Sometimes a new name can give you a new perspective. Saul's name was changed to Paul. It was a new life and a new perspective. Others viewed him differently. He was no longer the man who persecuted Christians, but became the man who preached the gospel to the gentiles.
Adding just one word to the name of our association would send a clear message as to our global vision; International. Many years ago one of our ABA presidents recommended with a resolution that our name be changed to 'ABA International', due to the growing number of churches in many new foreign countries being added to our fellowship and the importance of developing a global unity among us. It was soundly defeated on the messenger floor!
A name change would be good for us all. It will give us a sense of going forward. It will be encouraging to the hundreds of new churches globally to know that we have accepted them. It will clearly declare where we are going and who we want to become.
A new name would be a good thing.
David
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12 comments:
I really like your present name. To me, GLOBAL says it all and nothing else is needed to express your purpose. Either way, your ministry is awesome.
I agree 100%.
We Japanese exports cars and radios to other country's. That's is called service. But we need Christian service also. Japanese Christian should be called international missionary exporting Christians!
What about
Global Association of Missionary Baptist Churches?
GAMBC
What about Universal Missionary Baptist Association
I concur!
I concur!
I think that a new name and change of format would be very
refreshing. It seems that many of the reports sound the exact same as the year before. Put them on a table for everyone to read and vote on them without speaking to them.
If the bloggers in our work all got on it we could create a ground swell that could really make an impact on the meetings and the work as a whole.
Wouldn't it be great to go to the meeting and hear relevant, encouraging and educational sermons. I appreciate the men that have spoken over the years and have nothing against any of them personally but usually those that speak are winners of a popularity contest, a good ole boy, or chosen by the body to make a statement against something they didn't agree with.
Some have done an exceptional job but they are the exception.
I don't need to hear any more rhetoric, I along with 1000 other guys at the meeting already know what we believe, and probably aren't going to change our minds about much anyway.
It is pretty much true that most of the sermons we hear are going to be about one of the following or all of them.
1.That Repentance Preceeds Faith
2.Local Church (Authority-Perpetuity-Autonomy the whole spectrum)
3.The World is getting Worse and so the end is near
4.KJV
5.Views against or for Indigenous Missions(even though I don't think many really know what it is)
6.Stroll down memory lane and how things used to be
7.How to do it my way
8.3 point sermon with points all starting with the letter "S" and all the sub points with "P" but I can't remember what it was about.
9.There's those sermons that someone is dealing with a specific personal issue or problem they have with someone else. They think everyone knows what they are talking about but only 10 people really know(if that)!
10."It's over?" I didn't realize I went to sleep
Suppose the ABA continued with its current name and format, but a new international association was formed. Then, we'd have local, state, national and international associations.
I completely concur with the previous statement of Anonymous. If we have an international association we would simply be a globally local ("glocal" Bro Smith) association within the International Baptist Association. I do not think that we should call it ABA international because this would still make America the Central focus of an association that is world wide. I believe that the heart is good, but the end result is wrong.
We are not just one nation under God, we should be one world under God. I am proud to be an American, but a Japanese citizen should be proud to be a Japanese, and should not feel inferior to the Americans because they are a memeber of the American Baptist Association International. Let them be the JBA chapter of the IBA and us be the ABA chapter of the IBA.
I would suggest that someone start looking into a list of names that are likely to be chosen and see if any of them have copyrights on them. That way it can go to the ABA meeting and all the little loose ends are already taken care of. Otherwise it will just get tabled because of a lack of prep.
I like
International Baptist Association.......also
If it was IBA you could still say it and in the south it would sound like ABA....lol
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