As a group, Baptist churches are always referred to in the plural form. That’s because there is no denomination called The Baptist Church. There is no central authority that governs Baptist churches because all Baptist churches are self governing and autonomous.
What this means is that all Baptist churches differ from one another. There may be similarities, but they are different. You can see Baptist churches that are conservative and staid, all the way to Baptist churches so charismatic that even Pentecostal churches are put to shame. Then of course you can see all the different types of churches in between.
There is no restriction on a church calling itself Baptist, and neither do you have to call a church Baptist to qualify as a Baptist church. One of the world’s biggest is just simply called The Saddleback Church in Southern California.
What then is a Baptist church? Well, it is kind of hard to define, but although there is much differences between two Baptist churches, there are some distinctive things to look out for. In the past, conservative traditional Baptist churches use the acronym BAPTIST to mean
- Biblical authority
- Autonomy of the local church
- Priesthood of all believers
- Two ordinances (believer’s baptism and the Lord’s Supper)
- Individual soul liberty
- Saved and Baptized church membership
- Two offices of the church (pastor and deacon)
Today the distinguishing beliefs are more varied. Some churches have added feet washing as an additional ordinance, but this isn’t really necessary as after all, baptism and the Lord’s Supper are only ordinances… to be obeyed and not for salvation. Some churches are Arminians while some others are Calvinists; some are General Baptists while some others are Particular Baptists, and so on.
Many Baptist churches also believe in the exercising of Spiritual Gifts like prophecy, healing and speaking in tongues, practices frowned upon by some others. Since church polity is to be within the church, each church is free to believe as the church wants to so long as they believe and are convinced that it is from the Bible.
One thing is common though… the freedom of conscience of the believer resulting in the belief of the priesthood of the believer. There are no laymen in Baptist churches.
Malaysia’s Baptist churches came about because of the missionary activities of the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, USA. Today most of the missionaries have left, leaving behind only a few missionaries. However there are no more Southern Baptists in Malaysia… only Malaysian Baptists.
The Malaysian Baptist Convention assists local Baptist churches to cooperate on a voluntary basis as membership is voluntary. Some of Malaysian Baptist churches are not members of this body. Do not be mistaken, this Convention, although behaving as an association is not a central body to govern Baptist beliefs. It only encourages voluntary cooperation.
Member Baptist churches will send messengers (NOT delegates) to the MBC every year to vote on proposed resolutions. They are called messengers because they only bring messages from their churches to the Convention, and because of the respect to the individual’s freedom of conscience, the messenger is allowed to vote against his own church’s proposals!
In the Baptist World Alliance, the article of the faith tells a lot for Baptists. It simply states, the Bible. The Alliance represents all the different Baptist Conventions in the world ranging from 7th day Baptists, Negro Primitive Baptists, Indoor and Outdoor Baptists, and of course our own Baptist Convention.
So Baptist churches are unique. The church is hard to define, but you’ll know it is a Baptist church when you see one.
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