Journal: Journal for Baptist Theology & Ministry
Volume: JBTM 18:2 (Fall 2021)
Article: Implementing Biblical Principles For Healthy Congregational Life
Author: Harold B. Bullock

JBTM 18:2 (Fall 2021) p. 193

Implementing Biblical Principles For Healthy Congregational Life

Harold B. Bullock

Harold B. Bullock planted Hope Church, Fort Worth, Texas, and retired after more than 40 years as founding pastor.

The man in the photo was beaming! A shorter man in his late forties, he held suspended from his right hand a wide paper, nearly half as long as he. On the paper were listed the “Heart Attitudes,” each written in five of the major languages of his homeland, India. An evangelist, he had learned the Heart Attitudes at a 1997 missions conference in Asia. For the next fifteen years, he used them both in evangelism and in follow-up with converts. A mission team sent from our church, Hope Church, to eastern India had met him in the context of their work. They sent me the photo.

Across Cultures

The photo was amazing! The Heart Attitudes concept was developed at the beginning of Hope Church in Fort Worth, Texas, in the spring of 1978. Nearly two decades later and half a world away, the Indian evangelist had learned about them. And he had used them effectively for many years. How the information made its way to India was unclear, but it was clear that the biblical principles for relationships expressed by the Heart Attitudes “made sense” to people in very different cultures—and they “worked.”

A couple of years after that photo arrived, I taught a Doctor of Ministry seminar for a Southern Baptist seminary. The students were mature church leaders from very different cultures: Korea, south India, and Cameroon. As they surveyed the Heart Attitudes, all agreed they would fit and work in their diverse situations.

Biblical principles are transcultural. The method or way in which they are implemented may look different in various people groups, but the principles apply. Though we often do not think of it in this way, applying New Testament (NT) principles to the American church situation is a “cross-cultural” move—from first-century Jewish and Roman society to twenty-first-century America. These are very different societies.

JBTM 18:2 (Fall 2021) p. 194

You may be familiar with the old poem: “Methods are many, principles are few. Methods often change; principles never do.” Methods for carrying out church life might change across different communities and different cultures. Even in the same culture, they may change over time. But bedrock principles that underlie methods remain.

American church life involves many different types of activities, e.g., worshipping, communicating, training, leading, decision making, advising Christians, relating to each other, teaming together, working together on projects, etc. To carry out their act...