Don't mess with Baptists

Baptists began in the middle of controversy, fighting for ideas that seemed “radical” at the time. Some of those ideas still seem radical to some people, even in our time. One of these is the priesthood of the believer.

Built on the concept of soul competency – each person is free and responsible in his or her relation with God – the concept of priesthood of the believer is that, if you are free and responsible in your relationship with God, then you cannot and should not attempt to force your interpretation on my interpretation of the Bible. You are free, under the guidance of God’s Holy Spirit, to arrive at an interpretation of a Scripture passage that may be totally different from mine.

The second part of this concept is that each believer is a priest (seem strange to you?); you and I, and the pastors, and the presidents of seminaries, and the child sitting beside you, are all gifted by God in some way to minister to others, and we are equally charged with the responsibility of doing just that.

What does this mean to us as worshipers? As we read and study scripture, the Holy Spirit speaks to each believer and helps the believer understand the meaning of God’s word for their lives. The person sitting next to us may hear it differently, but that’s the Baptist way. No one is to force his or her understanding upon others. This can be confusing for some people! But Dr. Reggie Warren, in his presidential address to the Baptist General Association of Virginia, said, “When you say you believe in the priesthood of believers, you recognize and respect that priesthood in others, even when you don’t agree with them…you stand by your principles because you know that imposed or manipulated faith is not authentic faith, and that for all the problems that our freedoms permit, they do not compare to the problems that imposed, legislated, manipulated religiosity causes.”

A second part of the opportunity and responsibility presented by this idea of the priesthood of the believer is that we are each gifted by God “for the building up of the church.” This includes worship.

Some of us sing, some play parts in dramas, some play instruments, some proclaim the Gospel in words, some have a heart sensitive to lead us all in prayer, some may dance, write poetry, paint pictures, welcome strangers, arrange flowers, create a worshipful space, hold a child, clean a sink, mop a floor, edit a newsletter – all of our gifts can and should be used to worship God and to help others worship. We are all equal before God – no gift is more important than another.

What is your gift?

How can you use your gift in worship to honor God and bless the lives of others?

Finding church in the likely and unlikely places

"How do you define CHURCH?"

An elder "patriarch" at my former church's congregational meeting asked that question. The prevailing answer was the old Baptist standard: "A body of baptized believers."

Heads nodded affirmation. Then I "stirred the pot" when I stood and exclaimed, "You just erased all the preschoolers, most children, several youth, regular attenders and guests, who have not yet been baptized!" A lively discussion ensued

Consider your thoughts based upon a former church tradition you observed as a member, and compare them to your current practice.

As you do, ponder what is running through the mind of child…as she enters and exits with “the light” as an acolyte….as he reads scripture in public….as she listens to the sermon or sings in her choir…as he observes baptism and communion….as she plays and learns in the “worship care room," etc.

How do you think God receives such children as they participate in worship?

How do you view your role as a follow worshipper with such young people?

Our church has stated, “Children should be valued as a vital giving and receiving presence in our worshiping congregation, not as passive or frustrating observers. They are naturally spiritual with 'deep' thoughts about God and unrehearsed responses to God."

Silence is pewder

Mother Teresa wrote:

“We cannot put ourselves directly in the presence of God if we do not practice internal and external silence.

“In silence we will find new energy and true unity. Silence gives us a new outlook on everything.

“The essential thing is not what we say but what God says to us and through us. In that silence, He will listen to us; there He will speak to our soul, and there we will hear His voice.

“Listen in silence because if your heart is full of other things you cannot hear the voice of God. But when you have listened to the voice of God in the stillness of your heart, then your heart is filled with God…

“What is essential is not what we say but what God tells us and what He tells others through us. In silence He listens to us; in silence He speaks to our souls. In silence we are granted the privilege of listening to His voice.”

Silence, as important as it is, takes practice and intentionality. How can we practice silence both individually and as community?

Dude, Beam me up

When we visit family in Florida, we often attend a church which is a satellite of a mega-church in Ft. Lauderdale.

After local announcements, singing accompanied by a live band, and prayer led by the satellite’s pastor, a giant screen descends from the ceiling. At that point, we see and hear the sermon being delivered by the pastor of the parent church some thirty miles away. It is always a great sermon, and we get the same message as if the preacher were actually in the sanctuary with us, but, for me, something is lost.

This idea, taken to the extreme, would make it possible for a few dozen preachers to deliver sermons to all of the churches in the country on Sunday morning.

With today’s technology, we could even watch from home in high definition without having to drive to the meetinghouse. We could time-shift, allowing us to watch when it is convenient for us, freeing us from a rigid time schedule.

This is all technically possible, but would it be church?

Teleconferencing is common in business today, and some people are able to telecommute, doing their jobs from home without ever going to an office, but could we telecommute to church? I think not.

There is something special about coming together in the presence of each other and of our pastor which technology can never replace. Progress is inevitable and we should embrace it when it serves us, but may we never allow it to displace that which is fundamental to our lives.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

The Whole World in our Hands

“Christian tradition has assumed, given that we are creatures who live in a good creation, that whatever is ‘ours’ is so only as gift, grace. Therefore goods are rightly seen as first of all goods that are in common.” (Hauerwas and Willimon)

So, what is ours and what is not?

