VALLEY FORGE, PA. (ABNS)-American Baptists were called to safeguard "the stewardship of our common life," in an address by General Secretary A. Roy Medley to the denomination's General Board meeting here this week.
Medley spoke at a time of concern, when one region, the American Baptist Churches of the Pacific Southwest (now called Transformation Ministries), has decided to withdraw from the denomination, and local-church contributions to the fund that supports its national structure have been declining.
He noted that "discord and controversy are not new to us," but that American Baptists have surmounted many similar difficulties since the denomination's founding in 1907 as the Northern Baptist Convention.
A March meeting of regional executive ministers, he said, displayed "a deep love for this family and a desire for God to continue to work through ABC in a powerful way." All were agreed, he said, on the power of the focus statement that American Baptist churches should "nurture devoted disciples of Jesus Christ who live their lives in mission and ministry for the healing of the world through the love of God."
Medley also pointed to agreement on the key ministry areas of radical discipleship, healthy missional churches, leadership, youth, church planting, stewardship, and mutual faithfulness.
Baptists, he noted, have always faced "the issue of the proper balance between autonomy and interdependence, between the I and the we, which is under consideration in our discussions of organization. What ought to be evident to everyone is that neither pole of that continuum can be collapsed. Autonomy and interdependence must always be in play with one another for there to be authentic Baptist expression of the larger body of Christ."
Speaking at the opening plenary session of the General Board's five-day meeting, Medley told board members that "to you and to the elected leaders of the various partners in the denomination has been entrusted the stewardship of our common life. That is a precious trust."
Andrew C. Jayne American Baptist Churches, USA Mission Resource Development http://www.abc-usa.org/