As Baptists plan 400th anniversary celebrations, Bob Dale, author and recently retired associate executive director of the Baptist General Association of Virginia, suggests they think ahead to the kind of celebration they want to have a generation from now. Casting an eye to the future, Dale asks:
• Will Baptists learn to become true partners of indigenous leaders — globally and in the United States? Will they develop humility enough to learn from Third World churches?
• Can Baptists change their win-lose Western mindset to a more Eastern challenge-response cooperative mindset?
• Will Baptists in the West move beyond culture prejudices and see Baptist cousins in developing nations as equals?
• Will Baptists learn to read the Bible from its original Eastern roots rather than through the prisms of Western assumptions?
• Will Baptists learn to relate to world religions in a global world?
• Will state conventions and associations become less absorbed with regional issues and more focused on world-change, looking for the global dimensions of local concerns?
• How soon will Baptists in the United States consider it shortsighted and foolish to speak only one language and be familiar with only one culture?
• Can Baptist find ways to minister from the bigger cultural middle and let go of those on the narrower fringes who persist in fighting?
• What if Baptists in the United States continue to focus on their needs and persist in the attitude: “As for me and my house, we will serve me and my house?”