“WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A BAPTIST CHURCH?”
I Peter 2: 4-5, 9-10.
Unfortunately, there is a stereotypical image that accompanies being a baptist church or minister — and we’re/I’m not it. The image usually has something to do with theological ignorance, shouting and waving the Bible while preaching, re-baptizing persons who have been baptized in another form, scaring people into decisions for Christ so that they do not go to hell and/or condemning people who don’t agree with us to hell. It also includes that famous triad: no dancing, smoking or drinking — at least in front of other baptists. It does include matters such as no divorce, no women ministers or deacons, and women being subservient to their husbands. In other words, what passes for the traditional baptist image is a closed- minded, anti-intellectualism that is long on passion and short on faith.
Sometimes people paint baptists as backwater yahoos who wouldn’t know what to do in the city. There’s the old joke about the baptists going to New Orleans for the Southern Baptist Convention. A restaurant owner was asked how they were as customers and he said: “They came with a twenty dollar bill in one hand and the Ten Commandments in the other — and left town without breaking either one.”
We can understand how much of a shock it is for visitors to look at us and make an association with that image. We have to move outsiders, especially young adults, beyond those images before they will even visit us, much less consider joining. There are many, many days when I have personally lamented: Why don’t we give up our identification as baptists? Why don’t we take baptist out of our church name and see if we are more accepting to others? What good is there in retaining a name if it has been so perjured in the minds of those whom we wish to reach that we cannot be whom God has called us to be? Oddly enough, many of those churches which have perjured the name have now removed it, seeing it as an obstacle to their growth.
To be sure there are good arguments on both sides of that issue — and I am not going to take it on this morning. What I do wish to state is quite simple: here are the reasons I believe that it is important to be a baptist. Some of you may expect me to say things like the Bible as God’s Word or Baptism by immersion only. However, those beliefs are not what motivate me to be baptist — and never have been. As a fourth generation baptist minister I have a long baptist heritage of faith. However, that heritage is not what holds me in the baptist house. Here are the core beliefs as to why, despite all the embarrassment and difficulty such a label can bring, I have remained a baptist minister.
Priesthood of the Believers
Central to our identity as baptists is the belief that while we have ministers, we have no priests. A priest is a holy man or woman, someone who intercedes with God for others and has special privileges with God in this way. We believe that each and every person has the right, indeed the obligation, not only to go to God for themselves, but also to voluntarily go to God for others. We believe that each and every individual has equal access to God through Jesus Christ.
Writing to the early church Simon Peter tells them that they are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people...” Judaism thought of herself as the priests unto the nations, but here we have Simon Peter indicating that all who call Jesus “Lord” participate in this divine calling. Earlier, in verse 5,
Simon Peter has indicated that they are being built “to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices to God
through Jesus Christ....”
Paganism and Judaism had priests — men who were designated to be their “holy men” whose responsibility was to go to God for their adherents. Often well-meaning Christians want their pastor to be their priest, i.e., their “holy man.” However, in Christianity we have the understanding that Jesus is our priest (Hebrews) who intercedes with God for us — and that all believers are called to be priests for each other. Carlyle Marney almost called his great work on this axiom from Martin Luther — “God at My Elbow.1” He really believed that through Christ we represent God to each other.
The priesthood of the believers rises from a deep-rooted, rugged individualism, born of the frontier and a belief that faith is very personal, i.e., an expression of our experience and knowledge of God. We say our own prayers and we go to God for ourselves — no one else can do these for us. As priests each of us are to be persons in whom the Spirit of God lives and who experience God for ourselves. We have no professional “holy men/women” in baptist life. We go to God directly.
Soul Competency
Soul Competency is the belief that every person has the right to stand before God and make their own decisions as to their belief and practice of their faith. It is the direct corollary to the above axiom. If we individually approach God, read our own scriptures and make up our own minds, then we are competent to stand before God as responsible human beings for our beliefs and our actions.
If you know anything about baptist beginnings you know that we were born as a protest movement against a hierarchical, institutional church which exercised total authority over all congregants, telling them what to believe and how to live. No questions or differences allowed. In fact, private reading of the Holy Scriptures was banned as dangerous — the church did not trust individual believers to interpret the Bible and come to their own faith.
Baptists, on the other hand, have affirmed that we have the right and even the responsibility to build our own house of faith and practice. I, nor any other clergy or lay person in baptist life, has the right to tell another that they cannot believe something and be a baptist.
