Emergent Baptist network

I (Rod Benson) came across the following Facebook group and thought it well worth posting to the blog. As at 2.00 pm today there were 234 members. If you're not registered on Facebook, I understand that you can read the main sections of the group page, but you can't post to the group. If you'd like more information about Facebook see http://www.nswchurches.com/content/MinistryTools.aspx


Emergent Baptists
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=23945605153

I confess that I am Baptist but I look around and see only two options; moderate/liberal or conservative. I don't really identify totally with either one. I respect my heritage as a Baptist. I value the competency of a person to work out their faith before God without coercion from an ecclesial authority or from the government. I also think that the strength of kingdom mission is in the local congregation, and is best sustained by free association. I also think that the Bible is best understood with Jesus as the hermeneutical guide. When I think of baptism I think of going down to the river for a full bodied washing.

While I value these Baptist destinctives, I am in no way inclined to value my Baptist identity over anyone else's religious identity. It just happens to be the family of faith I was reared in, but I feel no need to make anyone else in my religious image. I also have no stake in the fight that has defined us for the last forty years. No one has God or theology figured out and finished. The hubris of my recent forefathers who have wasted the last four decades fighting over who is most Baptist or most right is embarrassing and not worth my time or attention. Especially when world events such as South African Apartheid, Latin American Disappearances, Rwandan Genocide, Darfurian Genocide, Middle Eastern war, global poverty, and climate change have dominated the landscape in those decades. Being the most right Baptist, or even the most right Christian is laughable in the face of these world issues.

I am a Baptist, but I am dreaming of new ways of living that identity. Something more kingdom-of-God now, rather than later. Something with a lot more room for others, be they Christian or not. Something more than church on Sunday and Wednesday night. Something that hasn't been co-opted by a political agenda, but still maintains its prophetic edge.If this confession sounds like you, I want to invite you into that dream via this site. We encourage you to join and post if you are not a Baptist. Your dream will only add to ours and make it richer.