‘Representing’ God
November 1st, 2007I spent a couple days this week at the Mississippi Baptist Convention, and I thought the Baptists handled it remarkably well. Let’s just say it was … uh, interesting. Not too much unlike our Annual Conference. Well, maybe a little.
Anyway, I did hear some pretty good preaching, including one sermon by the president of the convention directed primarily toward the ministers. He said one thing he never likes to hear from his cohorts is: “I’m not that significant; I’m just a country preacher.”
“What do you mean by that?” he asked the congregation of ministers and laity (“messengers” in the Baptists vernacular). “As a preacher, just who is it you think you’re representing? Are you saying God isn’t significant?”
As you might imagine, there was a good bit of squirming in the pews of the giant First Baptist Church of Jackson. Not everybody squirming was a preacher. Trust me.
That was an awfully good question for us all to ponder. As we proclaim the Good News — in our own individual styles — we need to remember who we’re representing, whose message it is we’re delivering, and that it is quite significant.
I’m fairly confident the Baptists don’t have to bear that burden alone.
— Danny
Danny,
I was reading some of the stories/comments that had been written in the Wesley Blog. There was a statement in there that “Methodists are too Baptist for the Catholics and too Catholic for the Baptists!” Anyway, we Methodists are a good melting pot of backgrounds and still, like all Christians, need to represent God well.
Gary