If you are a Baptist one of your Tenants of Faith is…
If you are a Baptist one of your Tenants of Faith is… a relationship with Christ.
(I knew this yet it seems some of those associated with the SBC have forgotten)
I was reading up on the SBC (Southern Baptist Convention).
It seems that I would be a great SBC member… and I even for a time considered SBC for ordination as they are short pastors especially in rural Montana. I have a great friend in Arizona Dr. David Powell, who was ready to write a letter of recommendation if I had decided to pursue that idea… yet, (though many do affirm the gifts of the spirit) I did not want my view of the Gifts of the Spirit to ever come to be an issue. What I mean is that I am a bit too Pentecostal for the SBC. Over all I think they are wonderful Christ centered denomination… in fact as I was looking, I found that one of their emphasis is to bring people to a “relationship with Christ Jesus” and their stand on creeds (thought they consider themselves “creedal”) is that they must be run through the filter of scripture… and to that I say “RIGHT ON!” as this is what I teach.
I was really a bit shocked over their view of ministers…
“Ministers
Within the Southern Baptist Convention, the licensing and ordination of ministers is a local church matter.
There is no denominational ordination service. The list of Southern Baptist ministers is simply a compilation from the reports of the churches. The Southern Baptist convention neither frocks nor defrocks ministers.”
Which then seems really strange to have been attacked by someone from that denomination over what they claim is my “fraudulent ordination”. As UCMI (see link on right links section) basically does this, only from a national level then after a years probation gives one full status of “ordination”. And after these steps are fulfilled and some educational steps are fulfilled one can then request for a church charter… really it would have been much easier for me to become a Baptist pastor!
All in all this journey of faith that brought me to Billings to plant a church has been a real adventure. The 2 years of struggles to get a fellowship going and then find my current place as an intern and one the ministry leadership team at Billings Vineyard truly shows me God was in the vision of the church plant, and not just by doing it myself, but with Godly mentorship that I was seeking through UCMI. God is good… He will complete the task He has for you, me or anyone to do that He lays on one’s heart. Continue to be faithful to that vision that God has given you… and if you are not sure if He has, pray that your eyes and ears and mostly your heart is opened to His Calling. In spite of slanderous attacks God has preserved me, in fact I have been seeing more and more fruit out of this as more people come to me and say they appreciate what God is doing through me… that is not meant to sound arrogant, as I mean it to only point to Jesus to bring Him more Glory.
I anticipate God doing great things… God is moving mightily already in Billings Vineyard. I will say that I have never been part of a church that has allowed me to be me… meaning to be able to freely express my faith in Christ without hiding things or gifts like tongues or when I was part of the AoG that I believe in eternal security. Mostly I have found friendship with the people at Billings Vineyard and people that truly love the people of Billings…
All this I count as blessings upon blessings… and hope out of all this to be able to focus more on blessings other and focus on ways to do just that by the Power of God.
Blessings to all!
iggy
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2 comments:
Saying that we should run creeds through the filter of scripture sounds great but is a tad glib. Say the Apostles Creed for example, don't you think they would have run it through the filter of scripture when they wrote it? And if not why not. And what part of scripture are we going to use, just our own interpretation and emphasis? One thing that amazes me is that the Apostles Creed does not mention the Bible at all in it interestingly. I wonder what kind of creed an American Evangelical would write today? My hunch it would be quite different from the early church.
Enjoy your blog
www.everyhomeachurch.blog.co.uk
The Apostle's creed is one of the most basic of the creed... in it simplicity is I think why some over look it.
I think you understand what I mean... the progression of this "filter" (which first is more like the filter on a camera than say a oil filter which removes contaminates), is that we must have a relationship with Jesus, then interact objectively/subjectively in that relationship, and then enter scripture...
Again, we must also be careful to not add to the context of scripture as we often take it out of its historical context, and try to fit it in some later context.
As far as the creeds again, their relevance is in their historic context… some may read and see “Catholic Church” and see in it Roman Catholicism. Which it is not saying at all, it is saying “universal church”, which is denied by the Independent Fundamental Baptists…
Again, I am often writing from a broad brush… and openly admit that as it would take quite a bit more than 5 or 6 paragraphs to discuss even that one statement. Suffice it to say I am often accused of having a low view of scripture, which I really don’t in fact most the arguments I have had was over that I take things more literal (as a loathsome liberal emerging church person) than those who seem to think they claim a higher view of scripture than myself yet deny many things as “literal”.
Our relationship with Jesus is the most crucial thing… actually let me rephrase even that, Jesus’ relationships with us is the most important thing… then we can even possible understand scripture enough to run things through it as a “filter”….
OK I am now out of breath…
Thanks for you comments…
Blessings,
iggy
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