Believing Church?

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BELIEVER'S CHURCH AND BELIEVER'S BAPTISM: A CURRENT CONCERN IN SOUTHERN BAPTIST CHURCHES?

by Cky J. Carrigan , Ph.D. (5-96)

Biblical Basis and Historical Background

Nearly two chiliads ago on a Galilean mountaintop a dozen or so ordinary men heard these imperative words uttered by the risen Lord Jesus:

All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:18b-20, NKJV).

Later, the Twelve met together in the City of Peace and they prayed. Together, they witnessed the inaugural outpouring of the Holy Spirit. This outpouring and Peter's filled-with-the-Spirit appeal to repent and be baptized resulted in 3,000 believer's baptisms. This immersing event profoundly marked the beginning of the believer's church. The events of this day culminated by the down-under-deed of believer's baptism would forever change the course of history (Acts 2).

Four hundred seventy-one years ago a dozen or so men carefully navigated their way through the winter snow, partially concealed by the night's darkness, to the home of Felix Manz in Zurich, Switzerland. These ordinary men performed perhaps the most revolutionary act of the Reformation on January 21, 1525. That night, George Blaurock persuaded Conrad Grebel to baptize him with the true Christian baptism upon his faith and knowledge, then Blaurock baptized all the others present. The earliest church of the Swiss Brethren was constituted with this first believer's baptism. The Brethren emphasized the absolute necessity of a personal, intentional commitment to Christ as essential to salvation and as a prerequisite to baptism. The Brethren firmly believed in a believer's church and believer's baptism (Estep, Anabaptist Story, 10-11).

Lady Anabaptism was born that evening and some of her progeny are with us in these latter days. Unfortunately, many of her Southern Baptist children underestimate the importance of the events that began on that Galilean mountaintop, continued outside the Jerusalem Temple, and resumed in the home of Felix Manz. Many Southern Baptists fail to contemplate the meaning of the martyrdom of the Galilean Twelve and the Zurich twelve, and they fail to implement what they discover.

The Twelve paid with their lives for obeying the Lord's High Command, for establishing the believer's church, for establishing believer's baptism, and for establishing a revelation based church. The Swiss Brethren also paid with their lives for obeying the Lord's High Command, for reestablishing the believer's church, for reestablishing believer's baptism, and for reestablishing a Bible believing, Bible based church.

Is this same historic Baptist resolve to maintain a pure believing church comprised of properly baptized persons demonstrated in Southern Baptist Churches today? Are the essential Baptist doctrines of believer's church and believer's baptism known by Baptist people? Are these doctrines strictly followed? Are there any consequences for ignoring these doctrines? How can the prominence of these essential doctrines be restored? These and other questions will be explored in this essay.

Thesis

It is my opinion that many Southern Baptist church members are uninformed, ill-informed, and generally unconcerned about the essential implications of the doctrines of a believer's church and believer's baptism. I should like to posit that these doctrines are not a current concern to the degree and extent they should be, and the implications of broadly interpreting these doctrines have severe consequences for the vitality of the local church. I will concede that most Southern Baptists confessionally affirm these doctrines. But, most do not demonstrate a functional concern for these doctrines. In other words, it does not appear that very many Convention leaders, pastors, or churches are doing very much about what they say they believe.

While most Southern Baptist church members know and confess that one has to be saved to be baptized, and one has to be saved and baptized to be a church member, they do not, however, have a firm grasp on what it means to be saved, or what it means to demonstrate salvation. Additionally, those few Baptists who may be rightly informed and to some extent rightly concerned may be unwilling to expend the necessary energy or risk the inevitable conflict to reestablish the prominence and full enforcement of these doctrines.

Cultural Milieu

Southern Baptists have moved away from a functional concern about a believer's church in an environment of relativism, well meaning tolerance, and pluralism. As society in general moves in a more accommodating direction, so Southern Baptist Churches move as well. Churches have become increasingly marginalized in order to appeal to the masses, grow, and decrease conflict. Churches have moved in a direction that is less functionally concerned about the believer's church because of the political incorrectness of exclusionism in any form.

Evidences of an Unbelieving Church and Unbelievers Baptism

If church attendance is a broad indicator of an individual's genuine salvation, then the following analysis may help us evaluate the general state of Southern Baptist Churches regarding the relative importance of the doctrines in question. A typical Southern Baptist Church in America generally has twice as many total members as they have active members and three times as many total members as the number in attendance on any given Sunday. In contrast, these numbers in Brazilian Baptist Churches (several decades behind America in the evolution of Southern Baptist Life) are inverted. There are twice as many persons attending a typical Brazilian Baptist Church on a given Sunday than the total membership. It is a privilege to be a member of a Brazilian Baptist Church. It is almost an unalienable right to be a member of a Southern Baptist Church in many communities in the Bible Belt. Moreover, once one becomes a Southern Baptist church member it is virtually impossible, or at least inadvisable in the current milieu, to remove them from the membership roles.

