January 23rd, 2025
by Dr. Spencer Plumlee
by Dr. Spencer Plumlee
The word “Baptist” conjures many different things in people’s minds. For some, Baptist is a source of pride as it speaks to a set of convictions they sincerely believe. For others, Baptist is a particular way of doing church that they grew up with. Still for others, it’s a source of repulsion as they associate it with things like legalism or even sexual abuse. While some of these associations are generational or even geographical, “Baptist” means different things to different people.
Our church is prayerfully considering a new name that would not include the word “Baptist” in part because of this very issue. As we consider this, I believe it’s important that you hear again our commitment to actively remain a Baptist church through robust cooperation in the Southern Baptist Convention.
Today I’d like to zoom out a bit and talk about what it means to be Baptist. Since we are committed to remaining “Baptist” while potentially not including it in our new name, I’d like to clarify what we mean by that. To be Baptist means historical connection, theological distinctives and denominational connection our elders intend for our fellowship to continue. Let’s look at each of these in turn.
Historical Connection
The Baptist church was a movement in the 1600’s that broke away from separatist churches in England because of their conviction about Baptism and the nature of the church. England granted religious toleration, allowing groups outside the state church to exist. As those groups established, a season of renewal rooted in a return to the Bible ensued. Baptists were born in this season of renewal. They were convinced that the Bible taught that baptism should happen after a person was converted. They were further convinced that this rite of baptism constituted an initiation into the public, professing church. This led to the first major historical distinctive: regenerate church membership. That is, Baptists have from the beginning believed that the church should be composed of believers who’ve publicly professed their faith in Baptism.
The Baptist movement flourished in England amidst persecution. To this day, Baptists still have a presence in the British Isles. But many became convinced a move to America would be needed to practice their religious convictions. A fledgling group arrived in America in 1638, only to face the same persecution they left in England. As they baptized believers and formed churches, the new state church in America persecuted Baptists for essentially being a rogue religious group. This led Baptists in America to begin advocating for a second critical point: religious liberty. They did not want taxes funding a state church and instead wanted the governing authorities to provide a secure, safe environment in which they could practice their sincerely held beliefs.
As time passed the Baptist movement began to atrophy. Churches became increasingly disinterested in evangelism and outreach, preferring to focus just on the purity of the church and of their theology. In 1792 a young , British baptist pastor named William Carey argued for a new effort to emerge: missions. Carey said, “We must expect great things from God and attempt great things for God.” With this, the modern missions movement was born. Baptists both in England and America rallied around the call to take the gospel to the nations. This emphasis led Baptists to form missionary societies and organizations to more effectively cooperate. Our denominations are fundamentally different from, for example, an Anglican or Lutheran denomination, in that our churches are each independent and autonomous. Baptist organizations did not own or control baptist churches. Rather, they existed to help facilitate cooperation of those churches. This emphasis on missions is the third major historical distinctive and it continues to galvanize baptists today.
Our leadership is committed to retaining our historical connection to these brave Baptists who went before us. The primary way we will continue this connection is through our commitment to theological distinctives.
Theological Distinctives
To be Baptist is to identify not just with history, but with a particular theological tradition. Baptists agree with the great ecumenical creeds of history like Nicea and Chalcedon, affirming the divinity of Jesus and the Trinity as essential doctrines. But given our history, I’d like to point out six key theological baptist distinctives within the Baptist tradition we remain committed to as a church.
Regenerate Church. Our primary distinctive theologically is the belief that the church consists of regenerate, born again believers (Matt. 16:13-20; Eph. 2:11-22). Other traditions historically have seen the church and state as one entity, seeing infant baptism as entrance both into citizenship of a country and a member of the church. Baptists have rejected this notion because of the continued witness of the New Testament that believers only comprise the church.
Why is this important? The church is meant to be a group of believers called out of the world to bear witness to Christ. If the church is not composed of believers only, it compromises our ability to be that witness. If half “the church” professes Christ as savior but the other half is merely connected to us because of family ties or tradition, you essentially have half the congregation needing to be saved! Further, a connection to the church via the state or tradition confuses many about what it actually means to be a Christian. A regenerate church seeks to make it plain that only those who repent of sin and trust Christ are truly believers.
