Membership matters: Why Baptist?

Why Baptist & why SBC: (handout)

Why Baptist & why SBC: (handout)

Tracking down the origins of the Baptist Church is an exercise in ancient church history. From the days of the apostles, there was one Church of Jesus Christ, with a single body of doctrine taught by the apostles. The various local churches preached repentance and confession of sins, along with baptism. Under the authority of the apostles themselves as to doctrine, each church was independently governed by the leaders God placed in them. There was no denominational hierarchy, or distinction of “us/them” within the various churches. When disputes over sound doctrine arose, the apostles declared God's teaching based on the words of the Lord and the Old Testament Scriptures. For at least 100 years, this model remained the standard for all churches. Thus, the characteristics that defined the earliest churches are the same that most Baptist churches identify with today.

To be Baptist is to be part of a church or denomination that, broadly speaking, holds to adult believer baptism (typically by full immersion) following a credible statement of faith as the only biblically acceptable way to administer the sacrament of baptism as commanded by our Lord in his Great Commission. This is the view called credo-baptism (“believer” baptism), which is held over against the view of paedo-baptism (“infant” baptism) that is commonly practiced by Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Anglicans, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and many continental Reformed churches.

The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is a denomination comprised of over 16 million members in over 42,000 churches in the United States. Individual church membership is typically a matter of accepting Jesus Christ as personal Savior and submitting to believer's baptism by immersion. The SBC is considered to be an evangelistic, mission-minded church with a generally conservative doctrine, which focuses on the fact that Jesus died for our sin, was buried, and then rose from the grave and ascended to heaven.

 In forming the denomination, Southern Baptists wanted to maintain the autonomy of the local churches while creating an alliance of churches working in friendly cooperation. The primary goal of the denomination is to identify with like-minded churches and pool resources to establish and advance the work of the Gospel. 

Overall, Southern Baptist churches are good, strong, biblically-based churches. As with any church denomination or association, though, there can be bad churches and/or bad pastors. Just as you should with any other church, sincerely ask God to lead you to the church of His choosing for you. Carefully examine the teachings and practices of a church before officially joining it.

Membership Matters - What is a Baptist?

Opener

1 Have them talk about themselves

2 Talk about myself:

            I am 1 of the elders here, I’m a true nerd – I’ve got interests in Science, History, Comics, Cinema & Literature – the whole 9 yards, S. (my wife) does the kid’s ministry here, I’m the father of 3 girls – ages 8, 6 & 3 so I could use your prayers in that area, I did not grow up Baptist, my childhood was more moral than Christian but I was a regular churchgoer.

How much do you know about Baptists Quiz?

So there are 4 Truths to determining “What is a genuine Baptist?”

I – a Baptist is a Christian

            What I mean by that is Baptists are historically orthodox.  Orthodox means “right” in doctrine or beliefs.  So basically Baptists fall in line with orthodox Christian beliefs.  Like what?  How we view God – a trinity.  How we view Christ – as both God & Man.  The sinfulness of Mankind & the need of Salvation & the Atonement of Christ, these are all orthodox beliefs.  Brian will say, “You cannot be a True Baptist & not be a Christian.”

II – a Baptist is an evangelical (or gospel-centered) Christian

            Last week, I believe you guys talked about the 5 Solas of the Reformation these very important truths were defended by Protestants against Catholics at that time.  These ideas were mainly about how sinful people can stand before a just judge & have him declare us innocent, which of course is because of Christ’s work done for us.

Can anyone remember a few of the Solas? Sola Fide, Gratia, Christus, Scriptura & Deo Gloria.

Any questions so far?

III – a Baptist is an evangelical, ecclesiastical (or churchman) Christian

            A Churchman is a older term that denotes a more ardent or active participator in the church.  This cab be a hard concept to grasp today when the ease of travel & technology have lost that sense of 100 years ago, in small town America, where everyone knows everyone else & we’re all involved in each other’s lives.  This is 1 of the reasons we have Sunday school together in class instead of individually via YouTube video & we have potlucks & community groups to try & tie those bonds a little tighter.  Jay will often make the point that one of the ways we can get more Sanctified (or more Christ-like) is in helping one another along the path of growing in more Christ-likeness. So being involved.

            Being ecclesiastical is also why some things we regulate like guidelines for eldership, baptism, membership, and stuff like that. Stuff at Calvary isn’t just anything goes because we are actually trying to mimic how the NT tells us to run the church & what to do & what not to do.  That in itself is also being very Baptistic, as Baptists were often called people of the Book.

However this also means there are some things that we leave to a liberty of conscience, I’m a political Libertarian, meaning I don’t want to make a hard & fast rule or law about every single scenario that may come to past.  There are areas that we just have to use our intelligence to figure out for ourselves & we’re not going to tell you how to finance you house or what color shirt to wear to church or more theologically what view of the end times you should hold, even within the Elders we don’t all agree on that subject & its okay.

IV – a Baptist is an evangelical, ecclesiastical, confessional Christian

            Historically Christianity has always used various creeds & confessions as ways to help articulate & clarify beliefs & to help prevent against reoccurring errors in the Church. This could be anything from the small phrase “Jesus is Lord” which in the NT was a sort of rebellious rallying cry that Christians aught to obey God even over the Government which said “Caesar is Lord” in Jesus’ day or like pharaoh who considered himself a god on earth or even in more modern times like the Korean Dictators Kim Jung-Un & Kim Jung-Il who have both made themselves out to be gods & expected worship from their people.

            A few famous creeds & confessions from Church History are the Apostles Creed, the Cannons of Orange 529, the Augsburg Confession 1530, the 39 Articles 1571, Synod of Dort 1618, the Westminster & the Baptist Confession of 1689. I absolutely love the Baptist 1689, I’d be happy to print or email you a copy of it if you were interested in reading about the beliefs of Baptists coming out of the Reformation; I think it really sums up what it means to be Baptist. 

Wrap-up

            Okay so let’s wrap up what questions do you have for me? Doctrines, Church History, Astrophysics, Ancient Civilizations, Marvel comics, this church, anything? Hit me.

A closing quote from the famous Baptist preacher C. H. Spurgeon, I recollect my mother saying to me, “I prayed that you might be a Christian, but I never prayed that you might be a Baptist;” but, nevertheless, I became a Baptist, for, as I reminded my mother, the Lord was able to do for her exceeding abundantly above what she had even asked or thought, and He did it.