Conference in Free Church DNA

In God’s family we share the same divine DNA, even if we come from different cultures and nationalities. This was confirmed during the conference, organised by Theology and Education commission of EBF and Estonian Free Church Theological Seminary in the beginning of November. Participants were from Norway, Nigeria, Lithuania, Netherlands, UK, USA, Ukraine, Philippines, Czech Republic, Serbia, Germany, Slovakkia and from Estonia. There were Baptists, Pentecostals, Methodists and also one Orthodox.

Orthodox participant, young ukrainian student said that she was both joyful and a bit sad because people from a different Christian confession understand her better than some of her fellow Orthodox Christians. She said that she was very appreciative and spiritually strengthened.

One day before the conference there was a pre-conference for students to present their papers. Several of the Estonian Seminary’s master students shared their ideas and got good questions in return. This is a new tradition worth of considering for the future – maybe organising online student conferences now and then for baptistic graduate students? We have so much to learn from each other.

The focus of the Free church DNA conference was on priesthood of all believers.  Andrew Williams, faculty member from Lithuanian Christian College wrote: “The topic, the priesthood of all believers, is such an important concept. I was glad to learn from and think together with you and others about it.” For me, one of the organisers, the connection between the key concept and the practice of discipleship was probably most eye-opening, helped by the interview with Dietrich Schindler. Every believer is a disciple and someone who should make disciples.

However, the question was also asked about the limits and even dangers of misunderstanding and mispracticing the priesthood of all believers. “If everybody is a priest, then does the concept mean anything?”, asked one of the participants. Many good questions were raised, some were answered, but maybe even more were left for further reflection and discussion. Commission hopes to have another conference already next year.

Einike Pilli