“These are serious times and soft words will not suffice”


These words were first spoken a century ago by a Disciple pastor named Peter Ainslie (Christian Temple of Baltimore). Ainslie was a committed ecumenist who took the Disciples emphasis on unity to a broader stage. In 1909 Ainslie believed we were at moment of crisis for the church, which required strong words.

Michael Kinnamon, whose recent book authored with Jan Linn (Disciples: Reclaiming Our Identity, Reforming Our Practice, Chalice, 2009), called on Disciples to reclaim our identity and inheritance, spoke to the crisis in our own midst. Speaking to a crowded General Assembly banquet, he reminded us that standing at the heart of our identity is this commitment to unity that was expressed so clearly in the Declaration and Address of Thomas Campbell (1809) and in Ainslie's opening address at the formation on the Council on Christian Union (1909), it is time for us to reclaim this calling.

Thanks to the reporting of Nathan Wilson (Disciples World) I have a more exact accounting of the words spoken by Kinnamon --

“Take Christian unity out of the message of the Disciples,” suggested Ainslie, “and our existence only adds to the enormity of the sin of division by making another division.” Added Kinnamon, “As I see it, it is this passion for unity, this readiness to die for the sake of our calling, that has given vigor to our evangelism, an edge to our social witness, and particular content to our worship and preaching.”
Unfortunately, Kinnamon told us, we have begun to think of ourselves as just another denomination, no longer having the passion for unity that once gave a reason for our existence. This is unfortunate because, at our best, we've seen ourselves as “a community with a passionate sense of particular identity that isn’t sectarian because its particular identity is to be a healer of the universal church! And if we have lost this, then not only we but the wider church is impoverished.”

I've posted a bit on the question of identity -- denominational identity -- largely in response to the Kinnamon and Linn book, but also in response to the kind of post-modern, post-denominationalism that is so prominent today. Our calling, as I hear it, as Disciples, is not to be generic Christians, but passionate about healing divisions within the church. Thus, the value of our identity statement -- "We are a movement of wholeness in a fragmented world . . . "

With that Kinnamon gives us 4 commitments that emerge from our identity if we're to be a movement of wholeness:

  1. Model wholeness in our own lives.
  2. Welcome those excluded by society.
  3. Teach the vision of unity and wholeness to future generations.
  4. Support those parts of the church that uphold our identity as people of unity and wholeness.
As the reporter reports "After all, asked Kinnamon, 'What is our heart, if not unity and wholeness?'”

And so, because these are serious times, our speaker spoke strongly -- calling us to take up the cause of unity, the cause of peace, and the cause of those in need.




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