Looking in the other direction: The Story of the Believers Church Conferences

SUMMARY In this study I tell the story of the Believers Church Tradition (BCT) on the basis of nineteen Believers Church Conferences (BCC) held between 1967 and 2017. Through a lens, created from the first seminal conference at Louisville 1967, all the papers of these conferences are analyzed to find the defining characteristics of this tradition. This lens consists of the nature of faith, the nature of the church, the nature of hermeneutical discernment and het nature of mission. The proceeds of this are used to establish the ecumenical contribution of this tradition to the ecclesiological debate. The resulting pneumatic and kenotic ecclesiological perspective is applied to the concrete case of mutual baptismal recognition. The central question of this study is how the defining characteristics of the BCT challenge and sharpen the understanding of the church in the ecumenical ecclesiological debate. In order to answer this question, I have split the question into three sub-questions, each of which is answered in a section of the book: 1. What is meant by the Believers Church Tradition and how did it emerge in the twentieth century? (Part I) 2. What are the defining characteristics of the Believers Church Tradition based on the outcomes of the nineteen Believers Church Conferences held between 1967 and 2017? (Part II) 3. What contribution has the Believers Church Tradition to offer to the ecumenical ecclesiological conversation? (Part III) It is shown in Part III that the BCT has its own ecumenical style, summarized in ‘Spirit over structure’. The continuity of the Gospel and the church lies in the living and renewing force of the Spirit, working in every generation anew. Spirit over structure is different from Spirit or structure; it is a statement about priority. I conclude that an approach to ecclesiology from pneumatology is a very helpful contribution here. This pneumatological approach leads to and is reinforced by a kenotic ecclesiology. The Greek word kenosis, self-emptying (Phil 2:7), challenges churches to sacrifice whatever it takes for the unity of the church. In this kenosis every church will have to give its own forms and traditions its place, or at least be willing to abolish them if needed. Therefore I join Peter Leithart in his recent plea (2016) for an ‘interim ecclesiology’ towards what he calls Reformational Catholicism, which demands the necessary death of churches and denominations in order to answer Jesus’s prayer of John 17, though I prefer to seek a Radical Reformational Catholicism. This is a turn to a ‘receptive ecumenism’, an ecumenism of gift exchange. Finally I apply this pneumatic and kenotic ecclesiological perspective to the concrete case of one of the ecumenical stumbling blocks: mutual baptismal recognition. Based on the idea of kenosis we abstain from our demand of rebaptism as long as other brothers and sisters see their Christian initiation completed through infant baptism and confirmation. At the same time, since our conviction is and remains that ‘baptism upon personal profession of faith is the most clearly attested pattern in the New Testament documents’ (BEM, section 11) and only believer’s baptism is capable of bearing the full weight of a New Testament theology of baptism, re-baptism remains an ‘impossible possibility’ for those seeking it conscientious and as a response to the work of the Holy Spirit in their life. Since baptism is not ours, we neither can demand others to abstain from infant baptism, nor they can demand us to abstain from re-baptism. All we can do is bear each other in love. Church history has saddled us with a common debt. This is a cross we must bear together.