To be sure this practice can result in swimming with the sharks in perilous waters. While baptist ministers are encouraged to attend seminary and be educated, there is no formal denominational requirement as such. Baptist churches ordain whom they will — and no one can tell them not to do so. While lay persons are encouraged to study scripture and to use commentaries in helping them to understand and interpret scripture, there is no requirement as such. While we as baptist have confessions of faith which guide us in our understanding, we have no creeds to which one must attach one’s name. The only central affirmation we possess is of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
This lack of an educational requirement has resulted in some crazy, maniacal and lunatic statements made by baptist preachers and lay people through the years. More often than not, ignorance results in passion, but it also results in the distortion of scriptures, i.e., twisting them out of context in interpretation so as to justify one’s personal desires.
As messy as this doctrine may be in practice, the beauty of Soul Competency it that healthy persons develop a deeper piety and connection to God. In baptist life we soon become aware that we must build our own house of faith in which we live. We cannot fall back on the church or a priest to do our praying and believing for us.
Religious Liberty and Separation of Church and State
Paganism and Judaism had priests — men who were designated to be their “holy men” whose responsibility was to go to God for their adherents. Often well-meaning Christians want their pastor to be their priest, i.e., their “holy man.” However, in Christianity we have the understanding that Jesus is our priest (Hebrews) who intercedes with God for us — and that all believers are called to be priests for each other. Carlyle Marney almost called his great work on this axiom from Martin Luther — “God at My Elbow.1” He really believed that through Christ we represent God to each other.
The priesthood of the believers rises from a deep-rooted, rugged individualism, born of the frontier and a belief that faith is very personal, i.e., an expression of our experience and knowledge of God. We say our own prayers and we go to God for ourselves — no one else can do these for us. As priests each of us are to be persons in whom the Spirit of God lives and who experience God for ourselves. We have no professional “holy men/women” in baptist life. We go to God directly.
Soul Competency
Soul Competency is the belief that every person has the right to stand before God and make their own decisions as to their belief and practice of their faith. It is the direct corollary to the above axiom. If we individually approach God, read our own scriptures and make up our own minds, then we are competent to stand before God as responsible human beings for our beliefs and our actions.
If you know anything about baptist beginnings you know that we were born as a protest movement against a hierarchical, institutional church which exercised total authority over all congregants, telling them what to believe and how to live. No questions or differences allowed. In fact, private reading of the Holy Scriptures was banned as dangerous — the church did not trust individual believers to interpret the Bible and come to their own faith.
Baptists, on the other hand, have affirmed that we have the right and even the responsibility to build our own house of faith and practice. I, nor any other clergy or lay person in baptist life, has the right to tell another that they cannot believe something and be a baptist.
To be sure this practice can result in swimming with the sharks in perilous waters. While baptist ministers are encouraged to attend seminary and be educated, there is no formal denominational requirement as such. Baptist churches ordain whom they will — and no one can tell them not to do so. While lay persons are encouraged to study scripture and to use commentaries in helping them to understand and interpret scripture, there is no requirement as such. While we as baptist have confessions of faith which guide us in our understanding, we have no creeds to which one must attach one’s name. The only central affirmation we possess is of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
This lack of an educational requirement has resulted in some crazy, maniacal and lunatic statements made by baptist preachers and lay people through the years. More often than not, ignorance results in passion, but it also results in the distortion of scriptures, i.e., twisting them out of context in interpretation so as to justify one’s personal desires.
As messy as this doctrine may be in practice, the beauty of Soul Competency it that healthy persons develop a deeper piety and connection to God. In baptist life we soon become aware that we must build our own house of faith in which we live. We cannot fall back on the church or a priest to do our praying and believing for us.
Religious Liberty and Separation of Church and State
Central to who we are as baptists is this core belief that the best faith is one that is freely expressed and
untouched by any branch or avenue of government. Baptists were born out of a rebellion against the state
church in England, a rebellion which continued even to the colonies. Here baptists found that
congregationalists, puritans, presbyterians and even episcopalians (anglicans) were not in favor of universal
religious liberty. They wanted liberty for themselves, but not for others. We baptists fought in every
colony, court and constitutional convention for the rights of free assembly, free belief and freedom from
governmental support or intrusion — for all persons of faith and no faith. Our baptist fore-bearers were
arrested, persecuted, imprisoned and even physically lashed as a combination of state and religious
authorities tried to whip us into theological conformity and submission. However, we baptists were just
too stubborn — we would not relent.
