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When the sun went down on Doc and Annie Ledford’s house, that meant it was time to go inside for the night. Evenings at Mammaw’s and Pappaw’s always meant wonderful suppers, and they usually included watching the evening news. If you were in the living room when Pappaw was watching the evening news, you were sitting still and being quiet. That was just the way it was. I squirmed a little but I usually managed to stay quiet. One evening, that seemed like every other evening of watching the news after supper, I saw something that had never been seen. I saw a man walking on the moon. I did not realize it then, but the world would see many never-before-seen events in the years to follow. In almost every field of endeavor, innovation after innovation would make the world a different place. Sitting in the living room that night, I had no idea of all the wonders that would come to pass in my lifetime.
Pappaw passed away when I was a junior in high school. Will was just a baby when Mammaw passed away. Twelve years is not such a long time, and twenty-six years is only slightly longer. Imagine for a minute what the world has seen over say, the last 162 years. Over that span of time two world wars were fought, countless transatlantic flights were made, numerous organs were transplanted, stock markets crashed and soared, 32 states were admitted to the union, 11 states seceded from that union only to be readmitted after four years of war, carriages were built that were no longer dependent on horses for power, and millions of babies were born, while a host of labor-saving devices were introduced to our daily lives.
What have we not seen in the last 162 years? Well, one thing we have not seen in the last 162 is a Baptist missionary sent to the mission field supported by Baptists both in the North and the South. Before 1845, Baptists in America did their mission work through the General Missionary Convention of the Baptist Denomination in the United States of America for Foreign Missions. Commonly referred to as the Triennial Convention, this convention supported the work of Ann and Adoniram Judson in Burma. Interestingly, our young people slept on the campus of Judson College in Alabama, while working with Seeds of Hope this past week. Before 1845, Baptists were as united as they could be through the Triennial Convention in their efforts to fulfill the Great Commission. That status changed in May of 1845, when Baptists from across the South gathered in Augusta, Georgia to form a new convention.
The Crisis that led to the formation of the new convention was slavery. Baptists in the South rightly believed that the Triennial Convention would not appoint a slaveholder as a missionary. Baptists in the North arrived early at their conviction that slavery was not compatible with the teachings of Jesus, but was in fact contrary to the spirit of His life as well as His redemptive sacrifice at Calvary. Baptists in the South did not see it that way. They determined to start their own missionary-sending organization so that slave holding would not disqualify a missionary from service. Thus, the Southern Baptist Convention was born.
In announcing the new convention to the public, the first president of the Southern Baptist Convention said, “Northern and Southern Baptists are still brethren. They differ in no article of the faith. They are guided by the same principles of gospel order.... We do not regard the rupture as extending to foundation principles, nor can we think that the great body of our Northern brethren will so regard it.” With no differences in articles of faith or in gospel principles, one might wonder why the division occurred in the first place. Obviously, slavery had become for Baptists in the North a matter of faith that was no longer compatible with their understanding of gospel principles. In 1995, the SBC adopted a resolution apologizing for condoning slavery and for upholding racist ideas through the years. With this acknowledgement from Baptists in the South, one might have expected some move to reconcile with those long ago parted brothers and sisters in the North. This, of course, did not happen for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that the Southern Baptist Convention, especially in the last 25 or so years, has abandoned many of those foundational Baptist principles.
For 162 years, Baptists had not cooperated together in doing the Great Commission — that is until last Friday. During a joint worship service at the conclusion of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly and at the beginning of the biennial meeting of the American Baptist Churches, USA, two missionary couples were introduced. These two couples will go to the mission field supported by both the CBF and the ABC. Duane and Marcia Binkley will work with Karen people in Thailand and in the United States. Nancy and Steve James will do medical missions in Haiti.
Just when you think you have seen everything, there is something more to see. Baptists in the North and South are working together to answer God’s call to proclaim the Gospel. An astronaut walking on the moon is a memorable sight. Baptists North and South doing missions together after 162 years of separation — honestly, I was starting to wonder if I would ever see such a thing. Surely the Kingdom of God is at hand.
Joy and Peace,
Ed
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