God while we were His enemies (Rom 5:10). Christ’s love for us on this earth was modeled on humility and selflessness. He was born in a manger and died on a cross in the ultimate act of love!
As our Lord instructed His Apostles the night before His Passion, we are to “love one another, as I have loved you …by this shall all men know that you are my disciples” (John 13:34-35). He meant for us to love each other, warts and all!
St. Therese was so taken by this command in John’s Gospel that she dedicated her life to loving others as Jesus would love them. She wanted everything she did to be an act of love! That included looking for the good in everyone, putting up with their faults, and showing those she might otherwise find disagreeable kindness and respect.
Following this example, if we can’t always settle our differences with others we can at least pray for them and pray that we might not have bitterness or resentment in our hearts towards them.
While this might be especially difficult in cases of severe emotional or physical abuse, think of those more mundane situations in your life when pettiness gets the better of you. Do you know someone who just has to be right about everything? Are you like that?
Also, how much does it (or even should it) matter who has the bigger car, house, or wallet? Don’t forget the emotional, physical, as well as spiritual toll envy and resentment can have on us. Even the small grudges we carry around with us can feel like 50 pound weights after a while!
Although the Act of Love prayer invites us to think of “we” in a world of “me,” it is important for us to love ourselves as children of God seeking to do His work by sharing His love and goodness! We must avoid the kind of sensual, prideful self-love in which we’re always looking out for #1, thinking only of ourselves.
The renowned English poet W.H. Auden summed up the tragedy of the human condition in this regard when he wrote when World War II began:
The error bred in the bone
Of each woman and each man
Craves what it cannot have,
Not universal love
But to be loved alone.
Many times when we think of “universal love” in the abstract, we get tripped up as well. Linus once said in a old Peanuts comic strip “I love mankind, it’s people I can’t stand!” Likewise, the satirist Tom Lehrer once said only somewhat tongue-in-cheek that “I know that there are people who do not love their fellow man, and I hate people like that!”
Don’t we all fall prey to those kinds of thoughts sometimes? Do you find it’s easier to champion some abstract cause than to be polite under stress, or not to bear grudges in turf wars with colleagues at work? You're not alone!
Speaking of being alone, paraphrasing Auden above, we are not to love God alone, in the sense of trying to keep Him all to ourselves in our spiritual lives, while having a condescending or unforgiving attitude towards those around us.
St. Paul said in this regard that if he “should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity [the traditional term for agape love, as mentioned earlier], I am nothing” (1 Cor 13: 2).
We must also beware of gossip, which affects, and indeed infects us all, one way or another. It can be an act of love not to spread or repeat rumors or otherwise ruin someone’s reputation. St. James called the tongue “an unquiet evil, full of deadly poison” when used in this manner (James 3:8).
Mahatma Gandhi once said that “I like your Christ but I dislike your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ.” While we might find that assessment harsh, it nonetheless points up one of our great challenges in living our faith: Are we showing others Jesus in our lives by our actions? Are we letting Him work through us?
Most of the times what drives us most crazy is each other! God invites us to live in a world much more at peace than this one, here as well as in heaven.
The Act of Love prayer points the way to that world. St. Paul reminds us in his first letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor 13:7), as you might have heard read in weddings, that love is patient, kind, gentle, unpretentious, not ambitious or self-seeking, and that it doesn’t bear grudges or rejoice in someone else’s misfortunes.
The more we can adopt that approach, with God’s help, the more we can live our lives as an act of love for Him and for each other. Then, we might be able to rejoice along with the author of Psalm 133 when he said (in verse 1) “Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell in unity!”
2 Corinthians 5:16-20---NRSV
16From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. 17So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; 19that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. 20So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
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2 Corinthians 5:17-20 Greek: N. Vamvas (Bambas) OT and NT
17 ὥστε εἴ τις ἐν Χριστῷ, καινὴ κτίσις· τὰ ἀρχαῖα παρῆλθεν, ἰδοὺ γέγονεν καινά· 18 τὰ δὲ πάντα ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ καταλλάξαντος ἡμᾶς ἑαυτῷ διὰ Χριστοῦ καὶ δόντος ἡμῖν τὴν διακονίαν τῆς καταλλαγῆς, 19 ὡς ὅτι θεὸς ἦν ἐν Χριστῷ κόσμον καταλλάσσων ἑαυτῷ, μὴ λογιζόμενος αὐτοῖς τὰ παραπτώματα αὐτῶν καὶ θέμενος ἐν ἡμῖν τὸν λόγον τῆς καταλλαγῆς. 20 ὑπὲρ Χριστοῦ οὖν πρεσβεύομεν ὡς τοῦ θεοῦ παρακαλοῦντος δι' ἡμῶν· δεόμεθα ὑπὲρ Χριστοῦ, καταλλάγητε τῷ θεῷ.
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2 Corinthians 5:17-20 Greek NT: Wescott-Hort Transliterated
17 ōste ei tis en christō kainē ktisis ta archaia parēlthen idou gegonen kaina 18 ta de panta ek tou theou tou katallaxantos ēmas eautō dia christou kai dontos ēmin tēn diakonian tēs katallagēs 19 ōs oti theos ēn en christō kosmon katallassōn eautō mē logizomenos autois ta paraptōmata autōn kai themenos en ēmin ton logon tēs katallagēs
20 uper christou oun presbeuomen ōs tou theou parakalountos di ēmōn deometha uper christou katallagēte tō theō 21 ton mē gnonta amartian uper ēmōn amartian epoiēsen ina ēmeis genōmetha dikaiosunē theou en autō
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