The New Baptist Covenant Required Reading Series

If you're a first time reader and have found my blog via Baptists Today, let me first say Welcome to www.thebigdaddyweave.com! I am The Big Daddy Weave. More biographical info including my e-mail address can be found to your right under my picture with fellow Baptist and Civil Rights hero, Rep. John Lewis of Georgia.

Instead of re-writing a column on why I am excited about the upcoming Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant or why the NBC is an important event, I'm going to point you to a three-part series published recently in Report from the Capital, a monthly publication of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty.

In the October edition of RFTC, Dr. Jimmy Allen penned an article entitled The Importance and Urgency of the New Baptist Covenant. Noting that the last time a meeting of all kinds of Baptists came together to "worship, plan, and prioritize our witness in the world" was in 1814 at the Triennial Convention, Allen describes this week's Celebration as "unprecedented" and "long overdue." I agree. You can read Dr. Jimmy Allen's article here.

And in this month's issue of RFTC, Dr. Emmanuel McCall, past national moderator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and vice president of the Baptist World Alliance, has contributed a piece entitled WHEN ALL GOD'S CHILDREN GET TOGETHER: A Perspective On The New Baptist Covenant. McCall lists six promising reasons why the Celebration will be a success. He notes that:

While there have been other attempts to overcome the racial and social barriers among Baptists in the south, none are as promising as The New Baptist Covenant. It has the advantage of building on past attempts, learning from past mistakes, having new persons in significant leadership of the various representative bodies; the support of social, educational and political progress; and the desire to see the Church live up to divine expectations.

Finally, saving myself for last, I -The Big Daddy Weave - authored what was the second-part of this incredible three-part series. My article which was included in the November/December issue was named: Soul Freedom and the New Baptist Covenant. Here's a snippet:

Just 100 years ago, Baptist minister Walter Rauschenbusch, the father of the Social Gospel Movement, penned a series of five brief articles titled “Why I Am A Baptist.” Rauschenbusch wrote: “We may be Baptists by birth, but we must become Baptists by conviction. ...I began by being a Baptist because my father was, but today I am a Baptist, because, with my convictions I could not well be anything else.”

Like Rauschenbusch, I too am the son of a Baptist minister. And like Rauschenbusch, I was also “born” a Baptist. But even after experiencing the coercion and forced conformity of fundamentalism firsthand, I remain a Baptist because of my convictions. At the heart of those convictions is what prominent early 20th century Baptists, E.Y. Mullins and G.W. Truett, referred to as “soul competency,” and James Dunn dubbed “soul freedom.” Walter Shurden has stated that soul freedom is the “stackpole around which Baptist convictions develop.” In the words of Rauschenbusch himself, “The Christian faith, as Baptists hold it, sets spiritual experience boldly to the front as the one great thing in religion.” Indeed, if there is one tie that binds us Baptists together, it is our belief that each person has the freedom, ability, and responsibility to respond to God directly without a human mediator. No priest. No bishop. No magisterium. And definitely no spiritual masters.

If you've already read this series of articles - my apologies. I'll have more on Tuesday. And beginning on Wednesday, I'll be livebloggin the Celebration along with the Baptists Today Team. So come back often, comment in the post or send me an e-mail.