"Cross" Culture
Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. (Romans 15:7 NIV)
As I was entering high school, singer/songwriter Billy Swan became a one-hit wonder that summer with the Billboard chart topping song, “I Can Help.” The song begins,
“If you got a problem, don't care what it is, you need a hand, I can assure you this, I can help.I got two strong arms, I can help. It would sure do me good to do you good. Let me help.”
Speaking of ancient history, I now have a little history of my own, although five years is a drop in the bucket of the Dover Baptist Association’s 243 trips around the sun. I have been traveling this year to our historic churches who are celebrating milestone anniversaries. I have been humbled to learn about the efforts of those churches, leaders and servant saints who have both reached out to, and been part of marginalized people, who responded metaphorically, and literally, “I can help.”
In his remarks at the 250th Homecoming Celebration of Dover Baptist Church, Dr. Fred Anderson, Executive Director Emeritus of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society reported, “In 1797, Dover Association (even) recommended, …that Baptists unite with the abolition society for gradual emancipation. If only the Virginia government had listened to the pleas of the 18th century Virginia Baptists, emancipation may have happened 70 years earlier and without a civil war.”
At the 250th Anniversary Celebration of Antioch Baptist Church, Chickahominy Tribe Chief, Stephen Adkins, touted the role of Antioch in providing space for Indian peoples to come together to worship. These Native citizens would be the foundation of establishing Samaria Baptist Church, where Chief Adkins and his tribes’ ancestors have served for 125 years. Samaria Baptist Church would then be a sending church for missionaries, Pete and Angela Adkins, who would plant Darkness to Light Community Church. This church serves the often-marginalized communities of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in Cannon Ball, North Dakota.
During the 160th Anniversary Celebration at Second Liberty Baptist Church, Sister Taylor, reported that this predominantly African American Body of Christ, began when black members of Emmaus Baptist Church (another 250-year-old Dover church) met with other black Christians across the county to form what would become Second Liberty, so named because of the congregations’ newfound liberty.
Our Dover churches continue to reach out and reflect the cultural diversity of our community and nation. We consist of predominantly Arabic, Asian, African, African American, Hispanic, Native American and white congregations.
It is important to remember that those then, just as we now, were an imperfect people, saved purely by the grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It is my belief that, like now, the decision to do the right thing was prompted and only accomplished through the moving of the Holy Spirit. In this time when incivility, racism, division, and an effort, by many, to keep different races, ethnicities, and cultures, in the margins, perhaps our Lord is calling us Baptists to repeat history. It is my most fervent prayer that we begin, literally and metaphorically, with a Christian “Cross” culture commitment of “I can help!”
God bless.
Arnold “Win” Davis,
Executive Director of Missions
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