wfn.org | ABCUSA: Medley - Heart of Baptist Life Is Call to Radical

["CHANDLER, David" <David.Chandler@abc-usa.org>]

Discipleship

American Baptist News Service (Denver, Colo. 7/2/05)--In a message
delivered here last night to more than 2,000 American Baptists, the Rev.
Dr. A. Roy Medley maintained " that the heart of our Baptist life is a
call to radical personal discipleship lived in a community with a
missional vocation."

Medley, general secretary of American Baptist Churches USA, drew from
the fourth chapter of Esther to challenge participants at the
denomination's Biennial Meeting to embrace that call.  "In the midst of
its divisions, the world needs the witness of a people bound together in
love, committed to the difficult task of walking with one another in the
midst of strong differences. We stand at a crossroads.	In our world,
the path of radical discipleship, the path of radical love is the road
less taken.  We dare not choose another.  We dare not choose the wrong
road...the road that leads to separation. That choice will certainly
unite you with like-minded people, but will give you small souls, and
make you comfortable Christians. The radical call of Jesus doesn't make
us comfortable. Take the road-less-traveled -- the rich road of love of
one another and service for Christ in the midst of our differences."

"Our missional vocation," he said, "is to embody and proclaim God's
reign of grace to all the world that they might see in us, by the power
of the Spirit, the life of Christ which has broken down the dividing
wall of hostility between us and made us the new humanity, the beachhead
of God's inbreaking reign."

"Our call is to be, and to go and make disciples: disciples for whom
their relationship to Christ is the center of their lives.  Radical
discipleship means that at the root of our values, our aspirations, and
our actions is a commitment to following Jesus above all else.	That
call to radical personal discipleship in Christ Jesus is part of our
Baptist DNA.  We by our very nature as a Baptist body can do no other
than to proclaim the invitation of Jesus, 'Come, take up your cross
daily and follow me.'"

Medley addressed issues that have challenged the unity of the American
Baptist family.

"I stand before you tonight as one who earnestly desires to be a servant
leader.  I stand before you tonight both as general secretary and as a
fellow disciple who seeks to faithfully follow my Lord.

"The issue of homosexuality has brought us as a denomination to a
cross-road in our life together.  One road will lead to separation.  The
other path will lead us to shared ministry and mission in all the
theological and ethnic richness that has come to make us the unique
denomination we are.  What will you choose?  Which road will you take?

"I was asked by the General Board before my election, 'Where do you
stand on the issue of homosexuality?' I replied, 'I am conservative in
matters related to human sexuality AND I do not want to be separated
from those who differ from me.'  So, I want you to hear me clearly
tonight:  I am STILL traditional in matters of human sexuality AND I do
not want to be separated from those who in Christian conscience differ
from me on the issue of homosexuality.	We have been a family where I
have been granted the privilege of living in that paradox.  With all my
heart that is where I believe I have been called to be, where we have
been called to be.

"A question one often hears in the current controversy is, 'Aren't we
putting Baptist principles above biblical authority?'  No, Baptist
principles are thoroughly grounded in scripture.  Those who raise this
question misunderstand our mothers and fathers in the faith who, in
setting forth what we today call Baptist distinctives, drew them forth
from the study of scripture and understood them to thoroughly represent
scripture. As Baptists, our tradition is immersed in scripture, centered
in Christ."

Medley cited the inspiring example of Esther, "an ordinary woman whom
God brings into extraordinary circumstances to serve God in radical
discipleship: 'Who knows but that you have come to the kingdom for such
a time as this?'  Because of our particular gifts as ABC, because of our
history of being a bridge people across divides of race, theology, and
culture, because of our heritage in mission - who knows but what we have
come to the Kingdom for such a time as this....

"Esther's call to radical personal discipleship called her to cast aside
thoughts of her own safety; it called for her to speak in the face of
political power and adversity; it called her to place her life in God's
providential care....

"I am often asked what do we mean by radical discipleship.  Is it
evangelism?  Yes.  Is it social ministry?  Yes.  Is it being centered in
Christ?  Yes.  Is it mentoring, discipling?  Yes.  Is it non-conforming
engagement with the world?  Yes.  Is it mercy-oriented?  Yes.  Is it
grace-filled?  Yes.  Is it justice-seeking?  Yes.  Is it
forgiveness-offering?  Yes.  Is it radical love in action?  Yes.  Is it
needed in the world in 2005?  Yes, Yes, Yes!"