The Bill of Rights, which has as its first article prohibiting government involvement in religion, came about because a group of Virginia baptist ministers demanded such of Thomas Jefferson. He needed their support to ratify the Constitution of the United States of America, so they demanded in return for their support this article as the first amendment. They had not supported and fought the Revolutionary War to go back under governmental control or to have a state church. A free church in a free state became the battle cry of baptists and has echoed down the hallways of history across our continent and beyond. The only true religion is an un-coerced, purely free decision of one’s own heart and soul. This is why we as baptists do not baptize infants. We reserve that rite for when the person makes his/her own commitment to follow Christ.
The reality is that this baptist understanding has flowed as a volcanic eruption across the religious landscape of our country and our world. Whereas in centuries past religion was identified with tradition and institutionalism, in baptist life faith became much more person and vital. From the frontiers of 17th century America to the barrios of Latin America, the baptist model of faith has flourished under many, many names. Even the charismatic movements of recent years which are exploding on the religious scene around the world have in their roots this baptist emphasis of a free individual in a free church in a free state. Even in states where there is no freedom, the baptist way prospers. In China, where for decades it was thought that Christianity had died out, this principle has resulted in house churches flourishing from one border to another.
Autonomy of the Local Church
Core to who we are as a baptist church is the fact that we make our own decisions about our life and belief. Emerywood, for example, is free to ordain women and accept persons as members who have not been immersed for this very reason. No other baptist church, association, or convention can tell another baptist church what to think or do. Now, to be sure such groups can evict those with whom they do not agree from membership, but they cannot force us to change or remove the name of baptist. We decide, in our context, what we wish to believe and do.
Several decades ago another church sought to have Emerywood evicted from our local association over our policy of ordaining women and accepting persons who have not been immersed. Fortunately, baptist policy prevailed and we were maintained as members.
This autonomy has been at the bottom of great strife in our baptist life, but also of even greater growth of the Kingdom. There are always those would-be religious/denominational tyrants who wish to dictate to others how they ought to live their faith. In baptist life, you just cannot do that. The result of this autonomy is a grass roots responsiveness to one’s local context and congregation. Whether the issue revolves around worship style, ministry emphases or even social/ethical issues — baptist churches are free under Christ to determine their own particular expression of faith. We do not wait on permission from a hierarchical institution to give us the go-ahead.
The Bill of Rights, which has as its first article prohibiting government involvement in religion, came about because a group of Virginia baptist ministers demanded such of Thomas Jefferson. He needed their support to ratify the Constitution of the United States of America, so they demanded in return for their support this article as the first amendment. They had not supported and fought the Revolutionary War to go back under governmental control or to have a state church. A free church in a free state became the battle cry of baptists and has echoed down the hallways of history across our continent and beyond. The only true religion is an un-coerced, purely free decision of one’s own heart and soul. This is why we as baptists do not baptize infants. We reserve that rite for when the person makes his/her own commitment to follow Christ.
The reality is that this baptist understanding has flowed as a volcanic eruption across the religious landscape of our country and our world. Whereas in centuries past religion was identified with tradition and institutionalism, in baptist life faith became much more person and vital. From the frontiers of 17th century America to the barrios of Latin America, the baptist model of faith has flourished under many, many names. Even the charismatic movements of recent years which are exploding on the religious scene around the world have in their roots this baptist emphasis of a free individual in a free church in a free state. Even in states where there is no freedom, the baptist way prospers. In China, where for decades it was thought that Christianity had died out, this principle has resulted in house churches flourishing from one border to another.
Autonomy of the Local Church
Core to who we are as a baptist church is the fact that we make our own decisions about our life and belief. Emerywood, for example, is free to ordain women and accept persons as members who have not been immersed for this very reason. No other baptist church, association, or convention can tell another baptist church what to think or do. Now, to be sure such groups can evict those with whom they do not agree from membership, but they cannot force us to change or remove the name of baptist. We decide, in our context, what we wish to believe and do.
Several decades ago another church sought to have Emerywood evicted from our local association over our policy of ordaining women and accepting persons who have not been immersed. Fortunately, baptist policy prevailed and we were maintained as members.
This autonomy has been at the bottom of great strife in our baptist life, but also of even greater growth of the Kingdom. There are always those would-be religious/denominational tyrants who wish to dictate to others how they ought to live their faith. In baptist life, you just cannot do that. The result of this autonomy is a grass roots responsiveness to one’s local context and congregation. Whether the issue revolves around worship style, ministry emphases or even social/ethical issues — baptist churches are free under Christ to determine their own particular expression of faith. We do not wait on permission from a hierarchical institution to give us the go-ahead.
