Beauty - Inward and Outward
by Rob Appel
From the BWA General Secretary...Neville Callam
Beauty - Inward and Outward
Kenosha, Wisconsin - what a lovely place! It was there, on the campus of Carthage College, that conferees gathered. They had come from many countries and were celebrating what God was enabling among them. Three hundred and fifteen delegates represented fifty-four churches and, together with several hundred guests, they made the Seventh Day Baptist General Conference a profitable time.
Seventh Day Baptists describe themselves as “evangelical Baptists who hold to keeping the seventh day Sabbath of the Bible as sacred time.” Their churches can be found in several countries including the USA and Canada, Jamaica and Guyana, Australia and New Zealand, England, Brazil, and the Philippines.
It was my pleasure to gather with Baptist brothers and sisters in a beautiful place where followers of Christ were reviewing their faithfulness in ministry and planning for the future. The theme they chose was A Limitless God for a Hungry People. Rich and rewarding are some of the words I would use to characterize the fellowship. Inspiring was the leadership of the amiable Rob Appel, Executive Director, and of Andrew Samuels, President - himself an outstanding man of Jamaican descent - and the sense of togetherness in God's work experienced in Kenosha was compelling. What was also very encouraging was the presence of significant numbers of young people to ensure liveliness in the evening gatherings and creative approaches to communal celebration.
As I left Kenosha, I thought not only about the quality of the time spent together with our Seventh Day Baptist sisters and brothers. I also considered the subject of beauty - a subject inspired by the location of the conference, right on the shore of Lake Michigan, and the Siebert chapel that formed the physical context for the gathering.
Perhaps the Protestant Reformation has contributed to depreciation among some believers of appreciation for art and beauty in worship. The stout defense of controversial claims about what it means to employ the art of representation to stimulate worship of the unseen has adversely affected our corporate worship. It has helped strip our places of worship of art forms that inspire reverence and evoke an appropriate sense of mystery, which is a dimension of our faith. Renewed resort to a wayward iconoclasm has diverted us from the worship of God that involves the use of all the senses - including sight!
When outwardly, the places where we worship are marked by beauty without extravagance, we may be challenged to inwardly cultivate that beauty as well. Then, the old song that begins with the words, “Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me” may inspire us to give ourselves more fully to the spiritual disciplines in the service of the vocation to holiness.
Beauty - Inward and Outward
Kenosha, Wisconsin - what a lovely place! It was there, on the campus of Carthage College, that conferees gathered. They had come from many countries and were celebrating what God was enabling among them. Three hundred and fifteen delegates represented fifty-four churches and, together with several hundred guests, they made the Seventh Day Baptist General Conference a profitable time.
Seventh Day Baptists describe themselves as “evangelical Baptists who hold to keeping the seventh day Sabbath of the Bible as sacred time.” Their churches can be found in several countries including the USA and Canada, Jamaica and Guyana, Australia and New Zealand, England, Brazil, and the Philippines.
It was my pleasure to gather with Baptist brothers and sisters in a beautiful place where followers of Christ were reviewing their faithfulness in ministry and planning for the future. The theme they chose was A Limitless God for a Hungry People. Rich and rewarding are some of the words I would use to characterize the fellowship. Inspiring was the leadership of the amiable Rob Appel, Executive Director, and of Andrew Samuels, President - himself an outstanding man of Jamaican descent - and the sense of togetherness in God's work experienced in Kenosha was compelling. What was also very encouraging was the presence of significant numbers of young people to ensure liveliness in the evening gatherings and creative approaches to communal celebration.
As I left Kenosha, I thought not only about the quality of the time spent together with our Seventh Day Baptist sisters and brothers. I also considered the subject of beauty - a subject inspired by the location of the conference, right on the shore of Lake Michigan, and the Siebert chapel that formed the physical context for the gathering.
Perhaps the Protestant Reformation has contributed to depreciation among some believers of appreciation for art and beauty in worship. The stout defense of controversial claims about what it means to employ the art of representation to stimulate worship of the unseen has adversely affected our corporate worship. It has helped strip our places of worship of art forms that inspire reverence and evoke an appropriate sense of mystery, which is a dimension of our faith. Renewed resort to a wayward iconoclasm has diverted us from the worship of God that involves the use of all the senses - including sight!
When outwardly, the places where we worship are marked by beauty without extravagance, we may be challenged to inwardly cultivate that beauty as well. Then, the old song that begins with the words, “Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me” may inspire us to give ourselves more fully to the spiritual disciplines in the service of the vocation to holiness.
posted by Rob Appel at
2:27 PM
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