How does baptist worship




















Estimates say there were some churches and 60, Baptist in the states. Historians say that the Baptist belief in religious freedom was a significant influence on the forming of the First Amendment of the Constitution. As of , the group was made up of more than 15 million members.

Southern Baptists who split with northern Baptists founded the Convention in in Georgia over the issue of slavery. Other affiliations include smaller conservative organizations such as the American Baptist Churches USA, Baptist General Conference and the Baptist General Convention of Texas of Baptist churches and the Independent Baptist churches that are not part of a hierarchical structure or governing authority.

This group started in the late 19 th and early 20 th century and is made up of believers who wanted to adhere to a more conservative doctrine. There is a Baptist World Alliance , which includes some Baptist organizations and conventions. The Southern Baptist Convention, however, left the Alliance in over the issues of homosexuality and women in the clergy.

The Baptist church believes in Baptism only after a person has professed Christ as their Savior. The Baptism symbolizes the cleansing of sins.

Some churches use a sprinkling of water as Baptism, but most practice full immersion , where the candidate is fully immersed in water. Baptism is not a requirement for salvation and many churches do not subscribe to infant baptism Instead, Baptism in the Baptist church is a public expression of faith.

Since the origins of the church, Baptists have said the Bible is the only authority for Christian faith and practice. Baptists believe that the Bible is the only authority because it is divinely inspired or has a divine nature.

The Reformers distinguished between internal and external religion, but because they cared about the unity of a diverse country, Anglicans prioritized the purity of the external. Most English Separatists and dissenters including Baptists prioritized the purity of the internal, but they recognized the importance of the external. This essay focuses on a specific group of Baptists, often called Particular Baptists, who united around a confession of faith issued in , the First London Confession.

When Baptists and other Christian leaders argued about worship, they understood they were referring to the external worship of the assembly, or the instituted worship of the church be that instituted by Christ or by Cranmer, the Bible or the Book of Common Prayer. Everything they did in public assembly was a type of rite or ceremony. He discussed at length the internal preparations for worship, but his form of worship related to those three actions of worship.

Corporate worship can be seen as a series of ceremonies, organized and directed by a pastor or other worship leader. Their organization and administration represents the scope of this discussion about worship. Early English Baptists worked to relate every such ceremony to an ordinance of the gospel. That is not to say that Baptists could agree about what should be considered a command or example of Christ and His Apostles; this essay will mention multiple, mutually exclusive lists of ordinances.

But it is equally important to recognize an even more fundamental question: does the ordinance refer to the ceremony alone or the circumstances surrounding the ceremony the translation of Scripture read, the order of the elements, the mode of baptism, and so on?

Henry Jessey, who specifically did not separate from the established church because he saw the fine line Baptists would have to walk, knew that Baptists could not agree on the circumstances of disputed ordinances, such as laying on of hands at baptism, footwashing, and anointing with oil, so they should be more gracious with those who disagreed with them about the circumstances of baptism.

The important matter for this introduction is that early English Baptists framed their questions about the church in terms of worship, namely instituted worship. When they wrote about worship, they meant the administration of external ceremonies ordinances that expressed the inward devotion of the participants. This distinction as much as anything has led to the current confusion and misunderstanding about the importance of worship to early Baptists.

When they disagreed about baptism, they were not debating a doctrine but a ceremony; when they expounded on ordinances, they were not explaining institutions but worship. One mark of a true church was the right observance of the ordinances as an integral part of its worship.

The driving force behind early English Baptists was a desire for true worship, namely worship that God Himself approved. For a church to worship truly, it must be constituted and structured rightly. What does a church rooted in true worship look like?

Theoretical answers were unacceptable because a New Testament church existed in a particular form for a visible function. Instead, Baptists focused on tangible definitions and examples.

In the background of every ecclesiological discussion from this era was the Anglican Thirty-Nine Articles. All of these perspectives were rooted in worship. Separation was not only from false doctrine and profane men but also from false worship.

Early Baptists followed that lead. If worship according to the commands and patterns of Christ required that they separate from the world of false institutions, they were courageously prepared to do so. Yes, they might leave a church because they did not like the instruments being used, but it was never for so shallow a reason as personal preference.

Thomas Cranmer built Anglican identity on the principle that the Bible was not the only source of worship practices for a Christian church. He retained for the Crown the right to ordain such rites and ceremonies as necessary and beneficial for the spiritual guidance of England. Baptists felt that Anglican leadership took that liberty to unacceptable lengths. Most importantly, they believed that the practices that resulted from such an approach were valid reasons for separation.

Did they belong to the Crown or to Christ? Were they to be shaped by the culture or the Word of God? This conclusion created disagreements between Baptists and their reforming brethren, particularly the Presbyterians. Baptists, for example, refused to acquiesce to the decrees of the Westminster Assembly. When pressed for a reason, the answer was simple: Baptists would not be satisfied with an incomplete reformation.