Ironically, we find this baptist principle of local autonomy rearing its head in other denominations. Many
of our Methodist, Presbyterian, and Episcopalian friends find themselves envious of our position. Even
the Roman Catholic Church, as magisterial and hierarchical as one can get, finds itself dealing with
parishes and groups of Catholics who desire autonomy and freedom to express their faith.
There is, however, a messy side to this autonomy. One can find baptist churches which run the theological, sociological and even educational gamut. Unfortunately, no convention or group of churches has a copyright on the name “baptist.” There are “baptist” ignoramuses of all types, including those who picket the funerals of soldiers killed in battle as their way of protesting against abortion and other issues. Or, one can find educated congregations such as Emerywood, Myers Park in Charlotte, First Winston- Salem, First Greensboro and many, many others in between. All of us carry the name of baptist.
Why ought we to stay in the baptist fold? Any church, no matter their particular background or beliefs, is best served if it associates with churches of like mind and practice. None of us is large enough to provide theological education, social ministries, missionaries and the like on our own. We all accomplish much more when we work together. In the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship we have found a community of like- minded baptists who believe in and affirm these historic principles. As messy as our baptist life may be — and it is — the baptist house in God’s family is still where I choose to live out my faith. The baptist house provides a freedom and an openness which is often missing in other denominations. In the baptist house we find a passion for Christ — for we each have experienced Christ in our lives. In the baptist house we find an acceptance to new ideas and thinking, for we all know that experience of God is key to our faith and practice.
So, in response to the negative image of others I have but one answer: let’s actively counter it. Let’s each of us, on a weekly basis, carry on a conversation with someone wherein we show them the deeper values of what it means to be baptist. My experience has been that when we show people this side of our family, they often say: Wow...I had no idea. I think I would like that kind of church.
And isn't that the goal after all? Are we not to be about building a community of believers, each of whom has experienced the new birth, to come together for worship, work and witness? For me, Christ, my experience of Christ and my obedience to Christ is the key issue — all else pales in respect to that calling. At bottom I am a Christian with a big “C” but a baptist will a “little b.” But, I am a baptist...to borrow a line from North Carolina lore: “I am baptist born and baptist bred...and I die I will be baptist dead!” And hopefully, I will be alive in Christ — whom I have come to know in and through my baptist family.
Robert U. Ferguson, Jr., Ph.d.
Emerywood Baptist Church
1300 Country Club Drive
High Point, North Carolina 27262 September 14, 2014
1 Carlyle Marney, Priests to Each Other. Judson Press.
There is, however, a messy side to this autonomy. One can find baptist churches which run the theological, sociological and even educational gamut. Unfortunately, no convention or group of churches has a copyright on the name “baptist.” There are “baptist” ignoramuses of all types, including those who picket the funerals of soldiers killed in battle as their way of protesting against abortion and other issues. Or, one can find educated congregations such as Emerywood, Myers Park in Charlotte, First Winston- Salem, First Greensboro and many, many others in between. All of us carry the name of baptist.
Why ought we to stay in the baptist fold? Any church, no matter their particular background or beliefs, is best served if it associates with churches of like mind and practice. None of us is large enough to provide theological education, social ministries, missionaries and the like on our own. We all accomplish much more when we work together. In the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship we have found a community of like- minded baptists who believe in and affirm these historic principles. As messy as our baptist life may be — and it is — the baptist house in God’s family is still where I choose to live out my faith. The baptist house provides a freedom and an openness which is often missing in other denominations. In the baptist house we find a passion for Christ — for we each have experienced Christ in our lives. In the baptist house we find an acceptance to new ideas and thinking, for we all know that experience of God is key to our faith and practice.
So, in response to the negative image of others I have but one answer: let’s actively counter it. Let’s each of us, on a weekly basis, carry on a conversation with someone wherein we show them the deeper values of what it means to be baptist. My experience has been that when we show people this side of our family, they often say: Wow...I had no idea. I think I would like that kind of church.
And isn't that the goal after all? Are we not to be about building a community of believers, each of whom has experienced the new birth, to come together for worship, work and witness? For me, Christ, my experience of Christ and my obedience to Christ is the key issue — all else pales in respect to that calling. At bottom I am a Christian with a big “C” but a baptist will a “little b.” But, I am a baptist...to borrow a line from North Carolina lore: “I am baptist born and baptist bred...and I die I will be baptist dead!” And hopefully, I will be alive in Christ — whom I have come to know in and through my baptist family.
Robert U. Ferguson, Jr., Ph.d.
Emerywood Baptist Church
1300 Country Club Drive
High Point, North Carolina 27262 September 14, 2014
1 Carlyle Marney, Priests to Each Other. Judson Press.
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