Believer’s Baptism. Baptist churches believe every Christian should make their faith public through baptism. I grew up associating a “profession of faith” with someone walking an aisle and receiving Christ. But actually, your profession of faith is baptism. As a result, we believe it’s a prerequisite for membership because the church is a professing group of believers (Matt. 28:18-20).
Immersion is the means of baptism. A new believer is submerged under water and raised to give depth to their profession in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. Immersion provides a public means of identification with Jesus. As Jesus died and rose again, so have they died to themselves and risen again to new life. Finally, immersion publicly before a church invites the congregation to help them follow Jesus. As they publicly identify with Jesus, they invite accountability to that profession from fellow believers.
Religious Liberty. Baptists believe the state and the church have important but distinct roles (Rom. 13:1-4). The state exists to punish evil and protect the innocent, creating a stable environment. The church exists to bear witness to the resurrected Jesus through her confession and community. These distinct roles are created by God and are both important, but the church is not dependent on the state for its existence nor its flourishing. Throughout history, the church has thrived even when the state has embraced persecution.
Because of these distinct roles, Baptists believe that the state should advocate for freedom of religion. This means that first, the state does not adopt an official religion, especially via tax. We do not want the state collecting taxes for a church we do not belong to or advocate for. This was the problem both in England and America in the 1600’s. But second, we want to be able to share our beliefs without fear of persecution. No state church does not mean Baptists do not want the freedom to express our beliefs in the public square. Rather we want to persuade citizens to the truth of our beliefs about the gospel and core ethical issues.
Congregational Rule. A byproduct of our belief about regenerate church and religious liberty is the conviction that each local church is autonomous, needing to govern herself (Matt. 18:15-17). Baptists believe that the final authority for each church is the Lord Jesus expressed in the Bible. As each church seeks to bear witness to Him, we do not recognize a hierarchy over the church as there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus (1 Tim. 2:5).
Biblical Authority. Baptists believe the Bible is inspired, inerrant and thus authoritative. We’ve been “people of the book” from the beginning. But it’s not just that we believe the Bible is true, we also believe in a more literal reading of the scriptures than many other denominations. For example: most Baptists do not believe that Israel and the church are the same entity. Underneath much of the disagreement with other traditions is the assumption of tight continuity from the Old to the New Testament. This created a one to one connection between Israel and the Church and thus circumcision and baptism. If Israel and the church are one, baptism of infants is the new circumcision, serving as a person's entrance into the church and the state.
Baptists have seen the church as a new entity, born at Pentecost in Acts 2. This is not merely an extension of Israel, but a brand new family created by God’s Spirit. While Israel was indeed the people of God in the Old Testament, it pointed to a greater, new people that would be formed from every nation: the church. This reading of the Bible means that we are slower to allegorize elements of the Bible in favor of a more literal reading of Scripture. While many denominations believe the Bible is inerrant, we’ve historically tried to stay a bit tighter to the text of Scripture.
Cooperative Missions. Baptists have prioritized getting the gospel to the world. From William Carey forward, we’ve enjoyed a robust commitment to getting the gospel to the nations. Because we believe that the church is a professing group of believers, we long to make Christ known not only locally but globally. This was one thing when it took months to travel to different parts of the globe, but with advances in travel we have grown to advance the gospel even more.
Because missions is so important, cooperation is essential to Baptists. We believe it is necessary to cooperate because the task is too big. We also cooperate because while we are autonomous churches, we are nevertheless one in Christ. Our connection via the gospel is a critical reason we cooperate.
As we move forward together as a church, our elders remain committed to regenerate church, believer's baptism, religious liberty, congregational rule, biblical authority and cooperative missions as critical theological distinctives. We’ve sought to codify these in our inclusion of the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 in our governing documents a few years back. This statement of faith connects us not just to any Baptist denomination (of which there are many) but to the Southern Baptist Convention.
