Comments on: Biennial Reflection & Voting

By: Alan Rudnick

Alan Rudnick — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:21:10 +0000

Casper, thank you for your comments. We should get together sometime. You hit the mark with regards to getting the info on the bylaws. I too was unhappy with the vote. I abstained from the vote because I felt there was too much confusion. I too am torn between love for the denomination and seeing the fumbling that is occurring at Valley Forge.

By: Alan Rudnick

Alan Rudnick — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:17:33 +0000

Joe, thanks for your other comments as well. You are right. ABC has been fiddling with the structure and it has had an impact on the mission. The SBC has done a better job with mission, although they have their own problems as well.

By: Caspar Green

Caspar Green — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:08:19 +0000

Thanks for the update. Another example of the disconnect between denominational leadership and the local church is that this information — and I mean just the basic information: the bylaws question did not pass — is not yet available on the abc-usa web site. The main page refers us to the abc news service page, whose only article from the proceedings is about Roy Medley being elected to a third term as General Secretary. That as an ABC pastor, I would have to google “abcusa biennial” and then find out what happened from a colleague 25 miles from home who happens to have a blog entry is indicative of the disastrous lack of denominational leadership we have been living with for far too long in the American Baptist family.
As someone who did read and reflect on the proposed changes, I would have voted against, had I been able to afford the trip to Pasadena. From what I could tell, the proposal would have added exponentially to the arcane way we already do business as a denomination, and would have eviscerated the already minimal input from the biennial delegates.
On an almost daily basis, I am torn between my love for a denomination that nurtured me and formed my Christian understanding and ministry and my deep grief and dismay that in a time so critical (and so ripe) for sharing God’s love in Christ we are thwarted at every turn by the shambles the spineless denominational bureaucracy has led us into.

By: Joseph Smith

Joseph Smith — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:16:05 +0000

It has always seemed to me, as a relative outsider to ABCUSA (I grew up Southern Baptist, and when I came to DC, we were allegedly dually aligned, but I found ABC hard to penetrate), that ABCUSA continues to tinker with structure almost as a substitute for doing mission. True, structure is important, and now that I teach Baptist Polity at a seminary, I spend a good deal of time working with students on structural issues; but form follows function, as the architects tell us. Find a structure that empowers mission and use it!