wfn.org | ABCUSA: Medley - Focus on Mission as 'Bridge People in a World of Wall-Builders'

["SCHRAMM, Richard" <Rich.Schramm@abc-usa.org>]

American Baptist News Service (Green Lake, Wis. 11/20/04)--American Baptist
Churches USA General Secretary the Rev. Dr. A. Roy Medley challenged General
Board representatives here yesterday "to provide a common missional
direction" for their denomination and to be "bridge people in a world of
wall-builders."

"Mission has knit us together over the years as autonomous churches, regions
and organizations to accomplish wonderful things for Christ," Medley said. 
"It has inspired our imagination.  At our best we are a missional people,
energizing our world for the sake of the Gospel."

Citing the election-time media delineation of sociological division into
"red" and "blue" states, Medley referenced Galatians 3:28:  "I wondered
whether Paul, if penning that verse today, would have been inspired to write:
'neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female,
neither red nor blue, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.'...   For many
observers of the church in North America the question is whether red and blue
will trump 'one in Christ.'"

The question we must address, he said, is "whether we will mirror our society
in this latest embodiment of alienation" or serve "as a countercultural
community of reconciliation that allows us to move from division to unity....
  Our heritage of responding to God's gracious invitation--through the hard
work of bridging race-ethnicity, bridging evangelical-ecumenical, bridging
male-female--has prepared us for the unique opportunity and God-given
responsibility to be a community that builds bridges across even this divide.

 
"The work of reconciliation is a sacred calling, for it is uniquely God's
work in Christ Jesus.  The work of reconciliation is a costly calling, for it
is rooted in cross-bearing love.  The work of reconciliation is a joyous
calling, for it provides the sacred space where God's grace can free people
to risk to move from division to unity, from enmity to love, from red or blue
to red and blue. 
 
"To undertake this holy calling requires of us several things:

"That we be centered in Christ as the common focus of our lives.  Apart from
him we can do nothing.	Through him we can do all things.  It is only as we
offer ourselves more fully to him that our hearts and arms can be enlarged to
receive one another.  Only as we walk with him that we discover ourselves
walking with each other.  Only as we share in his life that we share each
other's lives.

"That love and compassion are the rule of life for us.	This is the supreme
mark of Christ's community of disciples.  Love is not sentimentality.  It is
the will to determine that in spite of what I believe you deserve, I will
value you as God has valued you.  And God has already determined your value
in the death of Jesus for you...."

Throughout our history American Baptists "have been Christians of the bridge"
who have sought "the reconciling power of the Gospel to trump" divisions of
race, theological understanding and culture, Medley said.  "In our common
life as Baptists, we have a tradition that grants to the majority the right
to be the voice of the local church or the denomination and say, 'this is how
we discern the mind of Christ' on any given matter.  I support the freedom of
the majority to state their discernment.  At the same time we have also
accorded to those who dissent the freedom to challenge the majority, knowing
that when prophets do arise they are seldom a product of a majority opinion. 
And I support the freedom to dissent as essential to the authority of
scripture."

"I urge you, dear friends, focus on the mission; center yourselves in
Christ;...even as we struggle with one another and with scripture hold
fiercely to one another as Christ has held to us [and] trust God to give us
the tools to listen, discern, respect.

"Be a bridge people.  Be a bridge people in a world of wall builders.  Let
this continue to be our sacred calling."

Note: The complete text of General Secretary Medley's General Board address
will be posted on the American Baptist Churches USA Web site-www.abc-usa.org.

Medley

K/2004ABNS/04ABN127

American Baptist News Service: Office of Communication, American Baptist
Churches USA, P.O. Box 851, Valley Forge, PA 19482-0851; (800)ABC-3USA x2077
/ (610)768-2077; fax: (610)768-2320; www.abc-usa.org;
richard.schramm@abc-usa.org