Keeping the main thing, the main thing
I've delayed making this post for fear that it will come back to haunt me. But here goes.
We did something really amazing last Sunday in church. I suspect very few (if any) churches have ever done what we did. We had two baptisms, a dedication and a blessing all in the same worship service. What? You ask is so amazing.
One baptism was for an infant. The family is Lutheran and Lutherans baptise babies. We had an adult baptism. I think all traditions practice this. We had an infant dedication. This way my daughter. I'm Baptist and we don't baptise infants, but we like to recognize the joy of birth and in the spirit of Elizabeth dedicating Samuel in 1 Samuel - we dedicate babies to God and we dedicate ourselves as parents to raising our children in Christian homes that they will come to know Jesus. Finally we had a blessing. The mom is Buddhist and the dad is more universalist. Neither could have made the kinds of promises we ask for baptism and dedication (the promises were almost exactly the same). But they wanted to do something to recognize the birth in church. So we did a "blessing".
One of the things I love about pastoring this church is I think everyone "gets" why we did it. We even had me, a Baptist, perform the baptism and a Presbyterian pastor in the church, perform the dedication. So not only did we cross traditions, but we had the clergy cross too. I suspect not many people noticed, but Leith and I thought it was neat! :)
I don't know if I can defend all that we did theologically, but practically speaking we try really hard around here to show Jesus' love to everyone who enters our midst regardless of where they are in their faith. Sometimes that means "being all things to all people" as Paul said.
I preached recently about how ICB is a unique church. Here's what I said. "We are a place where good Christians can come and be encouraged and hear about Jesus. But that's not unique. We are also a place where not-so-good Christians can come and be encouraged and hear about Jesus. And we try to do it without being judgmental. That makes us an interesting church. But still not unique. I think what really sets us apart is that we are also a place where non-Christians can come. Be encouraged. And learn about Jesus in a nonjudgmental atmosphere without feeling embarrassed, put down or condescended to in anyway."
I think that kind of environment is pretty uncommon. But I think that's how Jesus did his ministry. And I think it's how he wants all his churches to be. We're not a perfect church by any stretch, but we do a pretty decent job of staying out of petty squabbles over minor theological technicalities. We do a pretty good job of lifting up Jesus without going out of our way to put everyone else down.
Chew on that for awhile. God bless.
We did something really amazing last Sunday in church. I suspect very few (if any) churches have ever done what we did. We had two baptisms, a dedication and a blessing all in the same worship service. What? You ask is so amazing.
One baptism was for an infant. The family is Lutheran and Lutherans baptise babies. We had an adult baptism. I think all traditions practice this. We had an infant dedication. This way my daughter. I'm Baptist and we don't baptise infants, but we like to recognize the joy of birth and in the spirit of Elizabeth dedicating Samuel in 1 Samuel - we dedicate babies to God and we dedicate ourselves as parents to raising our children in Christian homes that they will come to know Jesus. Finally we had a blessing. The mom is Buddhist and the dad is more universalist. Neither could have made the kinds of promises we ask for baptism and dedication (the promises were almost exactly the same). But they wanted to do something to recognize the birth in church. So we did a "blessing".
One of the things I love about pastoring this church is I think everyone "gets" why we did it. We even had me, a Baptist, perform the baptism and a Presbyterian pastor in the church, perform the dedication. So not only did we cross traditions, but we had the clergy cross too. I suspect not many people noticed, but Leith and I thought it was neat! :)
I don't know if I can defend all that we did theologically, but practically speaking we try really hard around here to show Jesus' love to everyone who enters our midst regardless of where they are in their faith. Sometimes that means "being all things to all people" as Paul said.
I preached recently about how ICB is a unique church. Here's what I said. "We are a place where good Christians can come and be encouraged and hear about Jesus. But that's not unique. We are also a place where not-so-good Christians can come and be encouraged and hear about Jesus. And we try to do it without being judgmental. That makes us an interesting church. But still not unique. I think what really sets us apart is that we are also a place where non-Christians can come. Be encouraged. And learn about Jesus in a nonjudgmental atmosphere without feeling embarrassed, put down or condescended to in anyway."
I think that kind of environment is pretty uncommon. But I think that's how Jesus did his ministry. And I think it's how he wants all his churches to be. We're not a perfect church by any stretch, but we do a pretty decent job of staying out of petty squabbles over minor theological technicalities. We do a pretty good job of lifting up Jesus without going out of our way to put everyone else down.
Chew on that for awhile. God bless.
