A Shelter in the Storm
Summer is a great time for me to catch up on history. I’m intrigued by the era when our nation was founded: 1630-1800. These years are also the formative ones for Baptists in America. In my last post, I refreshed your memory about some of the persecution that Baptists endured because of our views about Baptism and religious liberty. Baptists also had a distinctive way of describing the purpose of the church during changing times.
When Roger Williams, the founder of the First Baptist Church in America in Providence, first came to the colonies, he joined with John Winthrop’s group at Massachusetts Bay. Like Winthrop, he wanted America to be a “city set on a hill,” and the Massachusetts Bay group would be a shining example and beacon of such. He discovered, however, that the magistrates linked church and state together, and subsequently interpreted the Bible to fit how they wanted to run the state. They protested Williams’ approach to his pastorate in the Salem, Massachusetts, and they certainly did not want him to be a part of the Massachusetts colony. Welcomed by Native Americans, Williams began a place that he called “a shelter for persons of distressed conscience” and founded Providence, now the capital of Rhode Island. Williams was not a Baptist for long, but he left an indelible legacy on what it means to be the church today.
As gathered believers, called by God under the Lordship of Christ, we are to be as Jesus commanded, “salt and light.” We are the fallen, forgiven examples of what it means to shine as lights in the darkness. We are also a shelter in a time of storm for people who have been oppressed and abused by the effects of sin on their lives. We are a community that gathers under the shelter of God’s protection as a mission outpost. We are welcomed even by people of peace in many ways as Roger Williams was. These are people who also long for the kind of reconciliation that only Jesus can provide. They see something in us that is different—the honor, love, respect, righteousness, and service that comes from a follower of Christ.
Baptists like Roger Williams have always resisted laws imposed by humans on others that force them to believe out of coercion. Instead with freedom of conscience, and compelled by faith, we trust the Spirit to convict, convert, and conform people to the image of his son. In the meantime, we are a shelter in the time of storm, sharing a bright, bold witness to those seeking refuge.
One of my favorite old hymns I learned as a child expresses this theme best. This one was often sung by Ira Sankey at Dwight L. Moody’s revivals:
The Lord’s our Rock, in Him we hide,
A Shelter in the time of storm;
Secure whatever ill betide,
A Shelter in the time of storm.
Refrain
Oh, Jesus is a Rock in a weary land,
A weary land, a weary land;
Oh, Jesus is a Rock in a weary land,
A Shelter in the time of storm.
A shade by day, defense by night,
A Shelter in the time of storm;
No fears alarm, no foes afright,
A Shelter in the time of storm.
The raging storms may round us beat,
A Shelter in the time of storm
We’ll never leave our safe retreat,
A Shelter in the time of storm.
O Rock divine, O Refuge dear,
A Shelter in the time of storm;
Be Thou our Helper ever near,
A Shelter in the time of storm.
To learn more about Roger Williams and other Baptists like him, be sure to read John M. Barry’s biography, Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty and Curtis Freeman’s new book, Contesting Catholicity: Theology for Other Baptists.