Oh! So you're Southern Baptist?

When it comes to sharing my faith, being baptist is rarely a part of my conversation. I am a follower of Jesus that currently fellowships with other believers at a Southern Baptist church.

Although the Southern Baptists are a large denomination with a rich history, I rarely mention that as a part of my personal journey with Jesus; nor is it a part of how I expect others to walk with Jesus.
I guess I have never really thought about not thinking about being "baptist" until the other day.

I was talking to a friend that I have known for more than twenty years. Ours has been a long distance friendship that began through our work in NATCA (the union that represents air traffic controllers) and our mutual love of the game of baseball. Even though we worked in different cities, our mutual respect for one another seemed to develop into a friendship where similar connections with other controllers did not.

I stopped by to visit and catch up on what we have been doing in retirement -- he's running for Congress and I'm out riding a motorcycle! As a part of that conversation, we talked about some of the summer camps I did and preaching that I was doing and he asked how people know to call me. I told him that most of them are from the Missouri Southern Baptists since I am a member of their fellowship of evangelists.

His response -- "Oh! So you're Southern Baptist? I didn't know that."

I guess that's a good thing, right?
I would really rather be known as a follower of Jesus than as a denominational follower.
And I would really rather help others to follow Jesus than to join a church, club or denomination.
So now I've been thinking about not thinking about being baptist. It's as weird as it sounds -- thinking about not thinking about something.

In doing so, I've determined that being "baptist" just isn't that important to me. And I don't believe that it should be that important to anybody else either.

Strange post this morning.
Just something I've been thinking about...

John <><