Dr Paul Allen

I’m a baptist but you don’t need to capitalize the b for me. First and foremost, I’m a Christian, identifying primarily with Christ, and only secondarily with my dear Baptist brothers and sisters. We baptists sometimes encounter a tension created by our baptistic convictions: How do we, as baptists, orient to those whose baptismal belief and practice differ from ours? In particular, how do we relate to paedobaptist individuals and churches? Paedobaptism (from the Greek root paedo for “child”) is the practice of baptizing the children of believers in infancy, in anticipation of their profession of faith in Christ. Rather than baptizing after someone professes faith, as credobaptists do (credo for “faith”), paedobaptists regard baptism as the New Testament counterpart to Old Testament circumcision. Therefore, they administer the visible, public sign of the covenant to the children of Christians. Now, we baptists believe that paedobaptists err in their baptismal theology and practice. We ...

Image via Wikipedia Marks of Transition What happens to a church as it goes through a leadership transition? There are a number of characteristics that emerge at points throughout the transitional process. These can vary greatly depending on the unique circumstances that have precipitated a leadership transtion. Here are some of the common marks of transition we observe at various stages of the transitional process: A sense of loss and need to grieve. Most churches feel a sense of loss when their Senior Pastor leaves. This is even common in churches where they wanted the pastor to move on. To a greater or lesser degree churches tend to take on the characteristics of their leaders. A familiarity, even predicatability takes place through the leader’s tenure, and when he or she leaves something changes. The familiar patterns, styles, stories, and particular focal points of a pastor’s ministry start to die. It is a fact that many people’s sense of history about their church ...