ShareThisWhat unites us as Colorado Baptists? What common bond do we share that will help us truly impact this state by penetrating lostness? Is it the Cooperative Program? Is it the Baptist Faith and Message? Is it sharing particular affinities such as being a product of a “mountain/western” culture? Is it geographical proximity? Is it style of worship? Is it our methodology and ecclesiology? What truly unites us as Colorado Baptists?
While I am a strong proponent of the Cooperative Program and believe it to be the most effective means of fulfilling the Great Commission through shared resources, and I subscribe wholeheartedly to the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, and appreciate the diversity of our many worship styles, methodological and ecclesiological expressions of church, I believe there is something more deeply fundamental that unites us. It is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I am afraid that we are living in an evangelical culture where the gospel is being assumed and whenever this happens, the next generation almost always suffers a drift into liberalism, pragmatism, and a down-grade on the most important message we are called to share. In 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, Paul reminds us that the gospel is of first importance. He writes, “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you- unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.”
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