To say Alabama Baptists make up a diverse group is an understatement. We are the largest affinity group in the state. One out of every five Alabamians is a resident member of a church cooperating with the Alabama Baptist State Convention. Figured on total membership, about one out of four state residents is a member of a cooperating church. Alabama Baptists are rural and urban, male and female. Some work in some of the most sophisticated and technologically challenging positions in the world. Others are manual laborers. Some are rich and powerful by worldly standards. Some eke by on meager means.
Alabama Baptists are spread across all the state’s 52,423 square miles. Some of our churches are among the nation’s largest. Most are small. Some churches have multiple ministry staff positions. Others are served by bivocational pastors. Most of our members are white, but a growing number are people of color and worship in a language other than English.
How can such a diverse group work together, some ask. And how can one state Baptist paper, The Alabama Baptist, serve them all? The answer to both questions is the same. Alabama Baptists largely share common values that are more important than our differences.
Alabama Baptists believe everyone should have the opportunity to hear and respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus died to make salvation possible for all who will believe on the name of the only begotten Son of God. That decision has eternal consequences, for there is only one way of salvation — through faith in Jesus. Our Lord commissioned His disciples and those who came after them to preach the gospel to the ends of the earth because God’s desire is that none should perish but all should come to repentance.
Alabama Baptists believe the Bible is God’s Holy Word. It is the authority for our faith and practice. The Bible makes God known to man and teaches us how to live before Him and with one another. Its principles guide our lives and shape our beliefs.
Alabama Baptists believe Christians are called to be disciples of Christ. Salvation is the first step in a lifelong journey that leads toward discipleship. Lives of believers are to reflect the values that Jesus preached and modeled during His earthly life.
Alabama Baptists believe one of the absolute truths of the Bible is that evil is real and must be resisted in one’s personal life as well as in society. Personal sin is to be challenged in the power of the Holy Spirit and so is a culture that encourages the dark side of the human spirit.
Alabama Baptists believe only Jesus stands in that sacred space between God and the individual believer because Jesus is the great High Priest. No other can be permitted into that space, for to do so usurps the place of the Savior. That is why Alabama Baptists believe in personal accountability to and personal responsibility before God.
While these are broad-brush descriptions of but some of the common values of Alabama Baptists, they are values illustrated in detail in each issue of the state Baptist paper. The Gospel of John describes Jesus as “the Light of the World,” and every week, The Alabama Baptist shares stories of how God uses Baptists to share that Light. Some stories tell of sharing the light of Jesus in far away places through international missions. Some stories are about sharing the Light in our nation or right here in Alabama, where a little less than 20 percent of the population claims no affiliation with any church group.
The Bible is described by the psalmist as a “light unto my path.” The Alabama Baptist not only publishes Bible studies showing how our beliefs and teachings come from the Bible but the state Baptist paper also tells of ways God uses the Bible to light the path believers walk. Some stories tell how the Bible has motivated believers to hands-on missions involvement. Others tell of ways the Bible altered values and reshaped and changed the course of lives.
After all, believing the Bible is more than intellectual assent. It is transforming commitment.
In Matthew 5, Jesus challenged believers to let their “lights” shine in ways that bring glory to God. One of the ways is by resisting evil. During the past year, no Alabama entity has done more to call attention to the evil of gambling than The Alabama Baptist and the effort continues. But gambling is only one of the social evils exposed. Human trafficking, abortion, terrorism, homosexuality, hunger, Christian persecution — these are but a few of the evils on which the state Baptist paper has focused the light of God’s Word so readers could be better equipped to let their lights shine against such moral corruption.
The Alabama Baptist unapologetically uses the filter of God’s Word to shed light on all issues examined on its pages.
For Christians to let their lights shine, they have to decide what to believe and do. One cannot be manipulated or coerced and still freely respond to God’s leadership.
That is why Baptists have always believed in the adage “tell the truth and trust the people.” That is more than a cute saying; it is a theological commitment. And that is why information about all that Baptists do together regularly appears on the pages of The Alabama Baptist.
Shedding the light of Christ each week — that is the work of the state Baptist paper. The Alabama Baptist sheds the light of the gospel on a lost world. It sheds the light of God’s Word to encourage believers and foster discipleship. It sheds the light of God’s saints to confront evil. It sheds the light of information so each believer may live responsibly before God.
As The Alabama Baptist sheds light on the shared values that make it possible for such a diverse people as Alabama Baptists to be united as a family of faith, the state Baptist paper demonstrates that it is a necessary resource for Christian living and should be a part of the Christian literature furnished by churches for active resident families.
On July 26, remember the ministry of The Alabama Baptist and pray for the state Baptist paper as it “sheds light on a dark world.”
For more information about The Alabama Baptist, visit www.thealabamabaptist.org or call 1-800-803-5201.
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