Denominational Cooperation
The Baptist denomination we are committed to is The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). It’s not a denomination in the traditional sense, because it doesn’t own or control the churches. Each church that affiliates with the SBC does so out of no obligation or requirement. The SBC is often called “a cooperative fellowship” because churches voluntarily affiliate to cooperate for the advance of the gospel.
But our cooperation is not only guided by mission but by a confession of faith. The Baptist Faith and Message 2000 guides our cooperation as it is the standard for the missionaries we send, the churches we start and the training we provide.
To be a Southern Baptist is to cooperate with thousands of other churches to get the gospel to the world. In my time as senior pastor, we’ve gone from giving a mere pittance to our denomination to giving over $120,000 a year to a fund called the Cooperative Program (CP). This fund fuels missions, church planting and theological education. Additionally, we give special offerings for Texas, North American, and International missions every year. Our fellowship remains absolutely committed to our cooperation with the SBC on four fronts.
Theological Education. Our church enjoys a great partnership with organizations like Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS). We financially support this institution so that students from SBC churches who attend go at a greatly reduced rate. We also are blessed to have faculty, staff and students of SWBTS as members of our fellowship.
Southern Baptist of Texas Convention (SBTC). This is a family of churches (over 2,800) in Texas that exist to mobilize disciple-making movements in our state and around the world. They engage in incredible ministries like disaster relief, collegiate ministry and church planting. They also do incredible work of networking and encouraging pastors and ministry leaders.
North American Mission Board (NAMB). We’ve given both through NAMB but also directly to church plants in places like Seattle and San Diego. NAMB in partnership with the SBTC is giving resources and coaching to help us launch our Hispanic service later this year.
International Mission Board (IMB). We have over three thousand, fully funded missionaries serving all over the world through the IMB. The vast majority of our giving through CP goes to the IMB because of our denomination’s desire to prioritize missions. We are blessed to have sent out missionaries through this organization to the ends of the earth and to have retired missionaries and missionary kids as members of our fellowship.
I pray this post has helped all of us understand exactly what we mean when we say, “Baptist.” Our elders are committed to being Baptist historically, theologically and denominationally.
Our church is prayerfully considering a new name that would not include the word “Baptist” in part because of this very issue. As we consider this, I believe it’s important that you hear again our commitment to actively remain a Baptist church through robust cooperation in the Southern Baptist Convention.
Today I’d like to zoom out a bit and talk about what it means to be Baptist. Since we are committed to remaining “Baptist” while potentially not including it in our new name, I’d like to clarify what we mean by that. To be Baptist means historical connection, theological distinctives and denominational connection our elders intend for our fellowship to continue. Let’s look at each of these in turn.
Historical Connection
The Baptist church was a movement in the 1600’s that broke away from separatist churches in England because of their conviction about Baptism and the nature of the church. England granted religious toleration, allowing groups outside the state church to exist. As those groups established, a season of renewal rooted in a return to the Bible ensued. Baptists were born in this season of renewal. They were convinced that the Bible taught that baptism should happen after a person was converted. They were further convinced that this rite of baptism constituted an initiation into the public, professing church. This led to the first major historical distinctive: regenerate church membership. That is, Baptists have from the beginning believed that the church should be composed of believers who’ve publicly professed their faith in Baptism.
The Baptist movement flourished in England amidst persecution. To this day, Baptists still have a presence in the British Isles. But many became convinced a move to America would be needed to practice their religious convictions. A fledgling group arrived in America in 1638, only to face the same persecution they left in England. As they baptized believers and formed churches, the new state church in America persecuted Baptists for essentially being a rogue religious group. This led Baptists in America to begin advocating for a second critical point: religious liberty. They did not want taxes funding a state church and instead wanted the governing authorities to provide a secure, safe environment in which they could practice their sincerely held beliefs.
