webmaster posted on July 26, 2011 16:59
American Baptists attending the 2011 Biennial in Puerto Rico got an early preview of a groundbreaking venture in “discernment and discovery” for the denomination over the next two years.
“Transformed by the Spirit” is an ambitious initiative of the National Executive Council (NEC) of the denomination, revealing a close 
and creative working relationship among the American Baptist Churches USA, American Baptist Home Mission Societies, American Baptist International Ministries, American Baptist Women’s Ministries, and the Ministers and Missionaries Benefit Board.
Planning for this new process, while initiated by the National Executive Council, has included the Ministers Council, members of the Regional Executive Ministers Council, and a number of local pastors.
The process will engage local congregations across the denomination in a journey of identifying the significant challenges that face our churches, our regions, and our national bodies in today’s culture and wrestling with the changes that will be required of all American Baptists if we are to seize the opportunities of this still new century.
“The church has always faced the challenge of making the transforming truth of the Gospel relevant to ever-changing times, but the issue of relevancy is particularly acute today,” said Virginia Holmstrom, executive director of American Baptist Women’s Ministries. “I am encouraged that the discernment and discovery work will engage all of us--women and men, clergy and laity--to discern how we shall bear witness to the good news of Jesus Christ in our communities and world.”
In a planning document shared with the General Board following the Biennial, the NEC declared: “The living Spirit of Christ is at work among American Baptists in the midst of these changes. God has not abandoned us. The Spirit, we believe, is actually using many of these disruptions to invite us to recover our heritage as Baptists. This includes reclaiming our posture of living as a people of faith who are on a journey of seeking to participate in God’s mission in the world, wherever that mission takes us.”
Executive Director of the Ministers Council, Joe Kutter, expressed that “Creating conversations and connections among many different people can be difficult and messy, but the ‘Transformed by the Spirit’ initiative gives me confidence that we American Baptists are up to this important task. We will likely discover the Holy Spirit in us and among us and in the world as we travel on this journey together. I am very hopeful.”
Over the coming months, plans for “Transformed by the Spirit” will be refined and invitations will be extended to local churches, offering their clergy and lay leaders the opportunity to participate. The process will ask participating congregations to resist quick and easy answers and to embrace the task of learning what “adaptive changes” God is seeking from American Baptists. “I enthusiastically and strongly support this new transition in American Baptist life, and I look forward to taking part with the congregation of First Baptist, Washington, DC,” said Jeff Haggray, pastor.
“I have hope that the discovery process in consultation with Alan Roxburgh and Craig Van Gelder will reinvigorate American Baptist congregations for the 21st century. I support the process because (1) it is intentionally based on the work of the Spirit of God and is not just another business initiative, (2) it is primarily focused on the congregation, and (3) it has the potential for bringing clear focus and constructive purpose to the newly-formed Mission Table,” said Dwight Stinnett, regional executive minister, Great Rivers Region and president of the Regional Executive Ministers Council.
Start-up financial support for the initiative is coming from the national organizations represented on the NEC. As the coordinated effort moves forward, contributions will be sought from individuals, congregations, foundations and others.
“This is a Kairos moment in our journey together as a denominational family,” said Roy Medley, general secretary. “We are being provided an opportunity to practice being the church in a new way that will allow the Spirit some fresh space in our call to be the hands and feet of Christ. Let us say yes!”
The American Baptist family will be kept fully informed as the process unfolds. The results of the denomination-wide process will be presented at the “Mission Summit” of the 2013 Biennial in Overland Park, Kansas, where the newly established “Mission Table” will have this broad input from the churches as it convenes to forge networks around shared mission priorities.