Younger generations in our church don’t seem to connect with stories of Baptist heroes who dealt with the moral crises of their day. So, how can we communicate the values upon which our forebears stood?
My education, training and experience all have been in history, and much of my work has been almost exclusively in Baptist history. Still, I must acknowledge that history—including Baptist history—has the pretty sad reputation of being boring. So, unfortunately, you are right. The younger generation has little patience with “boring.” But perhaps their impatience and lack of interest is not with our Baptist heroes but with the stories we are telling and with the ways we are telling those stories.
Here is my proposal: We need to learn some new stories, and we need to learn to be good storytellers. Baptists have been around for 400 years, so we have hundreds of inspirational and informative stories of courageous Baptist women and men who have stood for what was right, served quietly and consistently, preached mightily, suffered persecution for their faith, and served faithfully in churches and on the mission fields. We all have our favorite stories—Lottie Moon, Martin Luther King Jr., William Carey and Walter Rauschenbusch. We tell these stories over and over again, and while those stories are among my personal favorites, perhaps it is time to discover new stories.
The great news is that many resources are available. Numerous new books have been produced in recent years that tell Baptist stories, including Julie Whidden Long’s Portraits of Courage: Stories of Baptist Heroes. Written for older children and teenagers but with appeal for all audiences, Long’s book includes 14 brief biographical stories. My favorites are of two recent heroes—Leena Lavanya and Olu Menjay. Lavanya, our Baptist Mother Teresa, has founded homes in India for the aged, lepers, and adults and children living with HIV/AIDS. Menjay is the principal of Rick’s Institute in Liberia, the only private school there that provides free primary education to girls and boys. We need to find stories like those of Lavanya and Menjay and tell them.
The other lesson we can learn from Long, a member of the younger generation herself, is we must reshape our storytelling. Long’s lively presentation style provides a great model for us. Imbedded into her stories are all the Baptist principles we hold dear, but she does not moralize, overemphasize or romanticize. She tells the stories, makes connections between the heroes and their Baptist beliefs, and leaves her readers to discover the lessons of history.
And that is what we need to be doing as well—simply telling the stories and letting the younger generation discover from those stories the great principles Baptists have been defending and proclaiming for 400 years.
Pamela R. Durso, executive director
Baptist Women in Ministry
Atlanta
Right or Wrong? is sponsored by the T.B. Maston Chair of Christian Ethics at Hardin-Simmons University’s Logsdon School of Theology. Send your questions about how to apply your faith to [email protected].