FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH IN NEWTON

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The Baptist Way

2/18/2014

2 Comments

 
The sign out front (on the street and the internet) says “First Baptist Church.”

More than one person who has gotten to know us has asked whether that's really a good idea. Isn't the word “Baptist” a pretty damaged shingle to be hanging out if we value contact with people who aren't sure they like or need church at all? It's a good question. If you played word associations for “Baptist” in the general population you'd probably wait a while before anyone came up with “open-minded” …...or “artistic.”.....or “fun” for that matter. The Southern Baptist Convention is not going to change their name. So maybe we should.

But the Baptist way means a lot to us. We embrace the radical paradigm for life together that Baptists pioneered. Even if we don't endorse what the loudest Baptist voices may have done with it.
 
  We embrace it because:  
 
          We want to think critically about religion - especially our own- but want it to touch our hearts and acts as well as our heads.   The freedom of a Baptist congregation from any creed or institutional hierarchy makes space for open questions and vigorous discussion. We embrace the Baptist commitment to search the scriptures for ourselves.      

         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 known for loving Jesus and the Bible. They can be obnoxious about it. But we have that love affair too. It's a stormy one. It's a gift we keep receiving, not a message we're trying to sell or an answer we have figured out. We don't own Christ, but we're trying to follow him.  

           We are not bound to any single form of worship, including a “Baptist” one! 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 that history can help us learn to identify with the oppressed and the scapegoated in our times, to witness to the way of justice and peace.       
 
            Baptists are famously suspicious of the "institutional church," (see above) , and that seems right for a time when the structures and conventions of churches feel like barriers to many people. We're seeking to build relationships and experience transformation more than to run programs or support an institution.

           We feel that this is a time for innovation and new life in the churches. In the Baptist way, each local congregation has the charge and the chance to reinvent church anew for itself, just as faith has to be claimed again by each generation.

           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. With the label or without, these are things we will keep.   ​
-- Mark Heim
2 Comments
Anita Roberts
2/18/2014 10:24:42 am

I always love the clarity and charity of your essays, dear Mark, and the invitation to think and explore. It's a tricky walk on ice around the edges of the Baptist Pond to embrace both innovation and tradition, and, especially, to embrace "the other,: even the inarticulate and angry, the hurt and the exiled. I would suggest we offer healing, too, to those wounded by "the church," shamed by the church. Perhaps we need some sharing in small groups for those who would crave affirmation after shunning. Thanks for your opening this discussion!

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Eunice Wilson link
2/18/2014 12:45:00 pm

I have been in some of those conversations at FBCN in which people were turned off by the word "Baptist in our title. Also, there is much pride, perhaps mostly from we older persons at FBCN who take pride in the word "Baptist" because we know the true meaning of what it means to be Baptist. So, now we need to begin to think anew of how we can invite and embrace those who don't know what Baptist means, and will not step inside the door of the church because of what it means to them. I would be sad if our name was no longer First Baptist Church in Newton. But, then, I need to ask myself, what if by changing the name, would more folk want to come. And, as always, we need to ask, what is it we want to offer?

This is such a needed discussion. Thank you Mark for approaching it with sensitivity and a true historical and spiritual pride for our past, and for our present.

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848 Beacon Street,  Newton Centre,  MA 02459  - 617-244-2997  -  info@fbcnewton.org

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