So many Baptists, so many voices. My spirits have been uplifted and my soul touched. I have both rejoiced and repented. What a great experience! Yet, there are still so many missing! My continuing question, and prayer: Is this gathering to be perceived merely as an alternative to the religious right or as something of much greater importance?
Pastor Julie Pennington-Russell clearly hit the mark when she pointed out that respect, while a great and godly thing, cannot accomplish much without love. The two greatest commandments speak of love as the primary motive, beginning with a love of God that cannot but help overflow into my neighborhood. Dr. King saw a day when black and white would live together in peace. I pray for the day when the children of fundamentalists and the children of liberals will join hands "being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose...and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord ." The world cries out for us to demonstrate that this is possible! It is why I am an American Baptist.
I have great hope in this "seed" gathering: "And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." Several times in these sessions my conscience has been touched as I am reminded of my need to confess my attitude toward my more conservative family. Love does not permit me to exclude them or imagine myself superior. In His name we have too much work to do.
Pastor Julie Pennington-Russell clearly hit the mark when she pointed out that respect, while a great and godly thing, cannot accomplish much without love. The two greatest commandments speak of love as the primary motive, beginning with a love of God that cannot but help overflow into my neighborhood. Dr. King saw a day when black and white would live together in peace. I pray for the day when the children of fundamentalists and the children of liberals will join hands "being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose...and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord ." The world cries out for us to demonstrate that this is possible! It is why I am an American Baptist.
I have great hope in this "seed" gathering: "And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." Several times in these sessions my conscience has been touched as I am reminded of my need to confess my attitude toward my more conservative family. Love does not permit me to exclude them or imagine myself superior. In His name we have too much work to do.
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