Random Friday Ramblings

Preparing a house to sell continues to be a pain.

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This Sunday is my last one as pastor of The Hill Baptist Church in Augusta, Georgia. These are days in which the people and we are saying goodbye to one another. Many of the folks here are among the most memorable I have ever known and that's good because it means that we will always remember them!

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I continue to be amazed at how "creedal" the Southern Baptist Convention has become, given the long history of Baptists as a "non-creedal" people. I'm no Baptist historian but I believe that the swing in that direction began with the adoption of the so-called "Peace Committee Report" in 1987 the findings of which almost immediately began to be applied in a creedal manner to professors at Southern Baptist seminaries.

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Having said what I just said about creeds, I nonetheless must say that I see value in the great creeds of the Church, particularly the Apostles' Creed, which is an excellent succinct summary of basic Christian teaching. I would have no problem reciting the Apostles' Creed in a Baptist church as a celebration of the historic faith and as a reminder of the basic beliefs that Baptists have in common with all Christians everywhere. One problem with the Southern Baptist approach is the practice of occasionally updating their confession of faith (the last revision occurred in 2000) and then applying such updates in a creedal fashion. It was patently unfair, for example, to require missionaries who were appointed before 2000 to swear allegiance to the newly updated "creed" at pain of losing their jobs. It's one thing to affirm the great historic creeds of the Church; it's quite another to give oneself over to a statement of faith that has become a creed when that creed is always subject to revision based on the tenor of the times or on the preferences of the group that is in power.

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The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets/Engineers/Ramblin' Wreck (in my opinion, they should just go with "Ramblin' Wreck." That nickname would rank right up there with the Marshall Thundering Herd and the Alabama Crimson Tide as one of the greatest football team monikers; I mean can't you just feel them coming at you when you hear those names?) destroyed the Miami Hurricanes last night 41-23 and it wasn't that close. In the process they gained 472 yards on the ground. Given the problems that the UGA defense has had this year, the Dawgs better watch out next Saturday.

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Sunday's coming! Another resurrection celebration! Praise the Lord!