Pastor's Notes (March 2010)

            March is our month to celebrate and support “home mission” as American Baptists.  In the history of our denomination, we developed a strong tradition of supporting the endeavors of missionaries in mission fields all over the world.  At the same time, American Baptists developed ministry and mission fields right here at home. 

            Our “home mission” history is quite impressive.  National Ministries, our home mission society, started just a few years after First Baptist itself was founded.  In 1832, the American Baptist Home Mission Society began, expanding rapidly to serve our growing nation.  (Indeed, the Rev. Jeremiah Hall left his pastorate here in 1836 to help start a church in Michigan, sent as a home missionary by the ABHMS.  Rev. Hall later served as president of Denison University in Granville, OH.)

Without a doubt, American Baptists have enriched and transformed the lives of individuals and communities through our “home mission” work.  Neighborhood centers, evangelism outreach efforts, advocacy for social change, scholarship support for colleges and seminaries, and refugee resettlement are just a few “success” stories of our past and present.  American Baptists have a distinguished history, celebrating mission around the world and around the corner!

One reason I support the America for Christ offering is out of a sense of personal gratitude.  Over the years, I have benefited from educational programming supported by National Ministries (my education was supported in part by scholarship aid from our denomination, making possible my studies at Ottawa University and Central Baptist Theological Seminary).  My pastoral library has great resources for ministry and Baptist identity published by Judson Press, our denomination’s publishing house.  I know a number of people whose lives were changed for the better, thanks to home mission efforts.  When it’s March each year, I know it’s time to say “thank you!” through a financial gift to the America for Christ offering.

As a congregation, let us remember that First Baptist has experienced a great deal of “investment return” from our home mission support.  Over the past four years, we have had great consultation and support from Dr. Ronald Carlson, Missional Church Strategist, one of our commissioned home missionaries employed by National Ministries.  Our church has been enriched by Ron’s consultation, NM’s help assembling a great community-wide conference on community conflict transformation in 2008.  Our missional efforts have been empowered by a $1500 grant in 2009 to help fund short-term missional projects. To give to the America for Christ Offering is a great way to say “thank you!” to National Ministries.  Please consider giving generously to our 2010 AFC Offering!

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One final note:

            We join with the ABC V/NH region, mourning the loss of the Rev. Rohn Peterson, acting executive minister, who died on February 17, 2010, after an extended battle with cancer.  Rohn came to our region staff during a time of controversy and transition.  He led us with grace and humor, providing his servant leadership faithfully in our midst.  Rohn was our guest last Pentecost when the General Secretary visited.  He valued the words of welcome and the prayers for his work and his health offered by our congregation.

May we honor his memory through our commitments to further American Baptist ministry and mission in our community, our region, our nation, and around the world.

Pastor's Notes (February 2010)

“To incite more earnest efforts”
Pastor’s Notes (February 2010)

One of the marvels of the digital age is Google’s ongoing project to scan books, journals, and other print materials for persons to view online. Recently, I came across Henry Crocker’s The History of the Baptists in Vermont, published the P.H. Gobie Press of Bellows Falls, VT.  Rev. Crocker was the president of the Vermont Baptist Historical Society, and he was tasked with the job of finishing what was considered a long overdue by the time the book appeared in 1913.  Crocker’s preface recounts the convoluted history of the book’s many setbacks in research and production since a history was first proposed in 1841.  Rev. Crocker worked through reams of source material to produce this book, now long out of print, and now enjoying another sort of preservation as part of the Google Books collection.

            Like anyone else, my first curiosity was to read the section about matters near to mind and heart.  The section on First Baptist, Bennington, (Crocker, p. 102-105) recounts a few familiar facts: a recounting of the church’s origins in 1827, though it was known as the Baptist church in “East Bennington, or Algiers”.  Interestingly, it would be a year later that the first minister, Henry Baldwin would become the minister.  By the time the Vermont Baptist history appeared, First Baptist had been served by twenty-two pastors, the longest serving being the eight year pastorate of Rev. Z. Martin (1885-1893).   Considering the rest of the 20^th-century’s pastoral tenures (including Dr. Towart’s thirty year tenure), when First Baptist had only six settled pastorates over a 75 year period, the thought of twenty-two pastorates over eight-six years seems quite remarkable.  

            The rest of Rev. Crocker’s entry about First Baptist details a variety of “milestones” about the church fellowship perhaps forgotten in our modern day congregation.  In 1832, a temperance movement began in Bennington with a church committee formed to address the excessive drinking of “cider brandy”.   In the 1840s, William Miller, a Vermont-born minister, was invited to address the congregation about his views on the Second Coming (in Miller’s opinion, to take place on October 22, 1844).  Apparently, Miller’s views held suasion, as Crocker reports his speech “wreaked havoc in the flock”, presumably causing some congregants to take up his views as well.  (After this date came to pass, and our Lord did not, the date became known as “the Great Disappointment”.)   The 1850s brought congregational “resolutions disapproving and discountenancing the amusement of dancing” declaring dancing inconsistent with “the Christian profession”.   If these stories are not amusing enough, Crocker recounts the long history of the church struggling to keep a decent church bell.  Apparently, First Baptist had the first church bell in Bennington installed in 1830, however, the original bell was “said to have been the poorest bell ever shipped into the State of Vermont.  The sound of it provoked the criticism of all who heard it” (Crocker, 105).

            To our ears, these stories of our distant past offer a glimpse of the life of First Baptist no longer in living memory.  The idea of temperance fervor and anti-dancing resolutions might strike us as a product of times gone by.  Certainly, William Miller’s predictions of the end of things in 1844 remind us that modern day Christians chasing after every half-baked “end times” prediction have their antecedents. 

            Studying our past, however, helps us understand our roots.  Given his task of accounting for a brief history of every Vermont Baptist congregation, Rev. Crocker’s account leaves out the congregation’s historic commitment to mission, providing funding for domestic and global efforts, and the commitment to religious education.   The spiritual DNA of First Baptist has a remarkable intertwining of passion for discipleship and the support of initiatives far and wide.

            As with every generation, it is our challenge to live with the best of our past and endeavor to make the future possible.  As we near a century since Henry Crocker’s account of First Baptist, may I suggest we revisit our roots this spring in our religious education?   Starting February 7, 2010, we will explore our Baptist roots, studying the historic distinctive beliefs and practices of our tradition:  Soul Freedom, Believer’s Baptism, the role of the Bible, the priesthood of all believers, local church autonomy, the ministry of the laity, discipleship, evangelism, worship and communion, speaking about issues of faith, diversity, and mission.  Each week, we ponder what makes us “tick” as Baptists.  In the 21^st-century, we American Baptists are part of the most racially diverse denominations in the United States.  We are a people known for having a “wide tent” when it comes to theological diversity, and some of our theological debates make arguments over cider brandy and dancing look pretty tame.

            When it comes time to recount our history, what story would you like to have told about our ministry and mission today?  I am most hopeful we will be recalled as faithful, earnest believers, working for the betterment of our community and growing in faith and love.   Indeed, Rev. Crocker has a good word about the goal of the Christian in search of a past, present, and future.  Near a century ago, Rev. Crocker observed,

It is a satisfaction to know that facts long concealed or known to but few can be known by many, and we may cherish the hope that the backward look will incite to more earnest efforts for the upbuilding of the Kingdom of Christ among the Green Mountains and the fertile valleys of Vermont. (Crocker, 5).