Ellis Orozco on Poverty and Baptists

August 10, 2009

I’m sure that everyone who is familiar with Ellis Orozco (pastor of FBC Richardson, Texas) will affirm my observation that Rev. Orozco is an incredible preacher. I first heard Rev. Orozco speak in January, 2008 at the mini-Preaching Conference during the Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant in Atlanta. Read snippets from that powerful immigration-themed sermon here.

Last week, Rev. Orozco preached a sermon titled Poverty and the Baptist Legacy at the Midwest regional meeting of the New Baptist Covenant in Norman, Oklahoma. I regret that I did not get to attend - I was sick - but the Baptist Standard has excellent coverage of yet another powerful sermon by Ellis Orozco.

Listen to Orozco here (begins at 1:23 minute mark)

From Baptist Standard article:

“The poor are depending upon our witness in the face of the strongholds of systemic evil in our … nation,” Orozco said. But Baptists must maintain their advocacy and help for the poor “in a world that will grow increasingly hostile toward Christianity and increasingly apathetic toward the poor,” he added.

…“It’s a mind-blowing and dizzying time to be alive, and most Christian groups will begin to shrink away and build fortresses of protection against every perceived danger or threat,” he said. “But I believe that we, as Baptists, have been shaped as a people for such a time as this. We have in our arsenal of faith practices the tools we need to ride the waves of change.” Those “tools” reflect Baptists’ unique combination of historic values and beliefs, he said. They include soul competency, the priesthood of every believer, religious freedom and the separation of church and state, voluntary cooperation based upon missionary zeal and church autonomy.

We as Baptists do have a powerful arsenal of “tools.” The most important of these tools - our cornerstone distinctive - is clearly soul freedom. All political engagement in the public arena must be based on a commitment to respect conscience - an intentional commitment to sincerely value the sacredness of the individual conscience. Respecting the conscience of Christians and non-Christians alike just might do a little to lessen the hostility toward Christianity here in America and abroad….

Here’s Orozco with the conclusion:

If we lose our distinctively Baptist heritage, there will not be a unified, coherent Baptist voice speaking for the [poor] of our state and our nation….We must preserve a distinctively Baptist witness in the world because the poor, the hurting, and the lost are depending on it.

Read the full-text of the entire sermon here.