September 28, 2011
What does God require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. — Micah 6:8
A Question of Identity
past weekend I returned to my hometown to perform a union/marriage for a family friend. The ceremony took place in the T his small church I grew up in that you have heard me describe in sermons over the years. Every time I return to the church of my
childhood, I am surprised by the deep connection I feel to it as a place of belonging and identity. It is there that I remember my childhood friends, my first experiences of church and community, and the things I was taught about faith that would later shape and define my own theology. These are all good memories. It is hard for me to speak about my identity as a person and a person of faith without mentioning the Sandy Plains Baptist Church. In large and small ways, that church is a window that I look through to answer the question, “Who am I?” The question of identity is an important one. There are typically two ways that people go about answering it. And both ways are important. First, we talk about our identity in terms of facts—who our parents are, where we grew up, where we went to school, etc. The other way we tend to talk about our identity is in terms of our beliefs and values, what we feel called to do in the world, life experiences we have had, and what matters to us. All of these things together shape our identity. They answer, if only in part, the question of who we are. I have been thinking about this question of identity since Hilda Highfill brought it up at one of our September Wednesday Night sessions. In a curious way, Hilda wondered out loud how most of us would talk about “who we are” as a church. Another member quickly noted that she imagined that, while as individuals we might not use the same words to describe Pullen’s identity, there would indeed be some common threads in our responses. This question of identity for us as a church is an important question. Knowing who we are helps us shape and define how we will be in the world now. Here are some things that are important to me when I think about our Pullen identity. We are a Christian church, grounding our response to the world in the story of Jesus; believing that we are to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God. We are a unique Baptist church, living in the tradition of being “free and faithful Baptists.” We are a Christian church in the Baptist tradition that believes strongly in ecumenism and interfaith dialogue, and that it is important to invest in partnerships of faith around the world. We are an open, welcoming, and inclusive church seeking to practice God’s radical hospitality. We are a compassionate church believing that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. Affirming that all people are created equal, we are a church that responds to the injustice in the world by being actively involved in making our community and the world a more just society. We are a gathering of diverse people who are not held together by creeds or one way of thinking or by one way of knowing God. Our common bond is our deep desire to be God’s people in the world as best we understand what it means to be God’s people, to do all we can to make the world a more compassionate and just world for all people, and to honor one another’s individual spiritual journey. This list is not meant to be exhaustive. It is, however, those things that rise to the top when I think about “who we are” as a church. I’m wondering what words you would use to describe who we are as the Pullen community. As that wise church member stated, “Each of us will use different words, but there will indeed be some common threads.” It is my hope that we will keep working together to find those common threads and continue to be the best Pullen that we can be. —Nancy
