Metro Baptist Church in New York City recently conducted a Sunday service devoted to religious liberty. Taking advantage of a guest sermon by J. Brent Walker, they added elements to their service focusing on religious liberty. Some were adapted from resources on the BJC’s Web site — including the Call to Worship and opening hymn — and others were created by Metro members.
Metro’s members were encouraged to think about religious freedom in a personal way. Two members who came to New York City as adults (David Massengill and Paula Nance) performed a dialogue about their experiences with school prayer growing up as Baptists and how different those issues looked in the religiously diverse New York City public schools. The dialogue — just a few minutes long — was in the early part of the service, giving the congregation a chance to think about and reflect on the issues during the rest of the service.
Metro Baptist Church is just one example of the many different congregations celebrating religious liberty and educating others about it. If you have a religious liberty day story you would like to share, we’d loveto hear from you!
And it’s never too late to plan an entire religious liberty service — or just a moment of emphasis — at your church. The BJC maintains online resources with materials and ideas to help you create the right concept for your congregation. The script from Metro Baptist Church’s dialogue is available on our Web site, as well as a brand-new bulletin insert that gives the Biblical basis for hurch-state separation.
Just visit www.BJConline.org, go to the “Resources” tab, then click on “Documents.” You’ll find a category that is your one-stop shop for Religious Liberty Day materials.
If you plan or organize a religious liberty day — or if you have any questions — please let us know! Contact the Baptist Joint Committee at (202) 544-4226 or [email protected].
