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 | |

I am more missionally persuaded but 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 | |

From time to time believers need to step outside of their confining worldview and listen to the worldview of others. There’s a lot we can learn from those we most often preached to but have rarely listened too. The story that follows is taken from the Friendly Atheist Blog run by Hemant Mehta, who in the near future will sit down with me to have a challenging conversation for New Wineskins Magazine.  

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First, the pastor, who can barely get a word in due to his interrupting congregation: When an atheist visits a Baptist church in Mississippi, it’s hard to try and stay objective when social cues are ignored by the congregation and the sermon is full of bigotry against those who are different.
 

The preacher got up to deliver his lesson, but before he got very far, a man stood up to tell everyone how much Jesus helped him with his life. This didn’t seemed planned. This man talked for a few minutes before he sat back down. The preacher spoke about half a sentence when a woman stood up and told everyone about how Jesus solves all our problems. She talked for a few minutes about how Jesus worked in her life and then sat down. I guess this preacher is use to constant interruptions.

And when he finally gets to speak?

To give you an idea of his preaching style, think of Jonathan Edwards’ “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” hyped up on steroids.

Of course he talks about how everything is evil (being gay, killing babies, etc.) but what gets me is this part:

He wanted to bring the Bible and prayer back into our schools. He warned his congregation that if they tried to bring the Bible into schools, the government would oppose them, but do not worry: God will be on side of God, and God’s side always wins.

Ummm… the Bible is allowed in schools. So is prayer. As long as it’s not forced upon everyone. No one’s going to oppose you.

That’s what we call “tolerance.”

This pastor obviously wants none of that, though.

Did atheist Oliver get anything out of this experience?

[The pastor] was stereotypical of everything that non-believers see in Christians: they are loud, obnoxious, ignorant, and filled with prejudice and self-righteous attitudes. It is hard not to stereotype when I’m watching Christian fundamentalism in action.

I suspect things aren’t going to get much better as Oliver treks around MS.

But if you have suggestions for churches in the state that might be a bit more conducive for an atheist visitor, I’m sure they’d be appreciated.

Taken from the Friendly Atheist

 What can we learn from this story? Is there anything to learn?

Files under Baptist, atheism, atheist, worldview | 1 Comment | 1 Comment »

Last week at the New Baptist Covenant Celebration in Atlanta, Georgia; Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Jimmy Carter talked openly about the Southern Baptist Convention’s fault lines, including abortion, gay rights, the ordination of women, clashing accounts of creation, global warming, the death penalty and the separation of church and state. This unprecedented summit drew about 10,000 Anglo, African-American, Asian-American and Hispanic Baptists from 30 North American conventions and organizations linked to the Baptist World Alliance. A quote from former president Clinton’s speech is worth noting:

“Baptist (I would insert Christians) should focus on the verse in the Apostle Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians in which he stresses that it’s impossible to understand everything about God’s will because, in this life, “we see through a glass, darkly.” Clinton stressed, “it almost doesn’t matter whether the Bible is literally true, because we know in part, we see through a glass darkly. Humility is the order of the day. The reason we have to love each other is because all of us might be wrong.”

Preach it Bill! 

Terry Mattingly on Religion

Files under Baptist, Bill Clinton, Church, Presidential Canidates, politics | |