Finding Renewal from the Inside Out, Together By Paul Baxley
As spring turns
toward summer, more and more of our congregations are resuming in-person worship and other ministry activities after more than a year of virtual gatherings and very different ministry rhythms. Some congregations in our Fellowship have been offering limited in-person opportunities longer than others, as the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are not identical in all parts of the country. As vaccination levels continue to increase, we are spending more time wondering what the months and years ahead will bring. How will our experiences during the pandemic reshape our lives and our congregations for years to come? There are many predictions but much less certainty. As we face this new season ahead of us, I hope we will be open to new directions in our life and ministry, rooted in deep convictions about the resilience of the Church and the resurrection of Jesus. We are not being called to go back to the reality we left in March 2020. As we gather, we are deeply grateful for the chance to share actual community with one another, but doing so safely and responsibly still requires adjustments. These months of virtual worship and ministry have opened new opportunities that we cannot leave behind. The Christian faith is remarkably resilient. Church history is filled with examples of the resilience of the Church in the face of powers, principalities, plagues and pandemics. This resiliency is a sign of the Holy Spirit’s continued work among us. So, as we disciples have been told ever since Easter morning, we need not be afraid. But to affirm the resilience of the Church requires us to also remember all the ways resurrection and resilience are bound together. While the core of the Gospel, the essence of faith and the substance of mission have persevered through the centuries, we also see that time and time again the Church is called to new ways of living life and carrying out its mission. At the intersection of resilience and resurrection, serving a God who is always “making all things new,” we are called to ask ourselves: How can the core of our faith and the practices Christians have needed and cherished for 2,000 years find new and faithful expression in this season? The first days of the pandemic required agility and energy in tremendous supply. Carrying out ministry these many different months has been often exhausting while sometimes exhilarating.
A Publication Of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Volume 31, Number 2 Summer 2021
2 |
fellowship!
PAUL BAXLEY is Executive Coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
Many of us who lead congregations as ministers, deacons and Sunday school teachers come to this moment deeply fatigued. Before we can turn to the new work of resurrecting resilience, we feel a deep need for renewal—spiritual, vocational and communal. When colleagues and I meet with congregational leaders these days, even by Zoom, we sense a deep and profound exhaustion and, as we move about in our communities, we see it in many other places as well. Still, in the midst of a deeply difficult time, where can we find renewal in our faith? For our leaders? In our communities? That is the question before our Fellowship this summer at General Assembly and in a series of clergy renewal retreats. We have experienced much more than a slight momentary affliction. How is the Holy Spirit calling us to renewal of our faith? Renewal in our callings? Renewal in our life together in and beyond congregations? Renewal of mission in our communities and all around the world? This question is so urgent that it is the focus of this year’s General Assembly: Being Renewed from the Inside Out. I hope you will register for General Assembly and join us online, or perhaps even in person at a gathering sponsored by your state/regional organization or congregation. We want our General Assembly, in and of itself, to be an experience of renewal in the midst of resurrecting resilience. Finally, as we renew our response to the global mission of Jesus, how are we being called to respond to the reality that Christians in other parts of the world do not have the access to vaccination that we have here in the United States? We have field personnel serving in places where there is ready access to vaccination; but we also have others serving in places where there is no end to the pandemic in sight. As one part of a Global Church, how are we called to join with Christians all over the world to ensure healing and health for all of our sisters and brothers in Christ? The call to a truly Global Mission is incredibly urgent right now. I hope we will respond with fervent prayer, concrete action and generous support of our field personnel and those among whom they serve. We have this sense that we are entering a new season in the lives of our congregations, our ministries in our communities, and the shared witness of our Fellowship. May we be held and challenged by the resurrecting resilience of the Holy Spirit among us. May we be renewed from the inside out by the power of the Risen Jesus.
Fellowship! is published 4 times a year in September (Fall), December (Winter), March (Spring), June (Summer) by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Inc., 160 Clairemont Avenue, Suite 500, Decatur, GA 30030. Periodicals postage paid at Decatur, GA, and additional offices. USPS #015-625.
Executive Coordinator Paul Baxley Associate Coordinator for Identity & Communications Jeff Huett Editor Aaron Weaver Associate Editor Carrie Harris Graphic Designer Jeff Langford
E-Mail fellowship@cbf.net Phone (770) 220-1600 Postmaster: Send address changes to: Fellowship! Cooperative Baptist Fellowship 160 Clairemont Avenue, Suite 500 Decatur, GA 30030.
