merefaith: two friends on pilgrimage

A good Baptist church is hard to find. Well, at least it is when one's understanding of, and desire for, the Baptist tradition generates firm disagreement with both of the highly visible “poles” that characterize the North American scene. Here in the Triangle area, at least in my experience so far, the available options have tended to be either a) the Democratic Party at prayer or b) unreflective evangelicalism-fundamentalism. If a church has earnestly incorporated elements of the broad liturgical tradition then it has done so in order to provide window dressing for its revisionist liberalism. Or if a church has seriously committed itself to evangelism and missions it has underwritten them by way of a soteriology that lacks true Gospel holism.

Today four of us attended Greenwood Forest Baptist Church in Cary, which was about a twenty minute drive from my house in Durham. The ministry staff must have been tipped off that we were coming because they pulled out all the stops – the service featured the baptisms of four teenagers as well as communion. We arrived on time to the church's delicately beautiful and thoroughly packed sanctuary and took note of the simple wooden lines running throughout the apse (if you can assign that traditional name to the “stage” in this church) and the white parament adorning the communion table. We scanned the bulletin and then wondered and prayed over the corporate worship near at hand.

And from beginning to end I was most pleased with the thought and devotion that went into the service. The baptismal service was the richest and fullest of any I had seen in a Baptist church and hit all the right elements that one would expect from a robust baptismal theology liturgically applied. The congregation was called to declare in unison that baptism is the covenant signature of a community that spans the centuries. As theologians and liturgical scholars have repeatedly noted, every new baptism should be the occasion for the entire church body to redeclare and renew baptismal vows made in the past, and we did just that in the call to worship. The pastor introduced the candidates with the reverence that signifies consciousness of the Spirit's presence and the ritual that signifies somebody must have read a little Hippolytus along the way. Drawing upon the complex of symbols that have been incorporated into baptismal celebrations throughout church history, the pastor placed salt on each candidate's shoulder and gave each a baptism candle, liturgically embodying the declaration Jesus makes concerning his followers in Matthew 5. The congregation verbally affirmed each candidate when he or she arose from the waters, offering welcome and rejoicing that God's Spirit has been present and active.

After an engaging sermon (er..”communion meditation” as it was called in this service) on Psalm 119 the pastor, Randy Sherron, directed the church into a service of the table. Here my praise may be quieter because I cannot bring myself to embrace communion incarnated as crackers and shots of grape juice. But recognizing where my tradition is in its Eucharistic practice, I do embrace the adage that “beggars can't be choosers.” So while I would prefer real bread and a congregational pilgrimage to the table I can still say that this Lord's Supper was served with attentiveness and reflection.

Another highly enjoyable and striking feature of Greenwood Forest was the strong presence of female leadership. Two of the clergy on staff are women and the majority of deacons on duty today were women. Meanwhile, two women were given direct responsibility for the distribution of the elements while Randy offered spiritual exhortation.

Of course there is much that still needs to be learned about this congregation. We were greeted very warmly after the service and Kelly and I intend to visit again. But it will be most helpful to experience other aspects of the community's life together, particularly education/formation and mission/outreach. Nevertheless this was the most theologically rich and spiritually sensitive service in a Baptist church that I have seen in some time. I do hope to share in more Sundays like this in the future!

Labels: Baptists, Liturgy

Posted by Chris Schelin on Sunday, August 26, 2007 at Sunday, August 26, 2007 | Permalink