Medley noted American Baptists who, throughout our history, have
embodied and helped define radical discipleship, including Adoniram and
Ann Judson, Joanna P. Moore, Jitsuo Morikawa, Martin Luther King Jr.,and
the the Hopevale Martyrs, 11 American Baptist missionaries and family
members who choose to remain in fellowship with Filipino Christians
during the Japanese invasion.

"Some today set the principle of soul liberty against the principle of
biblical authority," Medley said.  "Baptists have never understood it
thus.  Our deep commitment to soul liberty is because it is essential to
biblical authority in our lives....  Through soul liberty we honor the
primacy of every soul's encounter with the living God.	This is the very
heart of what it means to be a Baptist Christian and what the priesthood
of all believers means.  Our commitment to biblical authority through
soul freedom has been precious to us.  And it is precious to us now!  It
doesn't make our life together easier, but it is essential for radical
personal discipleship.	That is why American Baptists grant the majority
the right to say, 'This is what we believe' and also protect the right
to speak a minority point of view."

"Many of us became American Baptists because we saw in this family of
faith a profound intertwining of biblical authority with the freedom to
explore, examine, and even question.  We can testify that coercion in
matters of faith does not work, and that what American Baptists have in
this twin emphasis is precious and life-giving...."

"God calls us to radical discipleship.	Radical discipleship leads to
radical love.  Esther's love for her people bonded her to them even
though it meant possible death.  The Hopevale martyrs' love for their
Filipino brothers and sisters bonded them to one another though it did
mean death.  God's radical and unconditional love bonded him to us in
Christ Jesus though it meant his death, even death on a cross.	That
radical love which would lead Jesus to embrace the cross is the love
which we are called to walk in, a love for each other that is the mirror
image of God's own love for us. American Baptists do not forsake the
principle of radical love!  Radical love does not overlook differences.
Radical love does not underestimate the hard work required to remain in
community where deep differences exist.  Radical love does not mean that
all the answers to the hard questions lie readily at hand.  Radical love
does mean that in the words of G.K. Chesterton we owe one another
'stormy loyalty....'"

"We must not forget our missional purpose," Medley emphasized.	"We dare
not forget the world to which we are called....where 67% do not know
Christ...where 75 million of our US neighbors are unchurched...where 1.2
billion people live in life threatening poverty...where 11 million
children under 5 die every year, more than half from hunger related
causes...where AIDs is threatening to decimate whole countries and has
caused 13 million children to lose one or both parents...where human
trafficking enslaves 800,000 - 900,000 lives each year......  In a world
polarized by culture, ethnicity, politics and tribalism, we dare not
forget the world.

"Like Esther, American Baptists, God has called and shaped us for such a
time as this: to be reconcilers in a world marked by division; to be
beachheads of God's reign of radical love in the midst of other reigns;
to be a bridge people in a world of wall builders....

"This road less-traveled has been the unique calling and gifting of
American Baptists.  For those of us called and committed this path what
blessing there is! Who would have dreamed, given our nation's history of
slavery, anti-immigrant sentiment, and suppression of women, that God
could have put together a room of people like this?  That's the blessing
of radical love!

"For such a people as you, a people called to radical discipleship, to
radical love, God has a mission! For such a people as you, a people
called to radical discipleship, to radical love God has blessing! For
such a people as you, a people called to radical discipleship, to
radical love, God has a future!"

Medley concluded his message by quoting Helen Barrett Montgomery, who in
her 1922 presidential address called members of the then Northern
Baptist Convention in to focus on unity in Christ : ". . . we are in a
great campaign.  We have a war to fight for our Lord Jesus.  We must not
disagree!  We must not fight each other!  We must unite to win.  Let
this Convention be founded and proceed and end in prayer.  Satan is
here.  He longs to divide us....   Nothing but prayer can defeat him.
Let us . . . pour out our hearts before God."

American Baptist News Service: Office of Communication, American Baptist
Churches USA, P.O. Box 851, Valley Forge, PA 19482-0851; (800)ABC-3USA
x2077 / (610)768-2077; fax: (610)768-2320; www.abc-usa.org;
richard.schramm@abc-usa.org

05ABN71

The complete text of Dr. Medley's address is available at
www.abc-usa.org.

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