Seven Characteristics of Baptist General Conference Churches
For more than 120 years, the people of the Baptist General Conference have met in annual meetings. That's a lot of meetings.
Times have changed and so have we since that first meeting of delegates from 65 churches. 120 years of change begs the question: What is it that unites us as a fellowship? What is the glue that keeps our nearly 900 churches from splintering into factions or even new denominations? Churches from 19 difference ethnic groups, in diverse settings, with varied styles of worship and leadership.
What is it that makes the Baptist General Conference who and what we are? It is our core values...those underlying beliefs that guide our choices, commitments and actions.
Let's take a quick look at seven shared values that define who we are as members of BGC churches.
Our first shared value is that we have personally and cooperatively devoted ourselves to do everything in our power to bring glory to God. BGC people have a personal, passionate love for Jesus Christ and for His glory. This idea goes back a ways.
The Swedish immigrants who left their homeland in the middle and late 1800s brought with them this living, passionate faith - in reaction to the cold formalism and persecution of the state church. They were known for their "piety," their devotion to God. And so are we today. Like BGC pastor John Piper, we desire to see God supreme in all things, so He will receive the glory He so deserves.
Second, we are people of the Word.
The Bible is our only and sufficient authority for faith and our life as Christ's followers. Those immigrant Swedes gathered in läsare, "Bible reader's" groups, so they could know the truth for themselves. They huddled for prayer and mutual support, striving to live pure and holy lives in a corrupt world. A lot like today's small groups.
Third, our predecessors were marked by incessant evangelism, discipling and baptizing lost people.
This was true for both pastors and lay people. And it's still true today, through district church planting and TeAMerica, our national church planting movement.
Fourth, we work to practice a peaceable spirit.
While we may disagree on a variety of issues, we do so with humility and respect as each pursues understanding under the leading of God's Word and the Holy Spirit. The immigrant Swedes called this an 'irenic spirit,' and it distinguishes us from many other Baptist groups.
Fifth, we're committed to training godly pastors and leaders.
For those early immigrants, separated from the mainstream culture by language and beliefs, training pastors and leaders was vital to preserving their living faith. So in the 1870s John Alexis Edgren began the Swedish Baptist Seminary.
Today we call it Bethel, with college and seminary campuses in St. Paul, Minnesota, and seminary in San Diego, California.
Changing the World groups are providing support and a strategic planning path for pastors and churches. Our global church enrichment division provides services to strengthen churches:
- resources,
- consultation,
- and ministry events
And the Hispanic Bible School trains pastors and church leaders for this growing ethnic group.
Sixth, we're committed to reaching the lost overseas - ever since Johanna Anderson sailed for Burma in 1888.
This means we send missionaries and work in kingdom-building partnerships with indigenous missionaries and agencies in 19 countries.
We start churches, including among many unreached people groups, train pastors and church leaders, provide compassionate health care services, and use many creative ways to gain access for the gospel in restricted countries.
Finally, we are an ethnically diverse people.
From a movement by and for Swedish immigrants, God has transformed us into a diverse family of 19 ethnic cultures. With all the life, vigor and challenges this implies.
So, who are we as members of the Baptist General Conference? We are a people who...have a passion to glorify God, are committed to the Bible's authority, fervently practice evangelism and church planting, debate issues with a peacemaking spirit, are committed to training godly leaders and fostering healthy churches, are reaching the lost around the globe, and are an ethnically diverse community of faith.
Of course we also share the historic Baptist distinctives of believer's baptism by immersion, membership for believers only, separation of church and state, and a democratic form of church government.
These things define who we are...as individual disciples of Jesus Christ, and as a fellowship of churches. These values are part of our identity in the larger body of Christ. They define the culture we share in this warm family of believers.
We are the Baptist General Conference.
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