Some of you know that I attended the American Baptist Biennial Session in San Juan, Puerto Rico a few days ago... There are just too many notes to list them at one time. I will list them ALL periodically, but as for now..Here are some notes taken from one of the sessions. You must understand that these are notes, and some of them were simply bullet-type points. I hope you can make sense out of it!
The Facilitator Referenced Reverend Leardrew Johnson...
He Referenced Mount Olivet Baptist Church/Rochester
He talked about Transformation – "I wonder what they have done differently?"
They were singing the “Glory Patri”
They called it their “tradition” they were married to it….
He hummed the song out……. Asked questions about it…..No answer!
It was like a marriage….Gloria Patri – MOBC just kind of went together….
Upon Research - He Discovered that the tradition was handed down from the Jewish Synagogue. It's more of a Catholic practice than a practice of ours….. We don’t know…We get it…. Call it “tradition” and die on its behalf….and don’t know what we died for or of…
Many references to the tradition of the Glory Patri and its relevance and its understanding…
Who understands it….? Why?
These are the questions that this generation is asking…
And if you say, “Because we’ve always done it like that…” they leave…
They go where relevance and understanding is….
There is a generation gap….
There is a war/struggle between the two….
There must be a coming together of the two….
There must be a relinquishing of power in the worship experience….
You can feel the worship wars on Sundays…..
Young people won’t fight for it…they go where it is offered……
Notice…we have Young folks in some churches and Old folks in others…..
Which one is a growing church….?
Which one is a dying church?
What do you do about it?
