For the Church | Great Commission Direction

Why should Southern Baptist churches cooperate?

This is one question I ask students taking the required Baptist history class I teach. I ask it because every generation of students asks it, or will ask it, or needs to ask it, and I want them to know how I answer it and have arrived at my answer with cheerful conviction.

While many Protestant and Evangelical churches are like-minded and share the same core convictions about doctrine and missions as the Baptists, for those preparing to serve and lead Baptist churches, my course is designed to help them understand, develop, and defend their convictions about the ecclesial tradition to which their church is connected.

The Baptist movement began in England as small groups of men and women met to establish themselves in churches and then sought fellowship with other churches around common beliefs and practice. This early confessional cooperation grew out of, and centered on, the Reformation program of doctrinal renewal which emerged from the study of the Bible and led to the recovery of the biblical gospel message. As these Baptist churches gained strength, they crossed to the New World and grew into a fleet of churches sailing together, united in doctrine and headed in Great Commission direction.

A Fleet Sailing Together

The picture of churches as ships sailing is fitting for our understanding of the value of intercongregational cooperation as it conveys, first, that they are not the only ships at sea. There are many churches, of course, but not all have set sail, and not all are headed in the direction of global evangelism. Thus, it is helpful for churches to find partners who agree not only in their design and beliefs but also in their shared trajectory. Not all churches aiming to fulfill the Great Commission are Baptist churches, and wherever possible Baptist churches can and should sail with those with whom they can unite in evangelism and missions. Celebrating and encouraging other evangelical churches in this shared task is not something Baptist churches have always done well in their history, but when understood in these terms, they could find value in mutual encouragement. Likewise, as Baptist churches seek to start new churches to add to their fleet, they will find safe harbor and maximized mission when they work with other Baptist churches who not only are sailing in the same direction but also are united on the kinds of churches they are seeking to fund and start together at the ends of the earth.

Second, the picture conveys that these ships do need to tend to their own vessels to maximize speed and stay on course. To stay afloat in the world for gospel proclamation, Baptist churches have found the need to prioritize their own doctrinal and congregational health. These ships will, no doubt, encounter storms without and conflict within. A church that has lost its first love may also lose the Spirit’s enabling wind power behind it. Baptist churches at sea need to minimize any hindrance that would pull them off course.

Third, this picture conveys that individuals can serve and live on one ship at a time. While circumstance may dictate the need for believers to change churches, for most the norm is continuing to serve on the ship where one is placed. When a sailor is counting on the buoyancy of his ship for his life and safe travel, he is far more likely to look after the health and heading of the ship. It is the picture of foolishness to see sailors lounging on the top deck complaining about their ship, or envying another ship nearby, when their own is languishing due to their lack of effort. Thus, Baptist churches are more likely to be strengthened, revitalized, and steered back on course when their members are focused on thankfulness for the ship on which they have been placed, the fleet of which they are a part, and using their gifts to help keep that ship, and fleet, on course.

Why should Southern Baptist churches cooperate? This chapter aims to show that from their beginnings, Baptist churches found they needed other churches to maintain their own doctrinal health and to accomplish the shared mission given to all churches. Despite their faults and blind spots, from small groups in seventeenth-century England to the first national Baptist denomination in the United States in the nineteenth century, Baptist churches have persevered to hold intercongregational cooperation in doctrinal confession and missionary endeavor as a key distinctive. As I love to tell my students, this story is worthy of retelling to inspire ongoing renewal of Baptist churches of the present and future as they carry out the same mission. With that intent in view, in this chapter I will tell the story of Baptist beginnings.

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