We are in the middle of an independent Baptist revolution. The cause of the American Revolution was the distance from Europe coupled with the obnoxious tax practices of the English government. The cause of the French Revolution was the starving French people coupled with the opulence of the French monarchy. The cause of our current revolution is the coupling of the internet and a movement that has too long evaded all intellectual challenge.
Let me explain what i mean: There was a day when Independent Baptists churches and institutions could be walled gardens, blocking out ideas and opinions that they didn’t agree with, and setting the rules for how we think about those not inside our little cloister. Those days are long over. Not only are endless opinions and articles a second away on the internet, but we can listen to sermons, read books and communicate with people we would have never had contact with twenty years ago. There are large groups of disenchanted former IFBs willing to point out our every misstep, both past and present, every time we open our laptop screen. The walls are coming down.
Revolutions may produce good results, but they are never pretty. Innocent people fall to the guillotines of zealous revolutionaries. Blood runs in the streets. People go crazy. People get greedy. Periods of unrest always follow as people put things back together.
I don’t want to be a revolutionary. I’ve never envisioned myself as the guy running through the streets, pumping my fists and shouting “power to the people.” Revolutions are never balanced. I want to be balanced. Revolutions are never cautious. Wisdom always is.
Blogs tend to be echo chambers, they are the places we young people go to bounce off the ideas created by the sudden influx of information coming our way. Unfortunately, I see my blog taking on a revolutionary flavor at times.
Balanced. Grateful. Wise. Patient.
Revolutionary. Rough. Zealous. Hasty.
These things don’t go together.
For the next week or so, I’m going to be posting things that I think will help us, the young generation of Indpendent Baptist leaders living through this revolution, stay balanced, grateful, wise and patient. Ways to live through the revolution without being a revolutionary. A survival kit for the IFB revolution.
Tomorrow, I’ll be talking about the importance of having older counselors.
[...] You can read my introduction here. [...]
Ryan Hayden
