I wonder what kind of image you would conjure up in your head if someone was described to you as being a radical dissenting non-conformist. Maybe you'd just look blankly and take a step backward, maybe you'd have an image of a person on a protest march, or a G20 protester, or maybe you'd think of the people in your local baptist church!!
Yesterday we had our first evening service for several years, and I asked the question, 'why do you come to a baptist church?' There were a variety of answers. For some it is location that is important. For others it is the informality that is attractive. For many the label 'baptist' is not at all significant. And surprisingly, no one answered that they came because they identified with the radical dissenting non-conformist ethos that baptists are known to stand for!
But baptist roots are in radical dissent - as the first baptists, about 400 years ago, refused to conform to religion as laid down by the king and the state church. Instead they called for freedom of religion (for all - not just Christians); to be allowed to worship God as they wanted; to be able to read, interpret and apply the Bible as they saw fit, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (one application was that of believers baptism - something that was not an option the the early seventeenth century).
Many of those first baptists were persecuted for this stance. Some died in prison. Some fled to Holland where they received a warm welcome.
And as Christians today, whether we are baptists or not, we are called to a life of radical dissent. In Romans 12:2 we are commanded not to conform to the ways of the world. Instead we should stand against those things that we see in our culture that do not reflect God's way. Or have things become too comfortable for us?
