My Last Post

But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith (Philippians 3:7–9).

This will be my last post. The blogging I have done, the things I have read are taking a toll on my health both physical and spiritual. My husband has seen this and has asked me to consider stopping. Since my husband never asks me to do anything unless he is deeply concerned, I have to take his request seriously. After a lot of thought and prayer, I have decided this will be my last post.

When I was a child, I always thought that the church was a safe place, one place that people would always be accepted no matter who they were, no matter where they were in their knowledge of scripture. I quickly began to see as a teenager that in the Baptist circles especially, that is not the case. As a woman it has always been difficult in the church because we were always second class citizens in limiting what we could and could not do. Something the world once did, although as a girl that was changing.  I have seen church splits, fights, more splits, and more fights in my young life and now as an adult in the SBC, famous for it’s hair splitting fights, exclusion of people, treatment of women as non-qualified for ministry despite scripture to the contrary. It’s not healthy, spiritually or physically. In fact it takes away from the building of faith, it certainly doesn’t add to it.

Some of the issues I have blogged on,Ergun Caner, victims of clergy abuse whose numbers are rising, not falling among Southern Baptist churches, the outcome has not been acceptable to me and because of that it is consuming me where Christ and God’s sovereignty in all of this should be consuming me. I should be resting in Christ, instead I find myself attempting to change things that cannot be changed. It’s making me into something that is less than Christ honoring.  I need to spend time with my Bible and God. I need to spend time with my family.  I need to spend time with my church family. I need time to heal.

Something I have yet to see in my church are any of the unhealthy things I have dealt with while digging deeper into the SBC. I would like to concentrate on my church. There it is a place of sanctuary. It’s a place of spiritual health. A place of integrity.  Something I need right now.  Women are thought of highly and their talents are used as God gives them. Children are precious and people to be protected from harm.  There we can disagree on things non-essential and it is taken seriously while treated with respect. You will hear no name calling or labeling because we disagree. I can feel safe sharing ideas, concerns, things I see in scripture, without retribution or without dictating one’s life. We also stress the Holy Spirit bearing fruit, which is patience, love, truth telling in all things, aiding people in need. Missions is a big part of who we are.  We believe in people being Holy Spirit lead. All this is in response to the Holiness of God and that we are accepted by God because of what Christ has done not anything we have done. We are accepted by God. Period.  It’s a great place to be, and where I want to spend all my time and talents.

Someday maybe there will be a more sanctified, kinder, gentler SBC, but that is not today.

Dancing At The Fundamentalist Ball: Michael Spencer

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