What Does It Mean To Be A Baptist?
Baptists express themselves today in such a variety of ways. Baptists are both the largest denominational body in the U.S. and the most diverse. Baptist bodies in the country total at least 54 groups and subgroups. Baptists differ today - and they did from the beginning - in what they believe, how they worship, their attitudes toward other Christians and their understanding of what is important in Christian discipleship. It is, therefore, impossible to speak of Baptists as a monolithic group. No single tradition or group of Baptists captures the enormous variety in Baptist life. One can, however, identify some of the more distinctive "freedom convictions" generally held by Baptists. In The Baptist Identity, Walter Shurden identifies "Four Fragile Freedoms".
Bible Freedom
This is "the historic Baptist affirmation that the Bible, under the Lordship of Christ, must be central in the life of the individual and church and that Christians, with the best and most scholarly tools of inquiry, are both free and obligated to study and obey the Scripture."
The Bible is the inspired Word of God, an authoritative guide for faith and practice. But every believer has the right to exercise flexibility in interpreting the faith or describing the practice. The Bible reveals what every person needs to know regarding the character of God and the salvation of persons in Jesus Christ.
Soul Freedom
This is "the historic Baptist affirmation of the inalienable right and responsibility of every person to deal with God without the imposition of creed, the interference of clergy, or the intervention of civil government."
This cardinal principle of Baptists means that every person is directly responsible to God alone. Each person is competent under God to make his or her own moral and religious decisions and is responsible to God in all matters of moral and religious duty.
Priesthood of Believers
Baptist believe this concept is biblically rooted, a crucial component for a vital church, affirms a universal ministry in that all believers are called to be priests, and it underscores the conviction that ministry is at the center of Christian discipleship. The priesthood of all believers calls for each Christian to minister as an individual and in community. "The church is the church only when it exists for others," concluded Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Church Freedom
"This historic Baptist affirmation is that local churches are free, under the Lordship of Christ, to determine their membership and leadership, to order their worship and work, to ordain whom they perceive as gifted for ministry, male or female, and to participate in the larger Body of Christ, of whose unity and mission Baptists are proudly a part."
A church is an autonomous body, subject only to Christ, its head. Its democratic government, properly reflects the equality and responsibility of believers under the Lordship of Christ. Based on Scripture, Baptists concluded that authority for church governance should reside with the congregation. This type of church government is called congregational polity. Baptists teach that the local congregation should have the authority to choose and ordain is own ministers, to decide the basis for membership, and to discipline its members.
Religious Freedom
"This is the historic Baptist affirmation of freedom OF religion, freedom FOR religion, and freedom FROM religion, insisting that Caesar is not Christ and Christ is not Caesar."