Feb. 2, 2007

By Marilyn Stewart

NEW ORLEANS -- What does it mean to be Baptist? Why be a Baptist? 

Several new initiatives launched recently by the Baptist Center for Theology and Ministry at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary bring pastoral experience and academic scholarship together to answer these questions.

The new initiatives include the “download of the week” (free MP3s and podcast downloads of presentations by outstanding Baptist speakers) and a “blog” (a web-based, interactive forum) for conversations regarding the identity and direction of Southern Baptists.

“The Baptist Blog,” which provides conversational exchange with prominent Southern Baptist leaders, coupled with the academic presentations of Baptist theology available on the center’s website, is intended to give every Baptist the opportunity to examine why being a Baptist is a sound biblical choice.

“Probably at no other time has there been more confusion about what it means to be a Baptist,” said Steve Lemke, NOBTS provost, professor of philosophy and acting director of the Baptist Center.

“Many of our young ministers did not ‘grow up’ in the church but came to the Lord later in life,” Lemke said. “Our hope at the Baptist Center is to help people who became Baptists as a matter of convenience to become Baptists by conviction.”

Issues and opportunities before the Southern Baptist Convention are the current topics of discussion on the Baptist Blog. Church staff members and laypersons are encouraged to join the conversation.

“We can profit from the wisdom of those who are experienced in ministry settings and from laypersons,” Lemke said.

Frank Page, SBC president and pastor of First Baptist Church of Taylors, S.C., as the Baptist Blog’s inaugural guest host issued a challenge to Southern Baptists to overcome a tendency for “one-generational churches.”

“The greatest threat or challenge to the Southern Baptist Convention right now is the huge number of one-generation churches,” Page wrote. “Not only have Baptists failed to reach other socio-economic groups, Page said, but “have failed to reach out to other generations within their own ethnic group.”

In the blog, Page stated that the most significant theological issue facing today’s Southern Baptist is the identity and role of the church. Reaching beyond one generation, Page wrote, will require “churches and denominations to be willing to shift to new methodologies and practices which are biblically based but culturally relevant.”

Emil Turner, the executive director of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention and January’s guest blog host, continued the dialogue on issues facing the convention. 
Turner revealed his own deliberation years ago on whether to remain Southern Baptist until a Baptist history course in seminary convinced him to stay.

“I realized that the evangelism and Biblicism that I held dear were in the ‘DNA’ of our denomination. I could not find a place where I could be more at home,” Turner wrote.

Those pondering membership in an SBC church must ask themselves these pertinent questions, Turner said, “Can you find a denomination with more compassion for the lost world? Can you accomplish more alone than you can with the SBC?”

Lemke noted that issues impacting the future of the SBC will be the primary focus of the blog initially, but will move to other topics of interest to Baptists at a later date. Blog comments will remain posted for two or more weeks and will then move to the online archives.

The unique identity of Baptists is the subject of a February 23 Baptist Center event in association with the NOBTS Greer-Heard Point-Counterpoint Forum. The Baptist Center will present “What Is a Baptist?: How Do Baptists Differ from Presbyterians?” to a group of Baptist college students who are potential NOBTS students. A panel discussion involving faculty members from NOBTS and Baptist collegds will follow.

“The Future of Atheism” is the subject of the Greer-Heard Point-Counterpoint Forum and features a dialogue between world-renowned evangelical scholar Alister McGrath of Oxford University and atheist philosopher Daniel Dennett of Tufts University. The Forum is open to the public and included for those registered for the Baptist Center event.

Audio files available at the Baptist Center website include presentations from the 2005 Baptist Center Conference, “Mission of Today’s Church.” Topics include the nature of the missional church, the role of expository preaching, and the mission of the church in reaching Mormons.

Forthcoming additions to the website will include “Healthy Church of the Month” recognitions and the online publication, Journal for Baptist Theology and Ministry. An index is provided listing the topics addressed by Journal articles and other white papers.  A survey of Baptist doctrinal confessions through the ages will be available soon.

By offering an expanded inventory of resources with both popular and academic appeal, the Baptist Center hopes to provide tools for effective discipleship, as well as resources for strengthening Baptist convictions.

“It is just as crucial that our laypersons know the Baptist heritage, doctrinal distinctives and polity as our ministerial staff leaders,” Lemke said.

These initiatives represent a return to a full schedule for the center following post-Katrina NOBTS campus renovations. The Baptist Center continues to embrace the vision of its founder and former director, R. Stanton Norman, to “develop, preserve and communicate the distinctive theological identity of Baptists.”

For more information on the Baptist Center, visit www.baptistcenter.com or visit the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary website: www.nobts.edu.

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