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Note: This essay first appeared in the
February 2008 Baptist Studies Bulletin.
"In my
Father's house are many rooms," Jesus told his followers as recorded
in John 14:2 (NIV).
Jesus also spoke of the Kingdom of God as a present reality,
manifested on earth through the lives and actions of the people of
God. And for a few days in late January and early February, I
glimpsed some of the many rooms that comprise the Baptist family of
God's kingdom in the here and now.
The much-anticipated
New
Baptist Covenant Celebration was certainly a great success,
as some 15,000 Baptists representing 30 Baptist groups throughout
North America came together in a display of unity and common purpose:
embracing and living out the Gospel of Jesus Christ. While the
magnitude and scope of the meeting led many participants to describe
it as unique and groundbreaking, I believe that one of the greatest
benefits of the diverse gathering of North American Baptists is that
it served as an open house in which we were all allowed to wander
around in one another's rooms.
While the Covenant Celebration had shades of a Baptist
World Alliance meeting (after all, it came about under the umbrella of
the BWA's North American Baptist Fellowship), one major difference is
that this meeting demonstrated the nearness of Baptist diversity.
Baptists in North America are a family, living in a figurative house
with diverse rooms, yet sharing a common living area in which we tend
to cluster in our own little corners (if we venture into our shared
living room in the first place).
I'll confess I've not spent nearly enough time exploring
the many rooms in this Baptist house in which I dwell, and too much
time cloistered within my own particular brand of Baptists. Yet the
Covenant Celebration has inspired me to step outside the confines of
my own room and look for more opportunities to listen to and work with
my fellow house dwellers in fulfilling Jesus' commands to minister to
the needy.
We as Baptists all dwell together in a house built by
Jesus Christ. Ignoring one another (intentionally or not) is not in
our collective best interests, nor that of the Gospel. Joining our
diversity into common purpose surely honors the Master Carpenter who
provides us a home whose front door opens onto a hurting and needy
world. Let us now go forth together in the name of Christ. |
