The Baptist Faith And Message Article VI: The Church
It may seem like a rather odd thing to say, but the Doctrine of the Church is a major distinctive of Southern Bapist churches. If you came from a different denomination, you may be very aware of the difference. These commitments are not something that our forebearers just made up, rather the commitments found in the Doctrine of the Church flow out of what we read about the Early Church within the pages of the New Testament.
Here is the Baptist Faith and Message’s statement on the Church.
A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel; observing the two ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes. In such a congregation each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord. Its scriptural officers are pastors and deacons. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.
The New Testament speaks also of the church as the Body of Christ which includes all of the redeemed of all the ages, believers from every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation.
Matthew 16:15-19; 18:15-20; Acts 2:41-42,47; 5:11-14; 6:3-6; 13:1-3; 14:23,27; 15:1-30; 16:5; 20:28; Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:2; 3:16; 5:4-5; 7:17; 9:13-14; 12; Ephesians 1:22-23; 2:19-22; 3:8-11,21; 5:22-32; Philippians 1:1; Colossians 1:18; 1 Timothy 2:9-14; 3:1-15; 4:14; Hebrews 11:39-40; 1 Peter 5:1-4; Revelation 2-3; 21:2-3.
A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ
I am glad that the Faith and Message starts here. The Church or local church is not its own boss. An individual within the Church cannot lay claim to being its head. Nor can an individual or group of individuals do whatever they please with the church. And the reason is simple, it is not theirs.
The Church is the Lord’s. It is Jesus Christ who is the head of the Church. He is the head of our Church and that means that everything we do must come under the Lordship of Christ. The Pastor is not the head of the Church. The Deacons are not either. And when they come together and decide to do something, they still are not the head of the Church. Christ is. And that is exactly where we should begin any discussion on the Church.
Notice who the Scriptures say is the Head of the Church,
“Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,” (Ephesians 5:22-25 ESV)
“And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.” (Colossians 1:18 ESV)
Though the pastor is to lead and guide the Church, he is not the Head of the Church. And this becomes obvious in the direction given to pastors in the New Testament.
“So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”” (1 Peter 5:1 ESV)
A pastor is not to brow beat a congregation into submission. They are to practice oversight but not be domineering. They are to lead by their example. And all of this is to be done in this manner because pastors are under shepherds of the chief Shepherd. The Chief Shepherd, Jesus Christ, has placed pastors in His Church to care for His people in a particular location.
is an autonomous local congregation
This is one of the major differentiations for us here in the Southern Baptist Convention. We understand the local congregation to be “autonomous”. This is not because we are defiant or just want to be free and make our own choices. It’s because that is what we see modeled in the New Testament.
The New Testament uses the word “church” in two different ways. There is both the universal and local church. The word that we translate into “church” is “ekklesia”. The prefix “ek” simply means “out of”. The rest of the word is a form of the word “kaleo”, which means “called out”. So the word quite literally means, “the called out ones”. The Church is the assembly of those called out from the world and to Christ. The Universal Church is covered more fully in the last few sentences of our statement. It is the “called out ones” from all over the globe in all ages. But the local church is, “the called out ones” who come together in a local congregation.
In the above heading we saw that Christ is the head of the Church. This means that He is the head of the Church Universal. It also means that He is the head of every local church. But we are arguing that every local church is to function under the Lordship of Christ as an autonomous body of believers. So, we self-govern under the Lordship of Christ.
These texts show us that the pattern of the New Testament was self-governance.
“For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.” (Romans 12:4-8 ESV)
This instruction was given by Paul concerning a local church: the church at Rome. And the people within the local body had different gifts and came together as a single body in Christ. It may not seem like a lot of information as to how they were being run, but we do see that they are filling these roles within their own local congregation. And you see the same thing in 1 Corinthians.
“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body–Jews or Greeks, slaves or free–and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” (1Corinthians 12:12-27 ESV)
Another evidence of this is the address to individual churches throughout Paul’s writing. Paul wrote letters to individual churches and some of them were dealing with individual problems. In other words, Paul was telling them to get their act together. For instance, Paul wrote 1 and 2 Corinthians to deal with a plethora of moral problems. He was calling them to fix the issues within their congregation. And in the letter to the church at Galatia there were people demanding that believers be circumcised. That letter is a call the church to deal with the issue and call them to faith in Christ alone and not works of the flesh.
Another evidence is the letters to the seven churches in Revelation. These were letters to seven individual churches that governed their self. And the letters from Christ to these churches were calling them to deal with their individual issues.
Autonomous does not mean “anarchy”. As Herschel Hobbs pointed out,
“To many Baptists, autonomy has become anarchy. This is true when either a church or an individual Baptist says, “I can do as I please!” Both should do as Christ pleases or wills. Either the word “autonomy” should be purged of such a meaning or a new word should be used. It is far mor accurate and scriptural to say that a New Testament church is a local church acting through democratic processes under the lordship of Jesus Christ.”[1]
of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel;
As Baptists we believe that the Church is the body of believers. That is evident from the texts that we looked at above. Those whom God redeems are to be baptized and it is they who make up the local church. As 1 Corinthians made clear above, we have one spirit, are baptized into one body. Since baptism is covered elsewhere in the statement of faith, I will not say much about I there. Because of what we believe about baptism, that it is to be administered to professing believers, this is a necessary consequence of that belief. But the statement from 1 Corinthians only makes sense if we are talking about those who are believers.
