…and more specifically Southern Baptists. Today I led a discussion in our Sunday School class on what it means to be a Baptist. I go to Hyde Park Baptist Church in Austin, TX. I teach a class of young couples with kids, who, I learned this morning, are from a bit more diverse denominational background than I assumed.
We had a great discussion and I took us through some general church history to help understand the genealogoy of our denomination. The good, bad and ugly were all discussed. I assumed that many of the members, before we even started down the history and distinctive doctrines, would rather not be identified with our denomination as much as with Christ and I was right. In other words, they mostly were hesitant to even call themselves ‘Baptists’, but readily took the name Christian. I’m pretty much the same way. Interestingly, I think it would have been a very different response 20 years ago. Not that folks would shy away from the title Christian but they would have much more readily taken on the Baptist name.
I hope that has more to do with wanting to be indentified with Christ as a whole rather than just a subsection of His body, and wanting to break down the walls separating true believers. I hope it has less to do with a culture so increasingly focused on the individual that we are more and more reluctant to identify with groups or communities out of pride, or because we are just ignorant of the historical and doctrinal differences between Baptists and other denominations so we don’t see much of a distinction anyway.
If you’ve never seen the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message , click the link and check it out. I thought it was really well done and was ashamed that I had never read it until recently. There is one question I have, though: it affirms the separation of church and state partially based on the grounds that individuals should not be compelled by law to adhere to any certain religious beliefs or practices. However, there is also a section that states that we should influence the state and it’s laws to reflect Christian morality. Is it just me or do you see a big potential conflict looming there? But that is another thought for another post on another day.
PEACE,
casey
theos centered thinking 