I pray you consider, is there not the same power, the same priests, the same People, the same Worship, and in the same manner still continued? An interesting illustration of this reforming impulse, especially considering its lack of emphasis in modern American churches, was baptism. Early Baptists saw baptism as an instituted ceremony with a proper administration, one to which they should adhere closely.

Importantly, unlike the Presbyterians or Independents, they considered the mode of baptism and the recipient of baptism to be integral to the ordinance, not an indifferent circumstance. That perspective raised eyebrows. Praisegod Barbone, a Baptist antagonist, argued that Baptists could never be sure that they had observed the ceremony perfectly. How could they know the heart of the administrator or the recipient or that they had not missed a spot?

Barbone distinguished between the form and the essence of a church the well-being from the being. The form, which included its external worship and thus baptism, was transient; the essence was inviolable in Christ.

John Spilsbury, one of the pastors who signed the First London Confession, took this charge of ceremonialism seriously. His solution was to separate the doctrine of baptism from its administration. The doctrine of baptism included the non-negotiable rules for mode and recipient. The administration of baptism, its use in worship, belonged to the local church as a part of its covenant.

Indeed, the covenant of the church gave authority to the ceremony of baptism such that its members did not need to become ceremonialists or formalists. Within certain limits, the local church could affirm the validity of a baptism.

A generation later, John Bunyan picked up the threads of this argument again. By turning baptism into an act of personal, not corporate, worship, Bunyan circumvented some of the issues for debate that had formed about instituted worship.

His solution was to remove baptism from the church entirely. Backing down from baptism, an act of true worship, for the sake of unity or charity or individual choice was unacceptable. It was roundly recognized in dissenting circles that the rites and ceremonies a church used directly reflected its understanding of the commandments of God.

A church found to worship falsely or to mix its worship with human inventions, as Gillespie had intimated, was hypocritical at its core. A hypocritical church in worship was the kind of church that Jesus would spit out of His mouth: a lukewarm church.

The important Puritan William Bradshaw had earlier acknowledged that those who had the power to create new forms of worship had the power to create a new religion. The treatises were originally presented in —5. This weighed heavily on Baptist minds as they surveyed the diverse liturgical landscape around them.

If worship reflected the true identity of a church, then false worship reflected a false church. Their call to separate from false worship noted above really meant separation from a false church. Churches were assessed in terms of matter and form. The matter was a baptized person of debated age ; the form was either a profession of faith, a covenant, or baptism itself. There was great concern among Baptist circles that improper use of baptism in worship actually invalidated the very form of that church.

Indeed, some felt that Baptists were too concerned with baptism in worship. Praisegod Barbone, for one, argued that Baptists did not have the credibility to be so strict; they knew they were not perfect in all they did in worship, so why should they expect other churches to be perfect specifically in baptism? The Baptist denomination has no authority to direct how the Bible is to be used. Churches are free to choose the translations of the Bible to use, what texts to read and what place in the service the Bible is read.

Reading the Bible by individuals and by the congregation responsively are both practiced. Prayer is basic to all Baptist worship services , both private and public prayer Mark ; Philippians There are no denominationally prescribed prayers. Any member of the congregation may lead in prayer.

A sermon is a major part of a Baptist worship service Acts ; 2 Timothy Concerning the sermon, the preacher is free to choose the topic, theme, type and text. The denomination dictates none of these. The style of preaching is also up to the preacher; some read a manuscript while most preach from notes or extemporaneously. Music plays a significant role in Baptist worship services Psalms ; Ephesians Again, freedom is evident. Although in practically all churches the congregation participates in singing, the type of music that is sung varies greatly.

In addition to the congregation, singing by choirs, praise teams, soloists and vocal groups can be heard in Baptist worship. The musical instruments used in worship services also vary, including pianos and organs as well as various other instruments. It has been influenced by televised religion, the praise-and-worship movement, and the church growth movement. Worship is comprised of the song service, which includes the singing of many choruses and gospel songs as well as solo performances, and the preaching service, which includes the sermon and the invitation.

Overhead projectors and other visual media are used to project song texts and sermon outlines. Hymn books are little used; set liturgy is nonexistent. The worship is performance and entertainment oriented, the solo and sermon being the main attractions.

Denominational distinctiveness is minimized. Both are a response to a changing American religious culture where denominational lines are being blurred by social mobility. Both are trying to breathe new life into Baptist forms, some of which are becoming as ritualized as the Anglican worship that Baptists first sought to reform. The ecumenically influenced movement responds by becoming ecumenical or multi-denominational. It also entails a recovery of the historic roots of Christian worship in the New Testament and early church period.

Its weakness is a tendency toward aestheticism and theological obscurantism. The praise and evangelism movement responds by becoming post-, non-, or anti-denominational. It is fueled by intense desire to reach the unchurched and those disaffected by mainstream religion. Its weaknesses are a proneness to reduce worship to entertainment and accommodate worship to the whims of American consumer culture.

Worship then becomes a blend of Christianity, patriotism, self-help psychology, and self-help and feel-good religion. Possibilities for furthering worship renewal in Southern Baptist congregations include the following:. Please contact our customer support if you continue to experience issues.

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