Sunday, November 13, 2005
family surprise
You can’t chose your family. At times they sadden you. And every now and again they surprise you and do something TOTALLY unexpected.
I look upon my Baptist denomination as my family. At times they have saddened my and I’ve wondered if I still fit. At our annual Baptist denominational gathering over the weekend, they TOTALLY surprised me. The focus was mission. We explored Acts 15 and Acts 17. The edges were affirmed an new mission was considered. I got so excited, that I moved the following 4 motions on the Baptist Assembly floor. 500 people burst into applause. Our Baptist denomination agreed to the following;
That our (Baptist) assemblies
continue to welcome stories from the edge
That this assembly
charge the (denominational) Church Planting Taskforce to intentionally
resource experimental new forms of missional church
That this assembly
encourage [our denominational seminary] to continue to weave the Acts 15 and Acts 17 Scriptural challenges into Pastoral Leadership Training
That this assembly
ask Consultancy to gather necessary people around the [mission challenges],
with findings sent to all Baptist churches and placed on www.baptist.org.nz
Fantastic. O, that other denominations would think and act in such terms. It feels very hopeful.
Comment by Paul Fromont — November 14, 2005 @ 7:40 am
Yeah! I love when meetings which have the potential to drain all energy and vision actually embrace it. Good on you for catching the wave of the Holy Spirit and that other people jumped on too!
Comment by marion — November 14, 2005 @ 4:01 pm
cool – thanks for being a loyal radical (a phrase a friend of mine bob hopkins uses to describe people who stay on the inside as it were)
Comment by jonny — November 15, 2005 @ 5:30 am
i call baptists my family now too and i often want to disown them. things like this really give me hope for baptists to cling to their heritage and bring the richness of their tradition into the future.
Comment by lucas — November 15, 2005 @ 6:57 am
wow – I heard there were somem changes on the table – maybe it’s time to come home from exile…
Comment by Michael — November 15, 2005 @ 8:57 am