We must bind up their wounds and work for a more just society. It is on these things that we will be judged. American Baptists believe that the laity are also ministers and that both laymen and laywomen share in being gifted by the Holy Spirit with gifts for ministry and leadership. Thus, on our Boards and the General Board, one will find large percentages that are laity. Women are not only serving in leadership roles as laity but women are also being called to ordained ministry.
Women serve at all levels of denominational life.
We value the diversity of gifts that different ethnic and racial groups bring. Out of this value and our commitment to missions, we are being renewed by new people who are joining with the old to make a new denomination which is representative of what the United States is becoming, a multicultural nation. We are a rich people, but we do not believe we have the whole truth, nor should we try to do ministry on our own. And so we work cooperatively with other Christians in the ecumenical movement through organizations like the Massachusetts Council of Churches. In addition, we work with evangelical groups like Vision New England.