This means that we, as believers are, “associated by covenant”. As individuals, we come together as a local church to grow in Christ together.
“Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” (Ephesians 4:15-16 ESV)
We have come together here at Victory Baptist Church to love and help one another grow up into Christ. We covenant together, that is we have agreed to come together as a local body of believers to grow in the faith together. We come under the preaching and teaching of God’s Word, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, the accountability of one another, and the fellowship of one another to grow in Christ.
We have also come together here for the mission of the Church, or “the fellowship of the gospel”. We are those who have been redeemed and we are to spread that good news to a lost and dying world.
“And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”” (Matthew 28:18-20 ESV)
observing the two ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word,
We are governed by Christ. We don’t add to the ordinances given to us by Christ. We also do not live by external rules and laws. We are governed by Christ.
This differentiates our understanding of the ordinances from Rome. Rome believes that there are seven sacraments: Baptism, Eucharist, Confirmation, Reconciliation (Confession), Extreme Unction (Anointing of the Sick), Marriage, and Ordination. Our reason for that is the same as it is for every other Protestant denomination. Only those ordinances or sacraments given to us by Christ are to be practiced in the New Testament Church. And those “two ordinances of Christ” are baptism and the Lord’s Supper. More about each of those is covered elsewhere in our statement of faith, so we won’t go into detail on that here.
A true local church is governed by Christ. We observe the ordinances that Christ has put in place, which are found in His Word. We don’t add to that. We are governed by His laws, which are found in His Word and this has practical applications for us today.
Let’s imagine that a law is made that forces our church to close its doors. We would then have a decision to make. As a church, we are governed by the Word, not the world. We have a greater authority to follow than that of the Sheriff, Governor, or President. For my part, the decision to be made is where are we having church. Are we going to walk into the church building that day, the parking lot of City Hall, or in one of our homes?
And the reason that those are our options is that we are governed by Christ and His Word, not local authorities. We would have to sit down and weigh our options to see which option more faithfully accords with Christ’s commands for us.
Another, much more common occurrence, is of churches moving away from biblical fidelity. What is taught from behind the pulpit? What is taught by Sunday School teachers? Are preachers and deacons chosen to serve at churches biblically qualified? Do churches discipline members who are quarrelsome, immoral, or teaching heresy?
We are governed by Christ. And to be governed by Christ means that we have no higher authority than His Word and we follow His Word.
and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth.
The Church has been given a mission. It’s not optional. We are not a country club that just gathers to hang out with each other. The Church has been given a mission and we are to work together “to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth.”
“And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”” (Matthew 28:18-20 ESV)
I have thought about this a lot lately. It is necessary when budget season comes around. We do not exist to just gather up resources and spend them all here. We don’t exist to spend all of our physical efforts on one another. We have a mission to “extend the gospel to the ends of the earth”.
The gospel is, of course, the message of what Christ has done on our behalf. Gospel means good news. And we are to announce this good news to the “ends of the earth”.
We have been working hard this year to announce this message to the many people that are moving in around us. And it seems to me that the more things we do at this church, the more people show up to hear of this good news. We hand out gospel tracts and give short gospel messages as we love on people who show up here at the church. We may also figure out ways to do other things within these communities as time goes by. But the point is that these additions are part of our attempting to be faithful to the mission that Christ has given us.
This church has been faithful to give to the Cooperative Program of the Southern Baptist Convention and also the special offerings for missions that Southern Baptists participate in. And this too is an act of faithfulness to the mission. The Southern Baptist Convention has one of the largest missions agencies in the world and the impact of this for the spreading of the gospel to the nations is tremendous. You can read the IMB report here. Even in a year when Covid hampered a lot of the missions work overseas, great things were done. The cooperative program money also goes to the North American Mission Board, which does a lot of work along the continent of North America. You can read the NAMB report here. The Cooperative Program also furthered the spread of the gospel both here and abroad by educating folks in the ministry. These are not all pastors and missionaries, but the total enrollment for all of the seminaries combined was 23,818. And those pastors educated in Southern Baptist Seminaries end up being a large percentage of those pastors educated in America. And a lot of the funding for these seminaries comes from Cooperative Program giving.
As a church we are seeking to deliver the gospel to our neighbors here in Conway. And our cooperative program giving is part of delivering the gospel to the nations.
And that is how things should be. We should constantly be thinking about the mission to make disciples both here and abroad. That is what we are supposed to be about.
When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and America could not stay out of the war any longer, the entire society changed. Men went to war. Factories were transformed to make vehicles and weapons for use in the war. The people who were here still here were making sacrifices to win the war abroad. America was on a mission and our focus was on the mission.
