Editorial: ‘Rejoice with those who rejoice’

There’s so much in this world we do not rejoice over. So much of the news, including in the Baptist Standard, is not “rejoicing with those who rejoice,” but is “mourning with those who mourn.” There is much trouble in the world, and Christians and the church are not immune or exempt from it. There is much to mourn.

While there is a time to “mourn with those who mourn,” there also is a time to “rejoice with those who rejoice.” For at least as long as it takes you to read this editorial, this will be a time to rejoice.

‘You are what you celebrate.’

“You are what you celebrate.”

If this is true—and I believe it is—then we need to know what we’re celebrating and why we’re celebrating it. We also need to make sure we’re celebrating the right things.

For followers of Jesus, the right things include when people give their lives to Jesus, when people are baptized, and when our churches are healthy and ministering to others.

What do you celebrate? What does your church celebrate?

Stories of rejoicing

Over the last few weeks, we’ve gathered stories celebrating what God is doing in and through churches throughout Texas. I wish I could say that was on purpose.

One set of stories are opinion articles published in our Voices column. The other set of stories are news features published in our Texas column.

The opinion articles are from churches participating in Baylor University’s Soundings Project, which is part of Lilly Endowment Inc.’s Called to Lives of Meaning and Purpose Initiative.

The news articles feature churches participating in Pave, a church revitalization effort of Texas Baptists’ Center for Church Health.

We haven’t published all the stories yet. So be sure to watch for them during the next couple of weeks.

Large

Bear Creek Baptist Church in Katy isn’t a story in either category—Soundings Project or Pave. Nevertheless, theirs is a story we can celebrate. Bear Creek reported “60 baptisms since the beginning of 2024,” more than half of which were of adults.

When I shared this story on my Facebook profile April 2, Ariel Martinez—lead pastor of Del Sol Church in El Paso—commented: “We too had our 60th baptism YTD over the weekend, and we’ve got 5 more lined up for this coming Sunday!”

Math isn’t my strongest subject, but I’m pretty sure that’s more than one baptism per week.

And small

It’s not just large churches in large cities experiencing spiritual and numerical growth. We also rejoice with small churches—some urban and some rural.

For example, St. Luke Baptist Church in San Antonio had a couple dozen people attending in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The church’s future looked bleak. Then, they experienced 20 weeks of baptisms after Pastor Joe Barber led them to change part of the church’s worship service. You’ll have to read Calli Keener’s article for the whole story.

I know what a shot in the arm baptisms are for a small church. When I was the pastor of First Baptist Church in Covington, we moved into our new facility and called a new youth pastor at roughly the same time. During that first year, the youth pastor and I baptized more than 40 people.

Reasons to rejoice

These stories share reasons to rejoice—such as an increase in baptisms and what can happen when churches connect to larger efforts. And there are more reasons to celebrate than that.

Change

Most of the churches featured in these stories had to change at least one thing. For example, Pave encourages churches to make baptisms central to their worship services. That usually means changing the order of the service. I did that once—changed the order of service. Ask me how that went.

But the change is more than when baptisms happen during the service. The change includes what leads up to and what follows each baptism. Again, you’ll have to read the stories.

In addition to celebrating baptisms, we should celebrate these churches’ courage to change.

Collaboration

For most of the churches in these stories, their revitalization or growth was catalyzed from outside the church. Some received a peer community and outside funding—such as the Lilly Endowment grant funds in the case of churches participating in Baylor University’s Soundings Project. Others—such as those who participate in Pave—receive training, resourcing and collaborative community.

In addition to revitalized congregations, we should celebrate the community and collaboration fostering new vibrancy and vitality in our churches.

Community

Most of the churches re-engaged their communities in one or more ways.

First Baptist Church in Rosebud, working together with their local ministerial alliance in fall 2023, provided a free Thanksgiving meal in the city park for anyone in the community. The alliance also is working together to provide school supplies for elementary students in the local school district. These efforts are a big deal in a small community.

In addition to celebrating how God changes lives when the church serves the community, we should celebrate when God’s people serve together in community.

‘Rejoice with those who rejoice’

To celebrate something is to reward it. It is to give our time, energy and attention to it. We are rewarding a lot of lesser things by giving them a lot of our best time, energy and attention, leaving us emptier and worse off for it.

With a shift in perspective and by joining with our brothers and sisters in Christ, we can give our best to what will enliven us and our churches. How the times need us to be enlivened again.

Celebrating doesn’t mean we ignore the struggles or sweep the problems under the rug. No, we still must face those things; we still must mourn with those who mourn.

Celebration is another kind of response to the troubles of this world. It is defiance of this world, in a way. It is to side with hope and the fact trouble will not always have its way.

The church—the body of Christ—is alive and well. His Spirit is living and moving and is at work in us and in this world. Let us rejoice with those who rejoice.

Eric Black is the executive director, publisher and editor of the Baptist Standard. He can be reached at eric.black@baptiststandard.com. The views expressed are those of the author.