Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!bcm!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: jameso@lindir.wr.tek.com (Jim Ormond) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Assembly of God Message-ID: Date: 17 Dec 90 03:29:42 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Lines: 83 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article , SLMBH@cunyvm.bitnet (TJ) writes: > Hi Dana, > > I was wondering what does American Baptist mean and what do you believe in > (i.e., Holy Spirit)? > > Also, what is the difference between an American Baptist and Baptist? To which OFM gives a very good summary. I am an American Baptist, so perhaps I can expand on a few points and help shed at least a couple more photons of light on this subject. > [...The Southern Baptists, amid bitter fighting, are now imposing > what amounts to creedal tests on seminary faculty, as they require > belief in inerrancy. The American Baptists in 1972 reorganized and > now have a somewhat more connectional church polity that is > traditional for Baptists... The conventions are not connectional > denominations like say the Catholic or even Methodist Church. However > they allow churches to cooperate in areas such as running seminaries and > carrying out missions. These conventions claim no authority over local > churches. There are about 30 million Baptists in the U.S. The This is an important point (at least for an American Baptist :-). A more "connectional" polity does not imply a more authoritative one in the sense of handing down decisions for the local church congregation. In our system, it really means an increased level of cooperation among the various congregations through our local, regional, and national organizations. It still remains as a Baptist mainstay that the highest human authority over the local congregation is their own church board. Some congregations have boards of deacons and deaconesses, and a board of trustees, while others (such as mine) operate under what we call a "one-board system" where the members of the board are the chairpersons of the various operating committees (i.e., Christian Ed., Membership, Worship, Stewardship, Missions, etc.). > At one point the American Baptist Convention was > similar, though more liberal. However in 1972 it reorganizewd into > the American Baptist Churches in the USA. I have few details, but my > reference says that it is more connectional than typical for Baptists, > i.e. that the regional and national level has a bit more authority. We still decide denominational issues at a convention. I believe the manner in which more authority was given to regional and national officials is in carrying on the "business" of ABC/USA in such areas as commissioning and assigning missionaries and running the miriad of American Baptist organizations (other than churches). > It has about 1.5 million members. American Baptists typically are a > bit more receptive towards Biblical criticism and other "liberal" > issues than Southern Baptists. I believe I've even heard of female > American Baptist pastors, though I could be wrong. Yes, as a denomination we do tend to be more liberal than most of the other types of Baptist. As an example, which also addresses the question of women in ministry, we have many ordained women in positions of leadership both at the congregational level as pastors and assistant pastors, and at the regional and national levels as ministers of education, missions, outreach, and so forth. In fact, my own pastor is a woman. Before we hired her she was Assistant Pastor at an Amercan Baptist church in Santa Rosa, CA. I was on the pastoral search committee, and out of the 10 profiles (resume's) we studied, three of the prospective pastors were women. Since we're a rather new congregation (less than 3 years old) and can't afford her full-time (yet), she is also on staff part-time with our state organization (American Baptist Churches of Oregon) as Minister of Education for the state. Another American Baptist church in the Portland area has a husband-and-wife team (both of them are ordained), and they share the pastoral responsibilities equally. > > --clh] ------------------------------------------------------------------- Jim Ormond email: jameso@lindir.LA.TEK.COM Tektronix, Inc. snail: PO Box 4600 Mail Stop 92-710 Beaverton, OR 97076 Phone: (503) 629-1916 (voice) Voice: "Hey, you! Yea, you, jerk!" [Since then I also heard of female Southern Baptist pastors. A lot of other Southern Baptists don't like it, but so far they can't do anything about what goes on in local churches. --clh]