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It is with delight that I present to the Alliance of Baptists family our brand spanking new bylaws. Using the authority given the Board of Directors under the previous bylaws, these new bylaws were unanimously approved at the board meeting April 23 in Nashville, Tenn. In keeping with process outlined by the new bylaws, thepower to make changes now lies with the members of the Alliance of Baptists at an annual meeting.
Leah Lonsbury, Chair, Affirmation of Call Committee
I love the Alliance for many reasons, but the overarching one I always come back to is that it is for me tangible Good News for the world. It’s Good News in the capitalized sense for me, because Alliance people continue to be that living, breathing Gospel for those they encounter, relate to, and serve — the same Gospel, the same Good News, that came to live among us in Jesus.
Greetings from the Endorsing Committee of the Alliance of Baptists! The committee is functioning well and is in the midst of some exciting changes in support of the 168 persons endorsed by the Alliance.
First, the committee and the Alliance owe a debt of gratitude to Lynn Hyder, outgoing committee chair. Lynn provided fine leadership of our work of endorsement. Thank you, Lynn, for your service and ministry!
The Rev. Viki Matson, Alliance friend and Assistant Professor of the Practice of Ministry, The Divinity School, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn.
The evening was cool and I was sitting on the porch with my grandparents at their farmhouse when I was a girl. The phone rang and my grandmother got up to answer it. We could hear her chatting through the screen door, and after just a few minutes we heard her say, “Can I call you back tomorrow? We’ve got company right now.”
When she returned to the porch I said, “Grandma, who’s our company?”
Allen Allen, Alliance member and retired Army chaplain
It has been my good fortune to minister in an ecumenical and interfaith environment for most of my career. That people of different faith groups and religious traditions can embrace each other with understanding and respect is an enduring goal of most faith communities.
Carol Blythe, Chair, Alliance Peace and Justice Committee
During the recent annual Ecumenical Advocacy Days conference sponsored by the National Council of Churches, Alliance members joined other people of faith for a weekend filled with worship, plenary sessions and workshops around the theme, “A Place to Call home — Immigrants, Refugees, and Displaced Persons.”
Elizabeth Evans Hagan, pastor, Alliance-affiliated Washington Plaza Baptist Church, Reston, Va.
From where I stand as the pastor of Washington Plaza Baptist Church, I see the church as a messy reflection of a gathered community seeking to be faithful.
We aren’t on the mega church fast track anytime soon. But, we are a group of open, loving and curious faith seekers that wants to know and love each other well. We want to show through our body that people of diverse backgrounds have purpose for gathering even when it would be easier to hang with people who are just like us.
If you are interested in sharing what you know of encountering the Spirit in your own ways, let us know. We are looking for folks to lead a variety of spiritual practices or discussions of practices during our retreat. If you would like to lead a session on a spiritual practice you know well, connecting to mind, body or soul, please submit a proposal with the following information:
Ken Ramsey, Alliance endorsed clinical pastoral education supervisor, Seton Family of Hospitals, Austin, Texas
I graduated from Baylor University in the late 1980s intent on vocational ministry but convinced that there was not a place for me in Baptist life. I enrolled at Emory’s Candler School of Theology without knowing that it housed a Baptist Studies Program, yet through that program I affirmed that my story did fit in the larger Baptist narrative.
Mary Andreolli, Minister for Outreach and Communications As they reached the descent from the Mount of Olives, the entire crowd of disciples joined them and began to rejoice and praise God loudly for the display of power they had seen, saying, 'Blessed is the One who comes in the name of our God! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest!' Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, 'Teacher, rebuke your disciples!' Jesus replied, 'I tell you, if they were to keep silent, the very stones would cry out!'" (Luke 19:37-40, The Inclusive Bible).
