I recently had a good experience with the American Baptist (see post below). And now comes the Baptimergent an Emergent Baptist Network (cool).
We confess that we’re Baptist but we look around and see only two options; moderate/liberal or conservative. We don’t really identify totally with either one. We respect our heritage as Baptists. We value the competency of a person to work out their faith before God without coercion from an ecclesial authority or from the government. We also think that the strength of kingdom mission is in the local congregation, and is best sustained by free association. We also think that the Bible is best understood with Jesus as the hermeneutical guide. When we think of baptism we think of going down to the river for a full bodied washing.
While we value these Baptist destinctives, we are in no way inclined to value our Baptist identity over anyone else’s religious identity. It just happens to be the family of faith we were reared in, but we feel no need to make anyone else in our religious image.
We also have no stake in the fight that has defined many of us for the last forty years. No one has God or theology figured out and finished. The hubris of our recent forefathers who have wasted the last four decades fighting over who is most Baptist or most right is embarrassing. Especially when world events such as South African Apartheid, Latin American Disappearances, Rwandan Genocide, Darfurian Genocide, Middle Eastern war, global poverty, and climate change have dominated the landscape in those decades. Being the most right Baptist, or even the most right Christian is laughable in the face of these world issues.
We are Baptists, but we are dreaming of new ways of living that identity. Something more kingdom-of-God now, rather than later. Something with a lot more room for others, be they Christian or not. Something more than church on Sunday and Wednesday night. Something that hasn’t been co-opted by a political agenda, but still maintains its prophetic edge.
If this confession resonates with you then you will most likely find this blog and its community of friends encouraging engaging, and empowering. You may find that to be the case even if this confession doesn’t resonate. Whether you identify as Baptist, Emergent, both, or neither, you are welcome to interact with us via this site.
Welcome to the Emergent Baptist Network, a.k.a. “Baptimergent.”
Files under Baptimergent, Baptist, Uncategorized, emergent |
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I more missional persuaded but I am very familiar with the seeker/attractional church model. This morning my wife and I visited an American Baptist church, a congregation one of my wife’s friends attends. I wanted to go online and research American Baptist this afternoon but I decided not to do that. Sometimes I think it might be best the less we knew about the inner workings (some might call it politics) and the history of the thousands of faith heritages in America. As expected, the people were very friendly and helpful. But oh my, was it a throwback to the 1980s—traditional church, choir, special choir, and the organ (at the same time I found a reverence there that seemed to be missing in the attractional church). Ok, how about some thoughts from the American Baptist out there. Do you guys do internet?
Files under Baptist, Church, traditional |
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According to Rex Miller most church leaders typically spend up to 50% of their time preparing for Sundays, 25% of their time in various staff and leadership meetings, and the remaining 25% putting out fires and dealing with dysfunctional members. Leaders have to meet with people by appointment, cover their agendas, take care of their checklists, and touch all bases. Relationships become a functional way to complete objectives. And if they can accomplish more than one thing at a time, then all the better.
taken from The Millennium Matrix
Files under anxiety, busyness, leadership |
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Tony Jones started the wheels turning with his post “Pursuing Jesus’ Dream for the World.”
Tony makes a great point when he says “it is unfortunate that the church has changed its motto from ‘What is Jesus’ Dream for the World’ to the much more self-referential, ‘A Place to Grow in Christ and Serve the World.’”
Files under Church, Jesus |
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Being an editor for an online magazine affords me the pleasure of receiving more books than any one person could read and review in an expected time frame. But I remain hopeful that every book that quietly sit, jaggedly stacked in the corner next to my bookshelf will one day soon, be reviewed before becoming media for the historical archives.
The one book that caught my eye and seductively lured me in its direction was “Not the Religious Type: Confessions of a Turncoat Atheist.” I’m not familiar with Dave Schmelzer, a former playwriter and atheist, now pastor in the Vineyard heritage somewhere near Cambridge, Mass., but he has an interesting “no-bar, open style of writing.”
In one chapter headed “How M. Scott Peck Saved My Life” Schmelzer has some interesting analogies on the ‘deeply religious’ and the ‘not-so-religious’ who end up in therapy. He comments that often the deeply religious leave their religion after being helped while the not-so-religious find faith as a result of being helped. Schmelzer spends the remainder of this chapter unpacking his discovery. Interesting stuff.
In the not too distant future you’ll be able to read a complete review of this book at New Wineskins Magazine. Also in the May-June issue of New Wineskins (Politics and Faith) will be my conversation with Newt Gingrich.
Files under Interviews, book review, politics |
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Mike Cope, one of three senior editors emeritus at New Wineskins Magazine presents anecdotal evidence for the deep faith of Hillary Clinton. And while he’s at it, Mike gives sage advice for those who would get rowdy, loud, and excited during politico season. As Mike says,
“when vigorous political discourse turns into bashing of public figures, it perpetuates a great lie: that they are merely the ideologies and symbols attached to them. When a candidate’s ideology is mistaken for his or her personhood, it masks a crucial truth: that each person, no matter their political views, bears God’s image and matters deeply to him.”
Thanks for the be-good reminder Mike! You can read the complete post [here]
By chance or providence I happened to be on vacation when my wife and I visited the Pine Valley Church of Christ in Wilmington, NC. It just so happened that on that same day Mike Cope preached his inaugural sermon at his new church home. Mike couldn’t have been older than 25 years. He had a beautiful young family to support him in this newly accepted position at the Pine Valley Church. I’m sure there were the good times as well as the bad. Mike if you happen to stumble on this correct me where I’m wrong.
Files under Hillary Clinton, How to Live, Mike Cope, Political Correctness, Presidential Canidates, blogging, conventional church, creative, democrate, influence, politics, republican |
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Over at Jesus Manifesto.com Michael Cline writes an article every voter should read. Although not the main point of the article Mr. Cline makes an astute observation, of which the reader can easily overlook if not careful–Western Christianity’s one hundred year failure; cultural-driven exchanged for cultural relevance.
Rather than express Christian revelation in a way that is specific and adequate to the social realities in which we live, as Jacques Ellul writes, the Church too often “looks for ways to adapt Christianity to the dominant intellectual and sociological trend.” As a result, we guarantee ourselves a “small place in the new social order.”
Read the article The New Christians Kool-Aid
Files under Barack Obama, Culture, attractional church, future church |
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1 Comment »
There are a couple of challenging reads I want to suggest to the readers out there. The first is a short 16 page download. You can get it for $1.00. Not bad.
Here’s a brief review:
The line between American culture and Biblical conviction has been irrevocably blurred since the Pilgrims and Puritans made landfall on our shores. The sad fact of Christianity in the United States is that our theology has been more informed by the culture than the reverse. If anyone has any doubts, Fred puts them to rest using the example of our country’s preoccupation with alcohol consumption. When we have otherwise intelligent scholars trying to convince us that Jesus turned the water into the oxymoronic “non-alcoholic” or “non-intoxicating” wine, it is high time to acknowledge that our culture is driving our theology rather than our theology being based on sound Bible study. –Rick Chromey; Kentucky Christian University
Abstinence or Moderation? : Liberty or Law? [link to a dollar download]
The second offering is a 116 page book that
Jim Henderson of Off The Map called the “best missional book on the market.” It an easy read with lots of stories and one of the first books by an emergent that can claim to be more a construct than deconstruct. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. You can find a link to the book on the left side bar near the bottom of this page. Just start scrolling down…
Files under Culture, bible, book review, missional |
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