If church attendance is a valid broad indicator of genuine salvation, and if half of the membership of Southern Baptist Churches in America are inactive and one third of the active members are absent on any given Sunday, then how can the typical Southern Baptist Church be called a believing church? Additionally, if the entire membership of these churches has been baptized, then how can the typical Southern Baptist Church be called a church which baptizes only believers? While no amount of scrutiny can guarantee an absolutely unblemished membership, the apparent high ratio of unbelievers to believers in Southern Baptist Churches should be a matter of greater concern for Southern Baptist churchmen.

Attendance records are not the only place one might find signs that the doctrines of a believer's church and believer's baptism may have been compromised in Southern Baptist Churches. The ratio of baptisms to total church membership is much lower than expected if all or most of the total membership are genuine believers. The typical Southern Baptist Church annually baptizes one person for every 40-50 members. Jesus said, "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men" (Matthew 4:19). Church members who are not fishing (sharing Jesus) are church members who are not following, and church members who are not following may not be genuine believers. While it might be difficult or inadvisable to evaluate a single individual's salvation based upon their personal evangelism patterns alone, this systemic lack of personal evangelism among Southern Baptist church members is another strong indicator that a large number of church members may not be believers.

The general attitudes and behaviors of many church members betray the fact that even among the attending membership many do not bare good fruit or practice personal holiness. An increasing number of service attending Southern Baptist church members are getting divorces, living together out of wedlock, and making other very poor lifestyle choices. Again, I hesitate to evaluate an individual's salvation by this canon, but systemic unholy living is another strong indicator that a large number of Southern Baptist church members may not be believers.

Associated Problems

An unbelieving church has caused and will continue to cause serious problems in Southern Baptist Churches. The effectiveness of congregational government depends heavily upon the regenerate state of the membership. While carnal, regenerate church members pose their own set of problems, unregenerate church members who are put in positions of leadership or in a position to cast a ballot severely undermine the ability of the local church to govern itself properly and in accordance with the mind of Christ.

Corrective Action

Let me restate my thesis before recommending corrective action. Based on the systematic indicators, a large number of Southern Baptist church members, having been baptized, are not genuine believers. And based on the widely confessed doctrine of a believer's church and believer's baptism, I am asserting that there is a wide gap between what Southern Baptist's confess on these matters and how we function. Therefore, it is not necessary to change our confession, but it is necessary that we change our attitudes about these doctrines with a view to changing our practice.

While the scope of this essay does not permit me to propose a detailed, comprehensive plan, I should like to suggest three general kinds of corrective actions for the Convention and local churches, and three specific steps for implementation in the local church.

Broad education, courageous leadership, and courageous follower-ship are three kinds of corrective actions necessary to slow the trend toward an unbelieving church and an unbelieving Convention. It seems to me that next to the issue of epistemology (Biblical inerrancy) this issue demands broad, denominational attention, because the effects of an unbelieving local church have severe implications for the Southern Baptist Convention. Southern Baptist leaders and agencies should chart a comprehensive course of action to increase awareness and local church functional concern for these essential doctrines through all educational channels.

Courageous denominational leaders and pastors must educate, motivate, and lead their constituencies to a point of increased awareness and functional concern. And mature believers in congregations must courageously follow respected leaders and their pastors.

Three specific steps that may slow the trend toward an unbelieving church are:

Slowly, but deliberately begin to PRACTICE the already existing membership procedures and church discipline provisions found in the overwhelming majority of church covenants, constitutions, and by-laws.

PURGE the membership roles. Contact absentee members once a month for up to two years and invite them to meet with the membership committee to discuss their interest in maintaining their membership. Their predictable lack of response would constitute their unwillingness to remain on the roll.

Carefully PREPARE all baptismal candidates prior to baptism. Make sure that they at least have a cognitive understanding of genuine salvation, the meaning of baptism, and the responsibilities of local church membership.

Conclusion

Are the doctrines of a believer's church and believer's baptism a current concern for the typical Southern Baptist Church? With regard to confession, I say yes. With regard to function, I say no. Entirely too many unbelievers are members of Southern Baptist Churches because we are not practicing what we profess. Something must be done to decrease this disturbing trend.

The implementation of the above recommended actions will certainly cause a great controversy in the current milieu of relativism, rebellion against authority, and toleration of the heretic. But after all, if the doctrines of a believer's church and believer's baptism are really necessary and foundational doctrines of a Great-Commission-blood-bought-New-Testament-kind-of-Church, then these doctrines deserve the came kind of ultimate concern from this generation as the ultimate concern given to these doctrines by the Galilean fishermen and the Swiss Brethren.

Where are the Simon Peters and George Blaurocks of this generation?

***The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of the North American Mission Board, the Southern Baptist Convention, or any other Southern Baptist Church or Agency***