{"id":3077,"date":"2019-11-16T12:31:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-16T17:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/?p=3077"},"modified":"2020-12-20T12:33:12","modified_gmt":"2020-12-20T17:33:12","slug":"the-baptist-mouse-that-roared","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/the-baptist-mouse-that-roared\/","title":{"rendered":"The Baptist Mouse That Roared"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Growing up in the 1960s, the Cold War was raging. Required reading was Leonard Wibberley\u2019s 1955 novel, <em>The Mouse That Roared<\/em>. The satirical novel is about how a tiny nation going through unexpected events ended up becoming the peacekeeper in preventing nuclear powers from using their world ending bombs. I have often used the \u201cmouse that roared\u201d metaphor in other contexts when the odds are great to succeed or when a minority opinion becomes the truth that matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The genesis of the Pacific Coast Baptist Association 20 years ago was at a time when being labeled \u201cBaptist\u201d was fading in importance if not a liability, working collaboratively as a \u201cpriesthood of all believers\u201d gave way to a corporate management model, and \u201csoul liberty\u201d to interpret Scripture in the presence of other informed disciples was pushed aside for an emphasis on what is orthodoxy by those in positions of authority. In this time of post-modernism, PCBA came into being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Change is inevitable. I am different by the time you read these words than the time when I wrote them. Being open to change is as much biblical as it is to welcome the Holy Spirit to breathe new life into us and into our churches for revitalization. While the world and the church in the US and around the world are constantly changing, it is also important for the church to remember our history and offer what we believe to be valuable and helpful to the present and the future. The PCBA serves in such a capacity to be one of the American Baptist witnesses in Northern California and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I imagine the future of churches in today\u2019s climate will rests more on the shared convictions we hold rather than the organized groups we belong. Crossing borders to cooperate on common objectives would outweigh past histories or even core beliefs. PCBA is more a movement than an institution. Jesus said, \u201cWhere two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.\u201d (Matt.18:20) As long as we come together as Christ\u2019s disciples, we are a faithful people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Living in a sometimes dizzying, loud cacophony of noises, the Pacific Coast Baptist Association is a \u201cmouse that is still roaring\u201d calling people to be the Baptist witness today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Growing up in the 1960s, the Cold War was raging. Required reading was Leonard Wibberley\u2019s 1955 novel, The Mouse That Roared. The satirical novel is about how a tiny nation<span class=\"more-button\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/the-baptist-mouse-that-roared\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The Baptist Mouse That Roared<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[113],"class_list":["post-3077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-donald-ng-writings","tag-pacific-coast-baptist-association"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3077"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3078,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3077\/revisions\/3078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}