A Healthy Baptist Minimalism

My friend, and newly installed pastor of the First Baptist Church of New York City, Dr. Matthew Hoskinson, has written a helpful article "On Being Baptist." Not totally satisfied with all the definitions of Baptist identity or distinctives, Matt has set out to prove what for him it means to be a Baptist (at a minimum). He clearly spells it out:

Baptists are distinct from other world religions in that they are Christian, Baptists are distinct from the rest of Christendom in that they are Protestant, and Baptists are distinct from the rest of Protestantism in that they are credobaptist in practice and congregational in polity. This essay focuses on the last of these statements.

He really did a good job. For he concludes:

Baptists are credobaptist in practice and congregational in polity. They may be more than this, but one cannot be less than this and still wear the label. Within the wide stream of Baptist thinking there are many different currents, some healthy, some not. But what defines and distinguishes Baptists from other Protestant groups are these two doctrines.

While I'm sure he has not written a new proposal, he is clear on what distinguishes the Baptist church. It would probably do well to subject the B-A-P-T-I-S-T distinctives to this shorter criteria. If we do, our acrostic might look like T-...S. Hmmm.

The Inner-Inner-City: Hamtramck, MI

Some of you know that my family and I spent some formative years in metro Detroit (wait: all yrs are formative). While not in the city proper, we were exposed to different American and ethnic subcultures. While training at the local theological seminary, I met a guy who lived down the street from me who had a bunch of kids (his youngest is the same age of my oldest)- Jay and his better half, Kristin. He actually was in the same seminary. The dude has a great story that another friend Ken Tullos has captured on a video. I hope that Jay keeps reaching people for Jesus in that urban island and that Ken keeps making videos in and around Detroit for the glory of the one true God. The only improvement I would have made to the video was to add a bit of holy hip-hop=+). Even then, the music was cool and compelling. Word!

Hamtramck from Kenneth Tulloss on Vimeo.

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