Why Baptist?
The term 'Baptist' means many things to many people, and because we embrace our Baptist heritage as an important part of our identity, we want to share what it means (and doesn't mean) for us.
First and foremost, it means that all (yes, all) are invited to join us on the journey. Our gathered community and our Communion Table are open.
At FBCN we embrace the radical paradigm for life together that Baptists gave us: we don't endorse what the loudest Baptist voices may have done with it.
We embrace it because:
The freedom of a Baptist congregation from any official creed or institutional hierarchy makes space for open questions and vigorous discussion. We embrace the Baptist commitment to search the scriptures for ourselves. We want to think critically about religion---especially our own--but want it to touch our hearts and acts as well as our heads.
Baptists have a love affair with Jesus and the Bible at the center of their lives, and so do we. We know Baptists can be obnoxious about it. Our love affair is a stormy one. It's a gift we keep receiving, not a message we're trying to sell. We neither run from Christ nor think we own him. To us, learning to love well in the way of Jesus is more important than your church or non-church background, what kind of language you use, what gender your partner is, or how you dress.
Baptists are famously suspicious of the "institutional church," and we're seeking to build relationships and experience transformation more than to run programs or support an institution.
The freedom of a Baptist congregation means that we can draw on all strands of the Christian tradition, ancient and new, and any sources of wider wisdom as we grow our worship and life together.
Baptists were long persecuted by governments and other churches, and became advocates of religious liberty for all. We hope we can learn to identify with the oppressed and the scapegoated in our times, to witness to the way of justice and peace.
We value these things because they help us become the kind of community and people we want to be. We are thankful to those who passed them on to us. But what we received is bigger than the label.