(Re)building community around the Lordship of Jesus

by Peter Green

I agree that the basic premise of Baptist belief and practice is that Jesus crucified and risen is Lord. And I also agree that we must view this in the most radical terms. However, this is not really distinctive of Baptists. That definition could as well apply to, say, Mennonites, and even to many Catholics, with whom we would otherwise part company a rather short distance down the road.One question we should consider is whether there is anything truly distinctive about being Baptist, or whether we only maintain our Baptist identity because of history and inertia. To be radical in our beliefs implies that we have to question our own existence.

Considering what Martin Marty describes as "the Baptistification of the church" (as a whole) it is arguable that other churches have caught up on us sufficiently, and perhaps passed us far enough in the areas we have not emphasised, that we should, in fact, pack our bags and run to join them, rather than maintain a separate identity with the aim of bearing witness to distinctives which no longer distinguish.

I also appreciate Scott Higgins' emphasis on the centrality of Christ rather than of scripture: I see we hold similar views on this subject. I do believe that some of the problems we have experienced in the past arise from an over-emphasis on questions of inspiration and inerrancy, and a lack of focus on Jesus.

I think, overall, that a greater problem for us is our difficulty in moving from a denominational view of identity to questions of what must my local church look like. When I was in theological college, I was concerned that too many both of faculty and of the students had a "Carlingford mentality": that is, that the large churches were doing it right, and that the smaller churches should emulate them. Furthermore, it seemed that the only thing that most Baptist churches need, by this theory, is to do a bit more earnestly what they have always done.

I kept feeling that we really needed -- and still need -- to "reinvent the church" (http://www.silverstreet-au.com/html/reinvent_the_church_.html)

Perhaps we should address this issue of Baptist identity at the point where we Baptists theoretically begin: how must a community centred on Christ live its corporate life in a fallen world?

In a sense this goes back to my previous comment on June Heinrich's introduction to this blog, that what we really need is revival, in the sense of a rebuilding of community around the Lordship of Jesus.

Peter Green is pastor of Silver Street Baptist Mission in Marrickville.