Ben McDade, October 30, 2009
This August, about 30 Fellowship Baptists gathered for a three day working retreat to look into the future. We attempted to discern the best avenues for telling the Fellowship story in order to engage more people in our part of God’s work on earth and to help ensure that we have the financial resources needed to collectively support our ministries and partner congregations. The retreat theme was “Shift Happens,” borrowed from this video.
Since this gathering, I came across another video that is even more descriptive of the shifts we are facing in social media.
You have probably heard the old saying that there are two things that Baptists don’t like: change and the same old thing. The world isn’t just changing any more. Change is simply the substitution of one thing for another. I believe we are living in a world that is much more dynamic and complex than simple change. I believe we are now in the midst of a world that is churning. Churning by definition is to shake or agitate with violence or continued motion. Shake. Agitate with violence. Continued motion. If large segments of Baptists don’t like change, they’re really not going to like churning.
Read the headlines in any newspaper (if you can still find one), blog or tweet, or catch a news segment on the cable news station of your choice. Our world is churning. What this means for us as Christians is that more so now than ever, people need to experience the love and saving grace found only in Jesus Christ. Our world needs those who are willing to be the presence of Christ. Our collective call is to engage churches and individuals to this end. Are you ready? Are you prepared to be the presence of Christ in a churning world?
I invite you to find and live out your passion with like-minded Christians. Plan now to come to Charlotte, N.C., the last week in June for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s annual General Assembly. It’s more than a meeting; it’s a place for you to discover and engage your passion while being the presence of Christ to a hurting and churning world. Check it out at www.thefellowship.info/assembly.
