It was a desk. I found it one day while digging through a forgotten back closet at the small church I was serving in Midtown Atlanta. It was covered in a layer of dust, paint splatter and rat droppings.
Lying beneath other objects locked away and forgotten, it was an old school teacher’s desk from about the 1950s or 1960s. I’m not sure what drew me to the desk. It was not pleasant to look at and there was nothing remarkable about it. The moment I opened its top drawer, however, I knew it must be saved. Taped in a manner easily accessible were the names and office numbers of ministers of a major Baptist church a little further down Peachtree Street. I could tell these numbers had been updated for decades. Somehow, this desk that had been a part of prominent Atlanta Baptist life for half a century was now mine.
Alex Gallimore
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I began by scraping away the years of waste that had accumulated on its surface. I sanded every inch below its original stain so that the raw wood was exposed and its bruises were less noticeable. Finally, I applied a newer, darker stain that I felt was much more reflective of my own taste. I dragged the desk out of the closet and into my office on the third floor. It was the same desk, while at the same time it had been made new. It had been restored and revitalized and made to better reflect a new generation of ministry.
When I look back and remember my time working on that desk, it has become a powerful symbol of religious identity for me. Like my desk, those of us who claim the name “Baptist” have also inherited a rich religious heritage. While that heritage differs from place to place and we all interpret it a bit differently, the basic Baptist principles of freedom, diversity and dissent have been instilled in each new generation since our founding more than 400 years ago. Every time a generation passes the baton to the next champions of Baptist life, those new leaders are given something with a solid core that has stood the test of time and met the challenges of each new era.
Like my desk however, that solid core, though structurally sound, often needs a bit of restoration. Sometimes, the new bearers of Baptist identity must scrap away years of waste and and heal the wounds that may have accumulated over the years. They must get down to its raw core so that is can be made truly their own and made to best reflect life in their emerging culture.
In the postmodern culture in which we live, religion has been marked by the rise in pluralism, mega-churches and the number of those who do not identify with any particular religious group. These elements make it very difficult for many churches and individuals to remember what makes one a unique religious being with a unique identity in a unique time and place. In the presence of these phenomena, I have seen countless Baptist churches lose their ways trying either to radically imitate cultural norms, thus neglecting their unique identity, or by becoming so obsessed by their unique identity that they are no longer relevant in an ever-changing culture. What is needed is a balance of the two.
I like to call this balance “ancient-future” Baptist identity. This term, first coined by worship guru Robert Webber, best reflects the innovation our culture demands. As a new generation of Baptist leaders seek to steer our churches towards uncharted waters, we must do so in a way that embraces our past while at the same time reaches for the future. Rooted in the heritage that has been given to them, emerging leaders must find ways to revitalize and reinvent what it means to possess a distinctly Baptist identity for life in the 21st century.
It is my prayer that this column might contribute to that end. I hope to use this space to reflect on what it means and looks like to cultivate such an ancient-future Baptist identity and hope to share stories of those who are currently putting such an identity into practice.
Presently, perhaps more than any other period in history, the needs of our culture demand a new voice of integrity from our churches. I believe that it is those who call themselves Baptist that are best suited to provide that voice. In the days ahead, let us rise to that occasion!
Alex Gallimore ([email protected]) is associate pastor for youth at Piney Grove Baptist Church in Mount Airy, N.C., and is in his final year at the Wake Forest University School of Divinity.