Blog
Blog  Brooks Wicker, President, Alliance of Baptists
…is what Mary Andreolli, our effervescent Minister of Outreach and Communications, said upon hearing that the Board, having just affirmed a development implementation strategy, also affirmed her full-time employment with the Alliance. Three tiny words but, oh, it says so much about how Mary, Carole, Chris and Paula are equipped, committed and eager to usher the Alliance into the next decade.
Brian Dixon, Alliance Board member, pastor of Alliance-affiliated congregation formerly known as Dolores Street Baptist Church, San Francisco, Calif.
“You must be born of wind and water...” is essentially what Jesus said to Nicodemus in the third chapter of John. To which Nicodemus responded “Huh?!?” Okay this might be a bit of a translation. But you get the point. As is the case with most people when it comes to these obtuse sayings in John, Nicodemus didn’t understand what he was being told. How can one be born of both wind and water? The water part makes sense — the human body is made up mostly of water. But wind? The wind doesn’t deliver us into our parents arms. We aren’t flown in on the beak of a stork, despite the Looney Tunes’ depictions. These words make no sense. They are paradoxical. Ah, yes, paradox. How often in our faith tradition are we brought right to the waters edge of paradox; are we caught up in the wind of mystery; are we surrounded by the swirling vastness of the Spirit.
Katie Cook, editor; Alliance mission partner, Seeds of Hope Publishers, Waco, Texas
The folks at Seeds of Hope Publishers believe the biblical mandate to feed the poor is not optional. Because of that belief, this tiny nonprofit works tirelessly to provide resources to help churches and Christians engage in the ministry of healing hunger and poverty. And, the Alliance helps make that happen.
Laura Barclay, Alliance member; Alliance affirmed clergy; Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Ministry Support Manager, Winston-Salem, N.C.
By 2004, I had all but sworn off church forever. After a brief stint in an SBC church in rural Kentucky where women couldn’t preach, serve as deacons, or even usher, and a conservative Christian high school experience on par with the movie Saved, I found myself at the University of Louisville and free from exclusionary rules and religion. Yet, nearly every conversation I had found its way to God and the idea that churches had forgotten about God’s love. The boiling point came one day when my friends and I were walking across campus and saw a fundamentalist preacher yelling that “fornicators and homosexuals are going to hell.” What followed was a debate — and probably my first sermon — on God’s love. My group finally walked away asking ourselves, “Are we the only ones who think that God is love?”
Mandy England Cole, Alliance board member; Alliance member; associate pastor for Alliance-affiliated Sardis Baptist Church, Charlotte, N.C.
Early in my pregnancy there was a pivotal moment that began a holy passage. After learning we were pregnant with our third child, I was ashamed to admit that I wasn’t entirely happy. It wasn’t happening according to my plan. I was well aware of how my life, and sanity, stood in precarious balance where all of the resources within me were occupied with the work of mothering and ministering. Quite honestly, I was doubtful I had anything left to give to another. It was shameful, but it was my truth — a truth a dear friend received with grace.
Jim Hopkins, former Alliance President; pastor of Alliance-affiliated
Lake Shore Avenue Baptist Church, Oakland, Calif.
At my ordination the people of the First Baptist Church of Los Angeles presented me with Gracias: A Latin American Journal by Henri J. M. Nouwen. This slender volume, in which Nouwen chronicles his six-month journey to Bolivia and Peru to work with the Maryknoll missioners, continues to be the story at the heart of my theology of mission.
Stephanie Ford, Alliance member, associate professor of Christian Spirituality, Earlham School of Religion
“Spirituality” possesses a lot of currency these days. Sadly, the word still connotes a kind of other worldliness. But with a closer look, we find a vision opposing such tendencies.
Wayne Grinstead, Alliance ambassador to Cuba, translating for Tony Santana, Fraternity of Baptist Churches in Cuba president
Accompanied on the Journey
Great joy occurs when we realize God is with us on our journey, and that joy increases when we remember the wonderful things God has done for us along the way. Today, I want to focus on God’s presence with us throughout our process of building bridges of solidarity between the Alliance of Baptists in the United States and the Fraternity of Baptist Churches in Cuba.
Ana Karim, Alliance Board member, Summer Communities of Service project Manager
As a college student at the University of North Carolina and a member of the BSU, I sought ways to connect with like-minded students who had a heart for mission work and spiritual development. As soon as I learned about the opportunities for summer missions, I applied.
Bob Beckerle, Alliance Board Chair
The term “death panels” has been recklessly tossed around in the current healthcare debates. It has three entirely different meanings that some politicians have used to their advantage to create confusion, particularly among senior citizens.
Sarah Palin created a new meaning for the term when she described the panels as being persons selected by the government to decide which of the elderly would be selected to get medical treatment allowing them to continue to live out their lives and which of the elderly–because of their critical condition, the experimental nature of the treatment or its expensive cost–would be denied treatment and allowed to die. Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa reinforced this idea by similar comments. However, using the term in this sense is simply untrue.
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