Laying the Foundation

In our current sermon series at RMBC we are exploring what it means to be a Baptist church.  I’ve written on this subject in the blog in various ways but I do want to address it once more.  I really do belive it is good for people to know who they are and their history.  If we were building an actual church building we would first lay a foundation.  Of course as Christians we have basic foundational issues- God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, Prayer, Bible, etc.  We have a 2000 year old heritage that while we have differed on specifics we believe in God, faith, Christ, etc.  Then each denomination then has its own foundational issues as well.  Baptists have their own distinctivies (while distinct to Baptists are not only Baptist and other ‘tribes’ may also carry some of these).  Walter Shurden has described Baptists has having four fragile freedoms- Bible freedom, Individual Freedom (Soul Freedom/Priesthood of the Believer, Church Freedom (Autonomy of the Church), and Religious Freedom (Separation of Church and State).

Some would again argue- so what?  We are post-denominational so what does it matter?  Denominations as human institutions are often dying or going through great change.  Yet the tribes they represent will not disappear.  The Baptist tribe is not found in one denomination but many and in churches that are not even a ‘denomination.’   The same is said for Methodists.  Even if the United Methodist denomination closed its doors the legacy of John Wesley would not die and that tribe would continue to express the Christian faith in unique ways.  On and on this discussion could go.  In the American Episcopal Church there are those who are pulling out over the issue of homosexuality.  In fact the Anglican church in North America is attempting to be official in the eyes of the global Anglican community.  I would wager that they will eventually find this support but even if the global Anglican community refuses to do this they will not disappear but continue unofficially in the Anglican tribe.

Are these tribes bad?  No!  Each Christian tribe brings good things to the table.  For me as a Baptist the core of being Baptist that is found within our DNA is that of freedom.  We practice believer’s baptism out of a desire to declare that all are free and we must personally accept Christ and be baptized by our choice.  Baptists have stood for religious freedom and have continued to refuse to have an official power that oversees each local church because freedom is the way we best can express our faith.  I realize we aren’t the only tribe to push for freedom but it is why we do what we do.

Baptists have resisted creeds from our beginning.  We refuse to mix politics and church.  We want our members to have a voice and vote.  This is why Baptists vote on budgets, officers, new members, and everything else.  It is why we pick our own pastors.  It’s why we have busienss meetings.  It’s so much of who we are and while we aren’t perfect it’s the way we do things.

As a Baptists I don’t want one person or a body within or without to control the church.  God is our boss and together we work to figure out God’s direction for our church.

All of this is our right and yet it is our responsibility.  We are to be responsible and we do this by our support, prayer, and involvement in our church and God’s work.

And so here we are.  We lay our foundation and from that we’ll build what we do but we must remember who we are and why we do what we do.  Our beliefs matter!

If being Baptist doesn’t matter anymore we need to go and spray paint that word off of all our church signs.  I believe it still matters.

Having said that let me quickly add that we don’t have it all figured out and we can learn from other tribes.  We also have some within our tribe who have changed the rules and while still called Baptist tend to do it different.

Some Baptists mix politics and don’t mind telling you who to vote for but this isn’t being Baptist!  Some Baptists try to have the pastor run the church or create a elder group to run the church but this isn’t Baptists.  Some Baptists try to tell other church bodies what they can and can not do within their own congregations but this is not Baptist.

Being Baptist allows for much diversity.  We have fundamentalist, conservative, evangelical, moderate, and liberal Baptists.  We have Baptists who are charismatic and Baptists who aren’t.  We have Baptists who are Calvinist and those who aren’t.  We have Baptists who support women in ministry and those who don’t.  We have Baptists who have women deacons and those who don’t.  We have Baptists who have preachers who wear robes, others suits, and others overalls, and some yes women in dresses.  We have Baptists who support educated clergy and those who don’t.  We have Baptists who speak English and many who don’t.  We have Baptists from Albania to Zimbabwee.  We have Baptists in Alabama and Baptists in Russia.  We have them in Possum Trot, NC too.

So we are diverse because we are free.  That’s our DNA and our heritage.  As a recent commercial says, “That’s how we roll.”

Derik