As time passed the Baptist movement began to atrophy. Churches became increasingly disinterested in evangelism and outreach, preferring to focus just on the purity of the church and of their theology. In 1792 a young , British baptist pastor named William Carey argued for a new effort to emerge: missions. Carey said, “We must expect great things from God and attempt great things for God.” With this, the modern missions movement was born. Baptists both in England and America rallied around the call to take the gospel to the nations. This emphasis led Baptists to form missionary societies and organizations to more effectively cooperate. Our denominations are fundamentally different from, for example, an Anglican or Lutheran denomination, in that our churches are each independent and autonomous. Baptist organizations did not own or control baptist churches. Rather, they existed to help facilitate cooperation of those churches. This emphasis on missions is the third major historical distinctive and it continues to galvanize baptists today.
Our leadership is committed to retaining our historical connection to these brave Baptists who went before us. The primary way we will continue this connection is through our commitment to theological distinctives.
Theological Distinctives
To be Baptist is to identify not just with history, but with a particular theological tradition. Baptists agree with the great ecumenical creeds of history like Nicea and Chalcedon, affirming the divinity of Jesus and the Trinity as essential doctrines. But given our history, I’d like to point out six key theological baptist distinctives within the Baptist tradition we remain committed to as a church.
Regenerate Church. Our primary distinctive theologically is the belief that the church consists of regenerate, born again believers (Matt. 16:13-20; Eph. 2:11-22). Other traditions historically have seen the church and state as one entity, seeing infant baptism as entrance both into citizenship of a country and a member of the church. Baptists have rejected this notion because of the continued witness of the New Testament that believers only comprise the church.
Why is this important? The church is meant to be a group of believers called out of the world to bear witness to Christ. If the church is not composed of believers only, it compromises our ability to be that witness. If half “the church” professes Christ as savior but the other half is merely connected to us because of family ties or tradition, you essentially have half the congregation needing to be saved! Further, a connection to the church via the state or tradition confuses many about what it actually means to be a Christian. A regenerate church seeks to make it plain that only those who repent of sin and trust Christ are truly believers.
Believer’s Baptism. Baptist churches believe every Christian should make their faith public through baptism. I grew up associating a “profession of faith” with someone walking an aisle and receiving Christ. But actually, your profession of faith is baptism. As a result, we believe it’s a prerequisite for membership because the church is a professing group of believers (Matt. 28:18-20).
Immersion is the means of baptism. A new believer is submerged under water and raised to give depth to their profession in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. Immersion provides a public means of identification with Jesus. As Jesus died and rose again, so have they died to themselves and risen again to new life. Finally, immersion publicly before a church invites the congregation to help them follow Jesus. As they publicly identify with Jesus, they invite accountability to that profession from fellow believers.
Religious Liberty. Baptists believe the state and the church have important but distinct roles (Rom. 13:1-4). The state exists to punish evil and protect the innocent, creating a stable environment. The church exists to bear witness to the resurrected Jesus through her confession and community. These distinct roles are created by God and are both important, but the church is not dependent on the state for its existence nor its flourishing. Throughout history, the church has thrived even when the state has embraced persecution.
Because of these distinct roles, Baptists believe that the state should advocate for freedom of religion. This means that first, the state does not adopt an official religion, especially via tax. We do not want the state collecting taxes for a church we do not belong to or advocate for. This was the problem both in England and America in the 1600’s. But second, we want to be able to share our beliefs without fear of persecution. No state church does not mean Baptists do not want the freedom to express our beliefs in the public square. Rather we want to persuade citizens to the truth of our beliefs about the gospel and core ethical issues.
Congregational Rule. A byproduct of our belief about regenerate church and religious liberty is the conviction that each local church is autonomous, needing to govern herself (Matt. 18:15-17). Baptists believe that the final authority for each church is the Lord Jesus expressed in the Bible. As each church seeks to bear witness to Him, we do not recognize a hierarchy over the church as there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus (1 Tim. 2:5).
