The Way Forward

The world has changed drastically since March 13, 2020. It is also quite different from 1877 when the D.C. Baptist Convention was founded as the Columbia Association of Baptist Churches during a meeting at Calvary Baptist Church. Throughout these years, DCBC has been a Great Kingdom experiment, dreaming into reality what other Baptist bodies in the United States could not and cannot imagine possible. The Convention has been able to explore, wrestle with and navigate an array of diverse perspectives, heritages, languages, theological foundations, social positions, denominational affiliations and so much

more.

Our heritage is grounded and calls us into a new future: one yet to be fully realized. We will use the image of a honeycomb to help us visualize our future and understand how we, as a convention, are interconnected, active, purposeful, flowing, viscous, and multilayered. Honeycombs are organic, active and collaboratively created, and allow room for new cells (initiatives) to be developed along the way. Unabashedly Baptist, we will continue to be a Christcentered Pan-Baptist convention (as in a cross-section of Baptist groups), centering our beliefs around historic Baptist principles, including but not limited to autonomy of the local church, priesthood of the believer, separation of church and state, non-credal, soul liberty, authority of scripture, believer’s baptism by immersion, and congregational polity. To hear more about where we’re headed, you’re invited to lunch, hosted in various locations around the D.C.-MarylandVirginia area. Check your email for specific details or email the DCBC Ministry Assistant, Loretta Polite-Shipman, at loretta.polite-shipman@dcbaptist.org.