Heading for Greensboro in the morning

[TrudyU]

Should be there Wed. Morning. Suzie was here to deliver CBF's Best wishes this evening.

[Neil Heath]

We'll leave home on Wed. morning and plan to be there for dinner. Looking forward to seeing many old friends and making new ones!

[TrudyU]

Ed: Last night we where Near Nashville, TN. This evening we are in Ashsville, NC at the best Days inn, I have ever seen. And just over $50.00 with tax. It is just down the hill from the Billy Graham Training center. There is also the cleanest Waffle House I have ever seen across the street. at $3.19 the station we see from our window is the cheapest we have seen on the trip. The least we have paid is $3.24 highest $3.62 in northern Ill./

Stopped in Marion Ill. yesterday for he Subie's first oil change and a check over, 3258 on the odometer. we had 1632 when we left home last Tuesday. Gas mileage 34.2 MPG. Highest speed 82, average for the trip 52 MPH this includes three major slow slowdowns for construction yesterday and one today. Map Quest says shows 2 hours 48 min to get to Greensboro. MO. and TN both have 70 MPH speed limits, that 82 was with a huge 18 wheeler on my tail down hill (in the slow lane) here in TN.

[TrudyU]

Ed: we got to our Motel (Red Roof) About 10:20 and they allowed us to go ahead and register for the first cleaned room. Which opened almost immediately. Unloaded the car and headed for the convention center. We could have walked but the temp was near 90. There is plenty of parking. Attended the Leadership seminar. The first two people we saw as we passed from the parking lot toward the hotel/convention center was Jason Coker, the out going moderator BFN, and Chris his summer intern from Baylor.
As I have said Jason is Pastor of the Wilton BC, in Wilton CT. formerly from Mississippi.

The leadership seminar was a presentation of "DAWNINGS" a Brand new process of church development toward Misionality (put it in your dictionary). They have some Grant monies to assist churches to get stared in the process. They have some churches that are now finishing their first year. And some of their members made glowing reports of how employment of this process is revitalizing their churches. the Key elements are Visioning, Formation and engaging, for a year then repeat with new projects, adapting from the experiences of the proceeding year. I would guess that there where around 300 folk in this preliminary session.

We also ran into BL.C's record holding Lurker We see he and his wife who where at SHBC in Tampa when we where there almost every year and he repeats back some of thec recent BL,c Discussions.

[Lamar Wadsworth]

Britt and Courtney Hester are going to be there. Good folks. Britt is our youth minister at Heritage in Cartersville GA, just graduated from McAfee with an M. Div. Courtney is also a M. Div. graduate from McAfee. If you see them, say hello--they know me and will admit to knowing me!

[TrudyU]

[TrudyU]

Ed: Picked up several books from Smyth & Helwes at least 12 spent under $80.00l S&H doesn't want to ship them back and restock them. Did buy a few others from $10.00 to $24.00 from other vendors.

[Haruo]

Interested to hear more about the "very different Bible study".

[TrudyU]

[TrudyU]

Ed: Had a brief Discussion with ABC- USA's General Secretary, Roy Medley last evening, just before he brought greetings to the CBF Assembly here in Greensboro. He was received with great enthusiasm.

Note I have edited this post to correct Dr. Medley's title. I did goof initially and called him our Executive Minister, which is the title we use for the top person in regions not the National office.

In our conversation Roy made a point of letting us know that he had been well acquainted with a former pastor at Burnthills.

[Tim Bonney]

[TrudyU]

[Tim Bonney]

I edited the post to reflect Roy's correct title.

I did wonder about it. But I know the ABC has done a little reorganizing in recent years so I started to guess his title hand changed.

I suppose I could refer to him as Bishop Medley or, since he is over the whole denominational apparatus, Archbishop Medley.

[TrudyU]

Ed: Lamar, I am sorry, I missed the Hesters but with the layout of the conference center in Greensboro it was easy to miss some one who you know only by name, I do know Aaron Weaver, but if he was there I missed him also.

One of the delights of he event was the Boxes and boxes and more of Krispy Kream Donuts available in the Gathering Place

We had missed Joe and Carolyn Crumple, and then Friday morning at the business Meeting, It was announced that at that very hour Carolyn who is often known as "Mrs. CBF" was undergoing triple bypass surgery. And Prayer was offered. Later in the Trudy spoke with our mutual friend from Cincinnati Jane Tooten who said the surgery has turned out to be a quadruple bypass but had gone well and Joe reported that Carolyn was resting comfortably.

Blake should have been in Bill Leonard's Breakout session, titled "Take Me to the Water". The program description says "Revisit the history of Baptist approaches to believer's baptism and its implications for baptismal policies in contemporary churches. Explore questions of baptismal requirements for children and adults and the issue of immersion of persons from other Christian traditions." Not surprisingly the conversation drifted into the area of Communion also.

Dr. Leonard's primary focus was on the word "believer's" as a requirement for both baptism and for church membership.
The only surprise for me was when one of the audience explained how in their church, often parents act as the officiant in the baptism of their own children and Dr. L said while he appreciates the sentiment, he is not comfortable with that practice. He went onto say that his discomfort comes from at least two directions first that he feel this practice can confuse roles when the "parent" suddenly becomes brother or sister rather than mother or father. And that he believes it conflicts with the opportunity for the baptismal experience to reinforce the authoritative role of the gathered community. (Note my lack of quotation marks,
I have presented what I understood him to be saying)

The other session I attended on Friday was by Bill's friend Dr. Frank Tupper. His topic was "Learning to read read the gospels ...again " this program Description reads " The story of Jesus in the Gospels is central to Christian Faith, but a literal reading is often problematic. Learning to read with the second naivete' provides a non literal but faithful approach to the different presentations of the Jesus story in the Gospels. The Gospels will come alive as you discover tips for reading and re-reading the holiness of the Bible."

I had previously read Tupper and had heard a number of discussions about his teaching, so I thought it was time to hear him. I was less than impressed. I have had a number of professors who have done more to bring the Gospels to life, for me.

[Tim Bonney]

Ed, did the topic of receiving non-immersed Christians come up? This has been a live topic in the ABC for many years.

When I was at FBC Rushville the policy was changed, at the instigation of members of the Bylaws committee not me, to change the policy to accept any baptism from a professing Christian if, in their tradition, they had been baptized and made a profession of faith through some means like confirmation or baptism class etc. This policy was already in place in Des Moines when I was there.

[Haruo]

I wonder how many Baptist churches would accept the UHOPFAP "Mass Baptism by Firehose" as sufficiently responsive to the ordinance. And for that matter, whether it would be accepted by the UMC as sufficiently sacramental.

[Tim Bonney]

[TrudyU]

[Tim Bonney]

Ed I feel the way you do about "mass baptisms" though much of our baptismal theology differs. So far at Grace I've not baptized more than two in one service. One occasion it was two brothers ages 7&10 and on confirmation Sunday one of the confirmands (7th-8th grade) had not been baptized and I had an infant baptism separately that morning.

Some UMC pastors will try to schedule a bunch of baptisms on one Sunday with parents. But I think it makes it less special for the individual families involved.