A “movement” focused on reengaging North America with the gospel that has been brewing for nearly a decade is beginning to take a more defined shape, and the Baptist General Convention of Texas has quite a few seats at the table.
Dennis Wiles, pastor of First Baptist Church in Arlington and chair of the Ascent council, welcomed around 200 invited participants — called curators — to the second formative gathering of Ascent.
When asked when the movement began, Wiles said he “would say it began when Jesus ascended into the heavens and gave the church this message and this mission.” However, the Ascent council, a group of eight at the time, first began conversations in 2016.
The initial group included Texas and Virginia Baptists, who felt like they’d lost their denominational home beyond their local and state affiliations — particularly the national and international missions agencies of their denomination.
Dreaming of a new network
It became clear in the years of dreaming about this new network, a sense of disenfranchisement from denomination was not limited to moderate Baptists in two states, Wiles explained.
Centrists across denominational lines were finding themselves in a similar place of loss.
Wiles said he’d been praying God would use the gathering — this new group assembled from orthodox, centrist Christians from a variety of denominational backgrounds — to discern together what God is up to in this time.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Calli Keener and originally published by Baptist Standard.
