Voices: Why Baptist conventions still are worth it

Tensions are rising over the North American Mission Board’s relationship with Texas Baptists. Messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention will vote on the highly controversial “Law Amendment” at their annual meeting in Indianapolis next month. A former SBC seminary administrator has been indicted for lying to the FBI about allegations of sexual abuse.

All of this is nothing new, of course. It seems like the various Baptist conventions in North America are embroiled perpetually in some level of conflict, scandal or both.

It’s easy to grow cynical and decide serious involvement in convention life just isn’t worth it. Maybe we’ll stay nominal members of the convention(s) to which we belong. Maybe we’ll give only a little bit of money. Or maybe we’ll just leave altogether. But we won’t truly plug in and engage meaningfully in convention business, because it’s just too much trouble.

I must admit my own sympathy for this point of view. My personal disposition is generally somewhat pessimistic and skeptical. So, I easily can understand the myriad frustrations many Baptists may have with various facets of convention life. But I want to argue that at the end of the day, despite all of these valid frustrations, Baptist conventions still are worth the effort.

Why do Baptist conventions exist?

Colleges and seminaries. Hospitals and healthcare. Disaster relief. Campus ministries. Financial services. News publications. All of these are wonderful and important works in which Baptist conventions participate. But as beneficial and worthy as all these causes may be, they are not the fundamental reason Baptist conventions exist.

I could list all the various ministries and programs provided and/or supported by the BGCT, the SBC and others, but I want to get to the heart of why conventions exist in the first place.

Some might say evangelism is the core reason for Baptist conventions to exist, and this is half right. Essentially, evangelism is telling people the gospel of Jesus Christ and urging them to repent and believe. This absolutely is essential to the legitimacy of a Baptist convention. Without evangelism, a convention has no right or reason to exist.

But here’s the catch: You don’t have to be Baptist to do evangelism. If evangelism alone was the fundamental reason for conventions to exist, why exclude evangelical Presbyterians, Anglicans, Methodists and other non-Baptists from membership? We should have no problem partnering with gospel-preaching, Bible-believing non-Baptists to spread the gospel.

The centrality of the local church

Evangelism alone is not the reason why Baptist conventions exist. Baptist conventions exist to start and strengthen local churches, which are the bedrock of evangelism and missions, both at home and internationally. A Baptist convention is a voluntary partnership of various local churches, and those churches work together to support one another and start new churches.

As you read through the book of Acts, you see this constant pattern: As the gospel takes root in new areas, new local churches start, and then those local churches serve as launchpads for the further expansion of the gospel and starting of new churches.

Every letter of the New Testament is written to a specific local church, a group of local churches or a leader of a local church, and these letters were intended to be read aloud in local churches.

Jesus declares, “I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it” (Matthew 16:18 CSB). The Apostle Paul refers to the church as “God’s household … the pillar and foundation of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15). The author of Hebrews associates neglecting the local church with abandoning Christ (Hebrews 10:23-39).

Local churches—groups of baptized believers in Jesus Christ regularly gathering for worship, instruction, fellowship, accountability and evangelism under the oversight of biblically called and qualified officers—are essential to the Christian faith and the Great Commission.

You cannot faithfully make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the triune name and teaching them to observe everything Christ has commanded without local churches.

Baptists believe what the Bible teaches about the centrality of the local church. And we believe local churches both can and should cooperate with one another to work more effectively (1 Corinthians 16:1-4, 2 Corinthians 8-9).

We don’t have authority over one another, but we do recognize, by pooling our resources and helping each other, we can be more effective than we would be in isolation.

The crux of cooperation

This is why Baptist conventions reserve membership for Baptist churches. It’s not because we think non-Baptists don’t believe the gospel. It’s because non-Baptists have irreconcilable differences with us about how local churches are to function, be governed and more. We can’t plant churches together if we can’t agree on how a local church should work.

If planting and building up local churches is fundamental to the cooperative work Baptist conventions do, then it is important for us to be on the same page about issues like baptism, qualifications for church leadership and such. However, even among Baptists there are differences of opinion about some important local church matters, such as who may or may not serve as a pastor.

I am not a fan of sweeping, sentimental appeals to “unity.” This so-called unity too often is vague, empty and used to shut down important conversations about doctrine and practice. Sometimes, Baptist churches have significant disagreements on important matters and simply can’t work well together. In such cases, it’s best to go our separate ways lovingly and respectfully while still recognizing one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Of course, we shouldn’t rush to separate the moment cooperation becomes difficult. We need to have hard, honest conversations about our differences to see if we still can work together. It is not a solution to maintain the outward appearance of cooperation while also maintaining patterns of apathy, passive-aggressive behavior or manipulative politicking behind the scenes.

The work Jesus Christ is doing in and through the local church is too important for us to neglect or abandon our cooperative efforts. Why are Baptist conventions still worth it? Because starting and strengthening local churches is still worth it, and we do that better together than we do apart.

Joshua Sharp is the pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Orange, and a graduate of Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Mo., and Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary in Waco. The views expressed in this opinion article are those of the author.