May 28, 2001
TOGETHER: Plan to celebrate
Baptist Heritage Month in your church
___Do you remember how you became a Baptist? As a child in Durant, Okla., I took long drives with my Baptist pastor father, asking him to explain the differences in the denominations. He had a gift of making it simple and plain. And, of course, the Baptists always came out best!
___As a young teenager who felt called to preach, I knew I needed to examine more carefully Baptist doctrines and to inquire seriously into the convictions of other Christians. I learned a lot, and still do, about what makes other folks see things the way they do.
CHARLES WADE
Executive Director
BGCT Executive Board
___I give thanks to God for all Christians who seek to be faithful to Christ, the Bible and God's calling to share the gospel with the whole world. And I am grateful to be able to work with other Christians out of a Baptist understanding of the faith. I am glad to be part of the people called Baptists and what I have begun to call the Baptist vision.
___Let me encourage you to take part in the first annual Baptist Heritage Month in June. This marks the beginning of what I believe will be a great emphasis on the truths of the Bible as Baptists have interpreted them through the centuries.
___The chairman of the Baptist Distinctives Committee for our convention is Presnall Wood, beloved former editor of the Baptist Standard. The volunteer director of the Texas Baptist Heritage Center is our esteemed BGCT executive director emeritus, Bill Pinson.
___Join many other churches and associations who will be celebrating our Baptist heritage in the next few weeks.
___Let me tell you one story I learned about early Virginia Baptists. Patrick Henry, in the Virginia congress after the Revolutionary War, proposed that the Episcopal Church be established as the official church of Virginia. The taxes of the state could then be used to pay the ministers, construct church buildings and maintain church properties. When Thomas Jefferson and James Madison opposed Henry, he sought to broaden his appeal by inviting the Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians to join the Episcopalians in his plan. He told them the Christian religion could be established as the official religion of Virginia, and support from the state could then pay all the Christian ministers and provide for all the church property in Virginia.
___To the everlasting credit of the Baptists, they stepped forward first to decline. John Leland, Virginia Baptist pastor and strong advocate of separation of church and state, expressed the Baptist conviction: Christians should pay for their own churches and ministry out of the free gifts of the members. God had given a plan for the support of the churches--the tithes and offerings of God's people, not the taxes imposed on all the citizens, believers and non-believers. Methodists and Presbyterians joined in their insistence that the government should not tax citizens to support the churches.
___Stories like this abound in Baptist history. Write to the Baptist Distinctives Committee/Baptist Heritage Center at P.O. Box 116, Dallas 75246 for more information and a list of resources on the rich heritage we have as Baptists. See the BGCT website, www.bgct.org, for a clear comparison of the 1963 and 2000 Baptist Faith & Message statements. This material can be of great help in small-group discussions.
___We are loved.
__
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