Our Neighbor’s Faith (resource from Augsburg Fortress)-Baptists
Pastor Doug Givan, St. Andrew’s and Faith Lutheran-This is not intended to be an official overview of this faith tradition. These are comments found in this resource and online.
Baptists: Perhaps the most famous Baptist (after John the Baptist in the Bible) would be Billy Graham. I remember the 1999 crusade in Indianapolis, and I was part of the training team that worked that remarkable event. Billy Graham is the most famous evangelist of all time, and this is the key belief and mission of all Baptists: Evangelism and Missionary work.
All Baptists traditions (American, General and Southern) believe in full immersion after a public confession of faith for a baptism. They do not believe in infant baptism. They agree in principle with the ELCA that Jesus Christ is the Lord and Savior, and that the Bible is the divinely inspired Word of God. Baptists are probably the best-known denomination with some 50 million US followers. There is no hierarchy or authoritative body. Each church is autonomous and is governed usually by a board of Elders and/or Deacons.
They have two different beliefs about how they started: one is in the 17th century separating from the Church of England. The other, more popular, is that they are named after John the Baptist from the Bible (Mark, Matthew, and Luke). “Baptist theology is extremely varied due in part to their stress on religious freedom, and not using creeds or confessions of faith.” (ONF). They believe in two “ordinances” (symbolic acts of Christian faith for all who believe in Jesus Christ.). They believe we enter this covenant relationship in our baptisms and deepen this relationship in the Lord’s Supper.
For More Information:
Baptists in America: A history by Thomas Kidd, (Oxford University Press, 2015)
American Baptist Churches Website: www.abc-usa.org
Southern Baptist Website: www.sbcnet.org