Fall Adult Book Study Explores Our American Baptist Identity

Our Four Fragile Freedoms: Baptist Life and Identity by Walter B. Shurden

This Fall we are exploring our American Baptist identity and what makes us distinctive as Baptists through a sermon series based on the book The Baptist Identity: Four Fragile Freedoms by Walter B. Shurden and the 2026 sermon series “Our Baptist Freedoms” curated by the First Baptist Church of Madison, Wisconsin. Each Sunday we reflect on one of our four Baptist freedoms: Bible Freedom, Soul Freedom, Church Freedom and Religious Freedom.

The sermon series concludes this coming Sunday, November 8, with the Pastor’s sermon on “Religious Freedom.” All three earlier sermons are available on our YouTube channel. Watch the first one below, “Bible Freedom.”

The Four Fragile Freedoms are the foundation of our American Baptist Churches USA denomination. The ABCUSA website notes that we share this identity “with more than 42 million Baptists around the world as a common tradition begun in the early 17th century.” The four freedoms symbolize our uniqueness as a living Baptist tradition, even as we continue to participate in the larger ecumenical and interfaith community.

We invite you to watch the sermon series and any other of Pastor Rebecca’s sermons on YouTube. We invite you to join us for worship by Zoom every Sunday at 9:00am and in person at 10:30am.