wfn.org | WEISS: REAFFIRM BAPTIST PRINCIPLES

[RICH.SCHRAMM@ecunet.org]

To: wfn-editors@wfn.org

AMERICAN BAPTIST NEWS SERVICE 
Office of Communication  
American Baptist Churches USA 
P.O. Box 851, Valley Forge, PA 19482-0851 
Phone: (610)768-2077 / Fax: (610)768-2320 
Web: www.abc-usa.org
Richard W. Schramm, Director 
 E-mail: richard.schramm@abc-usa.org

WEISS CALLS FOR AFFIRMATION OF 'SPIRIT-FILLED MEN AND WOMEN...
IN ALL AREAS OF MINISTRY' AND  'FUNDAMENTAL MANDATES OF 
WORSHIPPING OUR SAVIOR AND BEING OPEN TO THE HOLY SPIRIT'
 As media attention focuses on this week's gathering of 
16,000 Southern Baptist Convention messengers in Orlando, 
and especially on actions there to label the concept of 
women in ministry as unbiblical and to encourage a more 
centralized notion of doctrine, American Baptist Churches 
USA General Secretary Daniel E. Weiss is urging all Baptists 
"to reaffirm those great Baptist principles and 
understandings that have enabled the gifts of Spirit-
inspired men and women to powerfully serve--in all areas of 
ministry--the cause of Christ."
 "At all times, but perhaps especially at this moment, 
we need to look at the results of four centuries of Baptist 
thought in action," Weiss said.  "We have a special identity 
as a Christian tradition, and it has supported a 
transforming presence in church and society.  In being 
faithful to that tradition, Baptists have encouraged men and 
women of faith to be inspired as individuals, to proclaim 
God's word, and to act and share from that relationship as 
leaders in God's church and in fulfilling the Great 
Commission." 
 Weiss cited many American Baptists' historic 
commitment to women in ministry.  In particular he noted the 
American Baptist Policy Statement on Women and Men As 
Partners in Church and Society, passed by the denomination's 
General Board in 1985.  In part that statement affirms that 
"the Gospel of Jesus Christ liberates all persons, female 
and male, to serve in any ministry to which they have been 
called by God and for which they have God-given 
talents...women, as well as men, should have access to and 
serve at all levels of church and society...."
 "That statement, while nonbinding on any of our 
churches and certainly not representative of every American 
Baptist's thinking on this issue, nonetheless expresses the 
convictions of a vast majority of American Baptists and it 
is the official position of American Baptist Churches USA," 
Weiss said.  "With that conviction in place we've been 
ordaining women for the past century and a quarter, and 
we've been the beneficiaries of countless productive and 
life-changing ministries that empowerment has produced." 
 Among actions undertaken by Southern Baptist 
messengers are revisions to their longstanding Baptist Faith 
and Message statement, including changes that some perceive 
as encouraging a centralized standard for doctrine.  The 
agenda included a movement to "clarify our doctrine for this 
present age, and...define our beliefs against the backdrop of 
modern confusion."  
 "It concerns me greatly," Weiss noted, "when any group 
of Baptists considers actions I clearly interpret as 
refuting important components of the free church tradition.  
There may be dozens of Baptist denominations in this 
country, but we all grew out of the same passionate 
commitment to democratic, autonomous congregational life, 
where the local church determines its own doctrine, style of 
worship and approach to mission." 
 "It seems to me that some Baptists now are 
contemplating reprioritizing the fundamental mandates of 
worshipping our Savior and being open to the Holy Spirit in 
favor of a corporate interpretation of God's word," Weiss 
added.  "I don't believe that approach would have found 
favor with our Baptist forbears who so courageously fought 
to assure and honor the individual's relationship with God."
 "American Baptists repeatedly have affirmed our belief 
in the Bible as the authoritative and trustworthy guide for 
knowing and serving God, and the belief that we are 
empowered as individuals to interpret Scripture under the 
guidance of God's Holy Spirit within the community of faith.  
But most Baptists never have assumed that unanimity on the 
interpretation and application of Scripture is the measure 
of success for our ministries as Christ's witnesses.  We 
readily acknowledge that--for the Holy Spirit impacts each 
believer uniquely and we respond in different ways to God's 
leading.  
 "And we shouldn't make the mistake of putting Jesus 
Christ and the Bible in the wrong order of authority.  We 
honor the Bible.  We always appeal to it above tradition and 
contemporary ideologies.  We must know it and be rooted in 
it.  We live under its authority.  God's Word is truth.  
Whatever it teaches us about what to believe or how to live 
is true.  We respect and revere the Bible.  But we worship 
Jesus Christ.  Moreover, Jesus Christ is the criterion by 
which the Bible must be interpreted because He said He was 
(John 5:39)."
 "I hope and pray that Baptists everywhere look now at 
what has made us a special people with a special mission," 
Weiss said.  "As well as any Christians, we have defined 
church as a vital gathering of individual, contributing 
Christians who 'confess that Jesus is Lord and believe in 
their hearts that God  raised Him from the dead' (Romans 
10:9).  We have deliberately and steadfastly avoided any 
notion that would weaken our response to God as responsible 
believers and autonomous congregations.  While we gladly 
make expressions of our corporate faith we aren't bound by 
creeds.  And while we serve the same risen Savior we express 
our commitment to Him in varied ways from church to church.  
What we do hold fast to is the belief that each of us--woman 
or man, clergy or lay--has gifts for ministry that God has 
granted, and which God expects to be shared within the 
church and beyond.  This wonderful role we take on as 
'priests one to another' assumes that God speaks to each of 
us through the living word of Scripture as illuminated by 
the Holy Spirit.  The sum total of those gifts within any 
congregation is the measure of its vitality and of its 
effectiveness as a community of faith."

6/15/00
WFN615A

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