Biblical Authority. Baptists believe the Bible is inspired, inerrant and thus authoritative. We’ve been “people of the book” from the beginning. But it’s not just that we believe the Bible is true, we also believe in a more literal reading of the scriptures than many other denominations. For example: most Baptists do not believe that Israel and the church are the same entity. Underneath much of the disagreement with other traditions is the assumption of tight continuity from the Old to the New Testament. This created a one to one connection between Israel and the Church and thus circumcision and baptism. If Israel and the church are one, baptism of infants is the new circumcision, serving as a person's entrance into the church and the state.
Baptists have seen the church as a new entity, born at Pentecost in Acts 2. This is not merely an extension of Israel, but a brand new family created by God’s Spirit. While Israel was indeed the people of God in the Old Testament, it pointed to a greater, new people that would be formed from every nation: the church. This reading of the Bible means that we are slower to allegorize elements of the Bible in favor of a more literal reading of Scripture. While many denominations believe the Bible is inerrant, we’ve historically tried to stay a bit tighter to the text of Scripture.
Cooperative Missions. Baptists have prioritized getting the gospel to the world. From William Carey forward, we’ve enjoyed a robust commitment to getting the gospel to the nations. Because we believe that the church is a professing group of believers, we long to make Christ known not only locally but globally. This was one thing when it took months to travel to different parts of the globe, but with advances in travel we have grown to advance the gospel even more.
Because missions is so important, cooperation is essential to Baptists. We believe it is necessary to cooperate because the task is too big. We also cooperate because while we are autonomous churches, we are nevertheless one in Christ. Our connection via the gospel is a critical reason we cooperate.
As we move forward together as a church, our elders remain committed to regenerate church, believer's baptism, religious liberty, congregational rule, biblical authority and cooperative missions as critical theological distinctives. We’ve sought to codify these in our inclusion of the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 in our governing documents a few years back. This statement of faith connects us not just to any Baptist denomination (of which there are many) but to the Southern Baptist Convention.
Denominational Cooperation
The Baptist denomination we are committed to is The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). It’s not a denomination in the traditional sense, because it doesn’t own or control the churches. Each church that affiliates with the SBC does so out of no obligation or requirement. The SBC is often called “a cooperative fellowship” because churches voluntarily affiliate to cooperate for the advance of the gospel.
But our cooperation is not only guided by mission but by a confession of faith. The Baptist Faith and Message 2000 guides our cooperation as it is the standard for the missionaries we send, the churches we start and the training we provide.
To be a Southern Baptist is to cooperate with thousands of other churches to get the gospel to the world. In my time as senior pastor, we’ve gone from giving a mere pittance to our denomination to giving over $120,000 a year to a fund called the Cooperative Program (CP). This fund fuels missions, church planting and theological education. Additionally, we give special offerings for Texas, North American, and International missions every year. Our fellowship remains absolutely committed to our cooperation with the SBC on four fronts.
Theological Education. Our church enjoys a great partnership with organizations like Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS). We financially support this institution so that students from SBC churches who attend go at a greatly reduced rate. We also are blessed to have faculty, staff and students of SWBTS as members of our fellowship.
Southern Baptist of Texas Convention (SBTC). This is a family of churches (over 2,800) in Texas that exist to mobilize disciple-making movements in our state and around the world. They engage in incredible ministries like disaster relief, collegiate ministry and church planting. They also do incredible work of networking and encouraging pastors and ministry leaders.
North American Mission Board (NAMB). We’ve given both through NAMB but also directly to church plants in places like Seattle and San Diego. NAMB in partnership with the SBTC is giving resources and coaching to help us launch our Hispanic service later this year.
International Mission Board (IMB). We have over three thousand, fully funded missionaries serving all over the world through the IMB. The vast majority of our giving through CP goes to the IMB because of our denomination’s desire to prioritize missions. We are blessed to have sent out missionaries through this organization to the ends of the earth and to have retired missionaries and missionary kids as members of our fellowship.
I pray this post has helped all of us understand exactly what we mean when we say, “Baptist.” Our elders are committed to being Baptist historically, theologically and denominationally.
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