Church Letter As Salt In A Wound
While, Southern Baptists dismiss the notion of creeds, we do have a written set of beliefs which congregations may adopt if they so choose. Our beliefs were set forth in 1925 in the publication, The Baptist Faith And Message. Revisions to the original publication were made in 1963, 1998, and lastly in 2000. Constant, from the first Baptist Faith and Message to the most recent, are the introductory statements defining the "statement of the historic Baptist conception of the nature and function of confessions of faith in our religious and denominational life." "(1) That they constitute a consensus of opinion of some Baptist body, large or small, for the general instruction and guidance of our own people and others concerning those articles of the Christian faith which are most surely held among us. They are not intended to add any thing to the simple conditions of salvation revealed in the New Testament, viz., repentance towards God and faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. "(2) That we do not regard them as complete statements of our faith, having any quality of finality or infallibility. As in the past so in the future Baptists should hold themselves free to revise their statements of faith as may seem to them wise and expedient at any time. "(3) That any group of Baptists, large or small have the inherent right to draw up for themselves and publish to the world a confession of their faith whenever they may think it advisable to do so. "(4) That the sole authority for faith and practice among Baptists is the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Confessions are only guides in interpretation, having no authority over the conscience. "(5) That they are statements of religious convictions, drawn from the Scriptures, and are not to be used to hamper freedom of thought or investigation in other realms of life." It’s worth noting that few Christian denominations and no religions that I know of allow groups of believers to develop an independent set of guidelines relevant to a set of beliefs (see part 3 above), if they so choose. For most of my life as a Baptist, I have subscribed to the tenets of our faith, and having completed a study course on the 1963 Baptist Faith and Message, I found it a positive affirmation of my personal faith. I consider it fortunate that I was influenced by the late Dr. W. Levon Moore, who was pastor of First Baptist Church from 1960 to 1974. Dr. Moore held a Th.D. in Church History, and his position on church polity might best be described in circles of Southern Baptists as "moderate." Through a period of social unrest for our nation and our community, Dr. Moore led our congregation to adopt an "open door" policy with respect to racial integration of our membership. However, as with most policies, whether forged by a Federal Government or a local church, what’s written on paper is not always written on ones heart. FBC, Pontotoc is not yet a multi-racial congregation. Throughout my adulthood as a Christian, I have strived to maintain a moderate stance with respect to the politics of Southern Baptists. I have watched in dismay the calculated rise of fundamentalism among Southern Baptists that culminated in the election of Adrian Rogers to head the Southern Baptist Convention in 1979. Once in power, fundamentalists began an effort to purge the Convention of that which they deemed doctrinal error. Not content with removing moderate professors in Christian colleges and seminaries, supported by the Convention, fundamentalists turned their attention to the holiest of books among Southern Baptists, save the Bible, the Baptist Faith and Message. In 2000 the Baptist Faith and Message was amended to include a controversial statement on family stating that "a wife should submit to her husband," as well as points maintaining that interpretation of the Bible by the denomination is placed above that of a believer’s personal relationship with Jesus and that women cannot be senior pastors in Baptist churches. To say that the "new and improved" version of the Baptist Faith and Message rubs me the wrong way is an understatement. It burns as salt in a wound. I wouldn’t like the improved version had it been modified by moderates, but the fact that fundamentalists did so is especially galling. A letter arrived last week from my church informing me that our constitution and bylaws were outmoded and that a resolution from the pastor and the deacon council to adopt the 2000 edition of the Baptist Faith and Message would be presented at the next business meeting and voted upon the following month. Our present constitution and bylaws specify the 1963 version as that which we hold dear. Since Southern Baptists are allowed a certain amount of independence apart from the Convention, there’s no really good reason for our church to update our constitution and bylaws other than the fact that the fundamentalist movement is alive and well at the local level. There’s little chance the anticipated motion will be defeated as most anything proposed by the pastor and deacons is ultimately approved, which may beg the question as to why we even ask the membership to vote. In recent years, my attendance at church business meetings has been abysmal. For nine years, my wife and I were in Greenville every Wednesday and having broken the habit of mid-week prayer meetings and/or business meetings, we simply haven’t made the effort to attend very many of those in recent years. A motion to amend the constitution and bylaws requires a three-fourths majority of those present for passage of the measure. While I don’t expect the measure to fail, I do hold out hope it will not carry unanimously.
Spring Arrives By Carl Wayne Hardeman In the following, RRN reader, master gardner, and columnist, Carl Wayne Hardeman shares his thoughts and observations on the wonders of our natural world. Carl Wayne resides in Germantown, TN, but has a farm in the Hurricane community of Pontotoc County. God's Coloring Book March 27, 2007
"And the more I look around me Spring in all its glorious beauty happened this past weekend in spite of the more than four inch precipitation deficit. With record high level temperatures, plants are blooming early and overlapping with the normal early blooming plants. March came in like a lion with an early strawberry winter and looks to be leaving like a lamb. We started what country folk call fast time three weeks early and are just past the vernal equinox.
