What Is Being Baptist Anyway?

As a church community that is filled with people from various denominational and church experience backgrounds, it is important for us to share what makes us Baptist.There are many variations of Baptist, some quite different from each other, and to understand our particular version, it may be helpful to know our core Baptist beliefs.

Priesthood of all believers

Being Baptist means practicing a faith that affirms and encourages the priesthood of all believers.  That is, we’re tenacious about the fact that God speaks freely to us all, and that each one of us has an individual and direct relationship with God that is not brokered by an institution or a member of the clergy.

Autonomy of the local church

A great gift of being a Baptist is the autonomy of the local church.  Much like our individual belief in the responsibility of each person to cultivate a relationship with God, our church community has that responsibility, too.  As Baptists, we are constantly asking where it is God is leading us as a community of faith and how we will respond to that leading.  No larger entity or denominational body dictates whom we hire, who is accepted into membership, where our money goes, or what congregational statements we adopt.

Separation of church and state and religious liberty

As Baptists, we are conscious of separation of church and state.  Our faith informs our individual politics, but the church is never a forum for promoting the state.  We answer to a higher calling—we are people engaged in following the ways of Jesus' teachings and work to keep these allegiances separate.