Baptist Church Freedom Is like a Box of Chocolates

Baptist Church Freedom is like a box of chocolates.

Yes, I plead guilty to parodying an iconic line from the 1994 movie "Forrest Gump."

Please allow me to explain myself.

Earlier this month, I joined First Baptist Church, Greensboro, an affiliate of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF).

I had never before identified as a Baptist, but I joined because I heard many good words and felt many good vibes while visiting the church, and I experienced an epiphany.

I realized that I agree with the core four Baptist freedoms as defined by CBF, that is, Soul Freedom, Bible Freedom, Church Freedom, and Religious Freedom.

(Also, Walter Shurden first defined the four Baptist freedoms in his 1993 book "The Baptist Identity: Four Fragile Freedoms.")

This post focuses on Church Freedom. For example, the CBF website says:

Church Freedom — We believe in the autonomy of every local church. We believe Baptist churches are free, under the Lordship of Christ, to determine their membership and leadership, to order their worship and work, to ordain whomever they perceive as gifted for ministry, and to participate as they deem appropriate in the larger body of Christ. https://cbf.net/who-we-are

In other words, Church Freedom implies congregationalist church government. For example, congregationalist churches possess complete autonomy under the Lord.

Types of congregationalist churches apart from most Baptists include Reformed Congregationalism, Quaker, and many nondenominational churches that sprung up in recent generations.

Alternatively, many other churches possess limited autonomy while their clergy are subject to an organization, such as a presbytery or apostolic government. And many other churches lack the autonomy to choose their clergy while bishops make those choices.

Back to my opening line. "Baptist Church Freedom is like a box of chocolates." My parody of the famous line in "Forrest Gump" by Forrest, "My momma said life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get."

I thought of this parallel while considering that Baptist churches range from ultraconservative to liberal.

The ultraconservatives include old school (or "old line") Primitive Baptists who have forbidden the inclusion of musical instruments during worship, Bible studies, youth camps, and missionary and charity organizations https://www.progressivepb.org/history.html.

For example, Primitive Baptists forbid any Non-New Testament practice.

Instead, Progressive Primitive Baptists separated from the old school in the early 20th century while they included musical instruments during worship, Bible studies, youth camps, and missionary and charity organizations because the New Testament does not forbid them and their usefulness https://www.progressivepb.org/history.html.

This 20th-century view of the terms "progressive" and "inclusion" typifies 21st-century conservative Baptists.

However, the current use of the terms "progressive" and "inclusion" typically refers to new meanings.

Today, progressive Baptist churches hold to a theology that is either centrist or liberal. And full inclusion refers to permitting women and LGBTQ Christians in all levels of church leadership.

And many progressive Baptist churches include both centrist and liberal members.

This post begins a series on Baptist Freedoms.

Copyright © 2023 James Edward Goetz