What do we mean by "Baptist"

In North America today, the label “Baptist” often gets distorted and associated with some weird people and groups. We still call ourselves a “Baptist” church because that’s our heritage but we think it’s important to try to be clear about what we mean when we use the “b-word”.

So what’s a “Baptist” according to FBC Wheaton?

When we use the label “Baptist” it means…

1. We rely on the Bible as our supreme authority.

Every faith has some basis for their beliefs and actions. For us, it’s the Bible. We are convinced it is the definitive source of truth. God speaks to us through the Bible. We try to study it together and do what it says.

2. We believe a Christian is a person who makes an honest, uncompromising commitment to Jesus Christ.

A big emphasis in the Baptist heritage is this idea that every person needs to make a choice to trust in Jesus and that the essence of being Christian is to be nurturing a personal relationship with God. You don’t connect to God through your parents or through a priest. You don’t get “brownie points” with God by doing assigned religious rituals. We believe it’s all about wholehearted personal faith.

3. We see each local church having its own life and leadership.

We follow the idea that if a group of Christians (like the folks mentioned in #2) are committed to each other and have a God-given vision for serving people in a particular place that that’s “church”. Baptists don’t go in for big denominational bureaucracies. When we study our Bibles we see the ancient landscape was sprinkled with these gatherings of Christ-followers who did their best to follow the Bible’s teachings. There’s no centralized authority system or headquarters. We are amazed by God’s strategy for demonstrating his love for the entire globe. He calls these little fellowships together in all kinds of places and then he (GOD !) personally shows up in each one of them through the Holy Spirit. That’s church.

4. We believe each person deserves the right to make up her/his own mind about life’s ultimate issues, especially the God question.

The whole Baptist thing started out when a bunch of radical Christians decided that the government (back then a king) did not have the right to demand that everybody belong to one unified government-sponsored religion. “Soul liberty” is a phrase you sometimes hear in relation to Baptists. [By the way, when the newly formed United States was hammering out its original constitution, Baptist ideas had a big impact. Our ancestors were the guys that made sure we did not have a government –sponsored religion that was imposed on everyone.] That’s because we are convinced that God wants each person to make an honest choice about faith and obedience. We’re big on giving everyone freedom to worship God in the way that seems true.

5. We feel a responsibility to invite everybody to enjoy God by knowing Jesus.

When God’s love penetrates into your soul and you are overwhelmed by his forgiveness everything changes. We really are amazed by God’s amazing grace. And once we are touched by God and his Spirit it dawns on us that this gift is too good to keep to ourselves. So, as the Bible says, “Christ’s love compels” and we spend our lives trying get other people connected to our loving God. It’s simply too good to keep to ourselves.

So there you have it. Whatever else you might hear in the media or have associated with the label, for us this is the heart of the matter.