We weeded and watered our garden by the railroad tracks, and planted the
last space in the spring garden. All of the sweetcorn is up. Some of the
'taters have peeked out. We hilled them upso they have room to grow large
'taters. The sweetpeas are up sparsely, so we planted the skips. All of the
cabbage is thriving. Contact me if you want an informal tour or a link to online pictures. After gardening on Friday, I went to a Gospel sing near where we used to live, and sat in our old pew behind the people we used to sit behind. We have agreed whoever gets to Heaven first will save the others their seats. It was beautiful a cappella, four part harmony singing. My favorite song was "I'll Fly Away." Sunday we drove to the country to go to church with my in-laws and celebrate his 82nd birthday. There was a noticeable difference in what was in bloom eighty miles south. Locally the forsythia (yellow bells), phlox (thrift), spirea, redbuds, Bradford pears (my granddarlings call them popcorn trees), crabapples, tulip trees, cherry trees, flowering pears, henbit (chickweed), dandelions, tulips, speedwell, clover, iris, azaleas, and Carolina jessamine are in bloom. They overlap the fading buttercups and hyacinths. I have one tomato bloom, but that's a long story. As usual the goldfinches left when the dandelions bloomed as they follow the bloom northward. My wife Mimi has the feeders clean and filled for the first hummingbirds to visit. The first reported sighting for our area was March 20. Farther south the dogwoods and wisteria vines are also in full bloom. We saw whole fields of golden henbit and lilac Speedwell Veronica. Nature was in her full dress glory in the prettiest week of the year. I hope you didn't miss it watching basketball. Readers may contact Carl Wayne at [email protected].
Pine Tree Crosses Heralding Easter I received a link to the following story last year from Sharon Crane. I hesitated to share it without permission, since a few folks object to their work showing up on somebody’s website without their approval. I wrote Wanda of WandasCountryHome.com but she never responded. This year, I found the same article on a different website with a note stating Wanda didn’t respond to their request either. A third website simply stated the author was unknown. Until I learn differently, I’m sticking with "unknown." Personally, I’d never noticed the crosses on pine trees, but since reading the story, I can attest to the fact they do exist. Right now, there are plenty of pine trees with yellow crosses along the roadsides I travel en route to Indianola. Story of the Pine Tree Cross Last April on a Sunday we took one of our "nowhere" drives, my husband was quietly driving a back road. I was occupied in the front passenger seat watching the scenery. I noticed out of the corner of my eye that my husband was straining to look out my window. This startled me, since his eyes should be on the road in front of him. I asked him what he was looking at out the windows, and he quietly replied, "Nothing." His eyes went back to the road in front of him. After a few minutes, I looked over at my husband and noticed a tear running down his cheek. I asked him what was wrong. This time he told me, "I was just thinking about Pop and a story he had once told me." Of course, because it had to do with his Pop I wanted to know the story, so I asked him to share it with me. He said, "When I was about 8 years old, Pop and I were out fishing and that's when he told me that the Pine trees know when it is Easter."
I had no idea what he meant by that, so I pressed him for more information. He continued on... "The Pine trees start their new growth in the weeks before Easter -- if you look at the tops of the Pine trees two weeks before, you will see the yellow shoots. As the days get closer to Easter Sunday, the tallest shoot will branch off and form a cross. By the time Easter Sunday comes around, you will see that most of the Pine trees will have small yellow crosses on all of the tallest shoots." I turned to look out the window and I couldn't believe my eyes. It was a week before Easter, and you could see all of the trees with the tall yellow shoots stretching to Heaven. The tallest ones shone in the sunlight like rows of tiny golden crosses. Author unknown
Bodock Beau The editor fancies himself something of a low-ranking Bible scholar, but he would have failed miserably if the following were put in the form of a fill-in-the-blank test. Smiles from the Bible
It doesn't hurt to have a little biblical humor to start the day......
Q. Who was the greatest female financier in the Bible?
Q. Who was the greatest comedian in the Bible?
A. Moses. He broke all 10 commandments at once.
Q. Who is the greatest baby-sitter mentioned in the Did you know it's a sin for a woman to make coffee? Yup, it's in the Bible. It says, "He-brews"
Shared by Sharon Crane. Copyright © 2000 - 2007 RRN Online.
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Southern
Baptists are a peculiar sort, unlike any other denomination of Christians.
We are not a creedal people, preferring to allow the individual to determine
his or her beliefs based upon the revelations received from the Holy Spirit,
and we are not bound by confessions of faith or creeds. We are so independent
in this regard that we will allow any group of Southern Baptists to govern
themselves as they see fit.
