Osler's Razor

One thing I will be thinking about for the next several days is what we should be doing locally to further the goals of the New Baptist Covenant, as the Atlanta meeting fades into the mists. On the larger stage, this much is known-- there will be another national meeting in 2011.

Over the next three years, there will be many challenges. Given that the New Baptist Covenant will not be a denomination but is concerned with reconciliation between estranged groups, there are three central questions that emerge:

1) What is it?
2) What does it do?
3) Who is to reconcile?

The first question is definitional, but also has something to do with practical language. Remember how people wondered what the 00's would be called (the "aughts?"). It turned out we don't call it anything, and it may be that we don't mark it in our personal histories in the same way because of that. Language creates realities, and it would be good to have the right language to describe the New Baptist Covenant.

The second question is even more important. Is the action-purpose of the New Baptist Covenant to encourage discussion, to serve our world, or to bridge communities?

The third question has to do with the very question of bridging communities, which thus far has been a primary function of the NBC, mostly in allowing black and white Baptists to worship and share together. However, there seems to be multiple reconciliations in play, some of which conflict with one another. As I see it there are no less than four reconciliations which have been discussed:

1) Black/White
2) SBC/Moderate Baptists
3) Gay-affirming churches/others
4) The generational divide

To different people, different reconciliations are important. This diffuse focus is compounded by tensions between the goals; for example, attempting the third would probably make the first two impossible. The broadest consensus seems to be focusing on the first and letting the others remain less important for now, and I think this may be the wisest course. No course, though, is easy when there are so many goals fighting for attention.