The Church has a mission given to us by Christ. And our church is to seek to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth.
So, under the Lordship of Christ we
Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes. In such a congregation each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord.
Again, we are to operate “under the Lordship of Christ”. I hope that all of the discussion so far has made this abundantly obvious and clear. But it must be stated again because we operate “through democratic processes”.
This phrase immediately causes us to think about politics. Politics is all about wielding power. And that is not at all the point we are trying to make here. Each and every member is responsible for what goes on in this church. That is why we have business meetings. That is why we vote on things. That is why everyone gets a copy of the finance report. That is why we vote on the amount of money each ministry in the church receives in its line item, it is this local body letting them know how much money they are authorized to spend by this local body.
Listen, business meetings are not my cup of tea. I don’t like them, not one bit. I have not been in a difficult one here, but I have been in difficult meetings. I don’t know if local bodies of believers had votes on things in the New Testament era, but we have indication in the New Testament that leads us to see that every member was responsible and accountable for the things that happened within their local body of believers. This is the formulation that we feel best does that in our day.
For an example of what I am saying, look at 1 Corinthians 15. A man was in an adulterous relationship with his father’s wife, which is probably his stepmother. And Paul’s instructions here are enlightening as to how a church is to treat sin, but also about how a church is to function.
“It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.
For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.
Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people– not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler–not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”” – 1Co 5:1-13 ESV
The entire church, every individual, was responsible for what went on among them. And that is how the church functions today as well.
Its scriptural officers are pastors and deacons.
Pastors and deacons are the officers of a local body of believers. We believe this because, again, we see it in Scripture. One example of this is the introductory remarks to the Book of Philippians.
“Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons:” (Philippians 1:1 ESV)
This means that we believe there are used interchangeably for the office of pastor. Bishop is a word that comes from the Greek word for a person giving oversight. That is why the KJV renders this word as “bishop” at times while newer translations render it “overseer”. Another word used interchangeably is the word “elder”. The word itself denotes age and wisdom, but Christians used this word for those who were leaders in the church. And the word “pastor” is a form of the word for “shepherd”, which was a person that fed and tended to a flock.
The role of a pastor is to feed and lead the people of God under His care.
“So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.” (1Peter 5:1-4 ESV)
“Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.” (Act 20:28 ESV)
“Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” (2Timothy 2:14-15 ESV)
And notice what Paul’s instructions to the young pastor, Timothy, were,
“I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” (2Timothy 4:1-4 ESV)
So pastors are not CEOs. They are overseers who are to teach and declare God’s Word.
The other office in a New Testament church is that of deacon. The Greek word for “deacon” is “διάκονος”. The word means “servant” and was sometimes used for slaves in the ancient world.
A look at the qualifications of a deacon and the creation of the office in Acts 6 helps us to understand the role of a deacon in the life of a church.
As far as qualifications go, they are almost identical to that of the qualifications of a pastor. Those are found in 1 Timothy 3:8-12. If you place them side by side with the qualifications of an elder/pastor of a church you notice only one difference. And this difference highlights the difference in roles. It is teaching ability. But that isn’t terribly helpful for our purposes. It just tells us that the pastor is entrusted with the declaration and teaching of God’s Word.
Acts 6 does help us go further.
“Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”
(The problem concerned what we would call the benevolence fund and help of the believers in their midst. The office was created to serve widows in the church.)
And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them. And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.” (Acts 6:1-7 ESV)
The reason for the creation of the office of deacon was so that the apostles could devote themselves to the preaching and teaching of God’s Word and prayer. We can safely infer from this that the role of deacon is to serve the church in such a way that they allow the pastor to devote Himself to preaching, teaching, and prayer.
While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.
We do not deny that God has gifted women for service in the church. Many people today argue that this is the case, but we do not. The fact of the matter is that we are governed by the Lord Jesus Christ, and He has limited the office of pastor to men. We are called all kinds of things in our day for making this stance. But if we are going to be faithful to follow the Lord then we will run our church as the Lord has commanded.
The New Testament speaks also of the church as the Body of Christ which includes all of the redeemed of all the ages, believers from every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation.
Most of the New Testament and our confession deals with the local body of believers. But we do not believe that the church is limited to just our local body of believers. We are but a very small and local community that is part of a very large worldwide community that has spanned “all the ages” and is populated by people from “every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation.”
We see this understanding of the church in a few places in the New Testament.
“To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours” (1Corinthians 1:2 ESV)
We see this prophesied in Daniel and in the Book of Revelation.
“”I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.” (Daniel 7:13-14 ESV)
“After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands,” (Revelation 7:9 ESV)
Concluding Thoughts
We have deep doctrinal commitments in this area. And they are commitments that differ with many other denominations. But we are committed to them because we see them in Scripture and believe they are true. These are commitments that we have because we are committed to the Lord and committed to His Church.
R. Dwain Minor
[1] Herschel H. Hobbs, “The Baptist Faith And Message”, Convention Press, Nashville, Tn., 1987, p. 77.