That seems to be the underlying question surrounding giving. And as much as we may say we believe that all that we have is truly God’s and not ours, our behavior typically says otherwise.

Yet, giving is central in worship. Giving is a way we claim that we are not formed as the world, but instead we are formed by the people of God.

As Marva Dawn so eloquently wrote in "An Unfettered Hope," we are formed by the one “who at his birth was laid in a manger, in his adult life had nowhere to lay his head, and at his death was laid in a borrowed tomb.”

How you see your personal giving and our corporate giving as an act of worship?

Holy Whispers

“Life outlined with prayer is less likely to unravel.” Several years ago my sister cross stitched this expression, framed it, and blessed my birthday with it. It still hangs above my breakfast table as a visual reminder to keep me open to communication with God. A communication that is two-way. Prayer involves talking to God about moments of joy and moments of heartache; but, just as importantly, it involves listening to God.

“Be still and know that I am the Lord, “ the psalmist urges his readers to live in God’s presence, to listen to the holy whispers God breathes into our being. Knowing God and spending some quiet time in listening gives me a chance to have rewoven the unraveled pieces of my life.

I remember how delicious it was to hold whispered conversations with a best friend as I was growing up. There was the feeling that we could meet any challenge with confidence because we were together. This power of affirmation is multiplied when I live in an awareness of God’s presence; when I whisper my thanks to God, my need for help.

The pressures of aging parents, rebellious children, self-doubt—of living in a hectic culture—snatch at the threads of my sanity. Prayer helps me to keep the threads of my life from unraveling. Does prayer give you affirmation, forgiveness, peace?

Hymns of the heart

Hymns and songs of the faith speak to me in a profound way. I will often recall a verse or a line of a hymn instead of a passage of scripture when I need comfort, or face a difficult situation.

The composers of hymns have varied backgrounds and the stories behind the hymn are wonderful to read. The composition of a hymn often comes out of some tragic or life changing situation that has happened to the composer.

One of my favorites is “Great is Thy Faithfulness.” The line which says “strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,” speaks to me in a special way.

Which hymns speak to you where you are?

How has God communicated with you through the words of a hymn?

Sacred Words

It used to be in the South that a good Baptist or Methodist preacher had learn to preach with a big floppy Bible in one hand and a pointing finger in the other. (Wouldn’t hurt if he could grab a handkerchief with his pointing finger every now and wipe the sweat off his brow.) That was preachin’ from the Bible!

The Bible has traditionally been central to worship in Southern culture. Baptists and other Protestants placed a high emphasis on the scriptures in worship. Admittedly, sometimes this was as much prop (the big floppy Bible) as it was substance.

I’ve always thought it odd that some churches that claim to be “Bible-based” hardly read any scripture in worship; whereas a liturgical church, which follows the lectionary, may be reading as many as a half dozen scripture passages throughout worship.

The reading of scripture in worship has a long history in Christianity and Judaism. The Book of Psalms is a collection of prayers, songs and chants to be used in worship. When Jesus attended worship at his hometown synagogue, he was asked to read scripture (the passage was from Isaiah). During the Protestant Reformation Huldrich Zwingli, pastor to the cathedral in Zurich, threw out the artwork, the music and had two-hour long sermons explaining the Bible verse by verse. Within a couple of years the Zurich City Council passed a law that required everyone to attend church at least twice a year. I guess those two-hour, verse-by-verse Bible sermons weren’t too exciting. Protestants have been trying to figure out what to do with the Bible ever since.

How does a congregation worship so that the Bible becomes a conduit of God’s word to all worshipers (pastors included), rather than just the pastor’s private prop to preach at the rest of us?

Is Worship a Verb?

Yes, of course it is. If you’re the type who actually listened in grammar class, you will add that worship is a noun, as well. But is worship really a verb for us? Do we really participate in worship with our entire being, or are we content with spending a pleasant hour with nice people, sitting as passive spectators being entertained by the pastors and musicians?

Leonard Sweet has said, “It is one thing to talk about God. It is quite another thing to experience God.” God longs for us to have that experience as we truly worship.

In his book in his book, Experiential Worship, Bob Rognlien says that “the beauty and wonder of worship is that it is the only thing we can give to God that He does not already have. Worship is the one thing we do exclusively to express our love to God.”

How do we express our love in worship? Jesus said we should love God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength, implying that we should involve our entire beings in worship. How do we do that in church on Sunday morning?

True worship involves action. God initiates the action; God is there before we arrive, wherever we meet to worship. God speaks to us through the power of the Holy Spirit in Scripture, prayer, music, symbol, proclamation, warmth and love of other worshipers around us. God reveals love, grace, comfort, forgiveness, and more.

True worship involves action on our part as we respond to God - through praise, confession, celebration, interceding for others, acknowledging with humility the miracles God has brought to our lives, committing ourselves gratefully to the life of a follower of Christ.

Robert Webber says, “Worship is not something done to us or for us, but by us.”

If we truly want to worship in the way God intends, we must make a conscious choice to involve ourselves physically, mentally, and emotionally, as well as spiritually.

What does that mean to me? What does that mean to you?