Baptist Preaching (6)

This posting identifies four more characteristics of preaching in the Baptist tradition:

4) Preaching has social impact. This emphasis is a major part within the black Baptist tradition, but also emerges elsewhere (as seen in Rick Warren’s ministry). However, in general, white Baptist preaching has tended to stress evangelism rather than social action.[i]

5) Preaching is community forming. All the above characteristics belong within Baptist convictions about the local church – communities comprising those who have been baptized or who are on the way to baptism. Preaching has a pivotal role in creating this community. Indeed, “preaching and community are reciprocal realities.” [ii] Baptist churches will vary in how they practice the “priesthood of all believers” (1 Pet. 2:9). Some will exercise non-authoritarian congregational polity, while others have developed more hierarchical structures. But, at its best, Baptist preaching builds relationships as the body of Christ and, especially in contexts like the black church, may have huge impact on surrounding community. And recently, Baptist leaders have challenged congregations to express how “depth in worship comes more readily when we determine to be thoroughly Trinitarian in our approach to preaching.”[iii]

6) Preaching reveals spiritual qualities. Spiritual disciplines of prayer and Bible study remain important for Baptist preachers, and help explain an emphasis on ethos as a vital component to leadership. While a quality such as “warmth” sounds vague, it can often be applied to Baptist preachers because their role and relationships within community need devotional transparency.

7) Preaching involves pragmatics. While this word can be used negatively, Baptist preaching is always concerned about outcomes, of making church “work” better to Christ’s glory. Whether using the latest technical opportunities for evangelism, or seeking new forms of attracting people to worship services, Baptist preaching often operates on an entrepreneurial edge. Of course, great dangers lurk of accommodating to society’s consumerism and individualism, but intentional preaching that “makes a difference” often marks Baptist preaching.

To each of these statements there are many exceptions and, as hinted, there are many potential negatives. However, together they represent something of preaching in the Baptist tradition. I know others will have different views and perhaps they will share agreements and disagreements!

Baptist Preaching (5)

You will see from comments to my last posting how controversial defining "true Baptists" may be! But I must hasten on from these sketches, and ask whether certain characteristics emerge that speak of preaching in the Baptist tradition? Recognizing that many of these are distinctive of other Protestant groups, perhaps their combination reveals something that is distinctly Baptist? Let me list seven, beginning with these three:

1) Scripture is authoritative. Baptist preaching has a high view of Scripture’s authority. Throughout its history, including “seeker sensitive” preaching, the Scripture text remains foundational for Baptists. Early Baptist emphases on learning and theology remain important in the many Baptist seminaries, with homiletical concern for solid exegesis and faithful application.

2) Preaching is dominant within worship services and leadership. The dominance of the Baptist pulpit has its roots in New Testament understanding of the church as gathered believers under the word. Often, the prime place given to preaching relegates the rest of the liturgy – singing, prayer, the Lord’s Supper and even baptism – to a less prominent place. A person’s preaching call and gift is also the main consideration when appointing a minister. “Preaching with a view” remains the normal approach to settling a Baptist pastorate –gifting in the pulpit is seen as essential.

3) Preaching is often evangelistic. Preaching for faith-response remains a powerful Baptist emphasis, though other forms of evangelism are also encouraged. Because the church comprises believers, their initial faith response is all-important for the local church’s very existence. For some Baptists this is a weekly emphasis.

Baptist Preaching (3)

In the ferment of early persecution some outstanding and courageous preachers emerged. But, more generally, it was the role of preaching in developing Baptist congregations that ensured its subsequent importance within the Baptist tradition. Because Baptists understand the church to be gathered believers under the word of God, preaching is essential for two reasons. First, individuals need to come to faith by hearing the gospel preached to them (Rom 10:14-15); second, church community is formed by believers responding to the preached word together. Take away preaching and a Baptist people cannot be gathered into church!

So, from the beginnings the pulpit was central, both literally in Baptist architecture, but also metaphorically in its prime place within gathered worship. Further, because Baptist churches are necessarily local - formed from the "bottom up" - gathered believers with different racial, social, political and economic characteristics represent great diversity in emphasis and style, and their preachers with them. Because the pulpit is central, much therefore depends on preachers' own qualities of learning and piety, (or their absence), that can have large influence on gathered communities - for better or worse!

Baptist Preaching (2)

Before jumping out of the seventeenth century I should mention another Baptist preacher who was far less formally educated, yet was so grounded in Scriptural piety that he impacted England (and far beyond). John Bunyan (1628-1688) is better known for his writing of Pilgrim’s Progress but was a widely influential preacher , imprisoned for twelve years because of Baptist convictions. Inspirational and forceful, he famously declared: “I have not fished in other men’s waters; my Bible and concordance are my only library.”[ii] So, to other qualities, strong Biblical authority must be added. Of course, it should be noted, that this was true of most other Protestant preaching in the wake of the Reformation. Further, early Baptists contained both Arminian and Calvinistic theology among different groupings.

In its rapid expansion since these beginnings, Baptist life and witness now exhibits rich (and confusing?) diversity, especially in North America. Do some of the early characteristics, born out of persecution, still remain? Have other characteristics emerged? One certainty is that the authority of Scripture is held high by most Baptist preachers, but what else?

Baptist Preaching (1)

To my shock, (in the midst of much grading and intensive doctoral teaching), I realize I face an approaching deadline for an article on "Preaching in the Baptist tradition," for the British journal called: The Preacher. Sorry, but this means taking a brief detour from other blog themes. Please excuse me all non-Baptist readers.

Initially, I wonder whether there is such a thing as a Baptist tradition - can't almost anything and everything can be found in Baptist pulpits? Actually this year celebrates 400 years since the first Baptists in Holland and England. It's interesting to pause and look at their beginnings. The first Baptists were people of conviction. They needed to be, for they were challenging the state church and majority assumption about the nature of the church! Convinced that the Bible reveals God’s supreme authority, they believed it teaches that the church comprises communities of believers gathered together in each locality. Founded on believers’ faith and formed by covenant fellowship, the first Baptists claimed believers’ baptism as the way into the church. Though nicknamed “baptists” it was ecclesiology (church doctrine) that primarily distinguished them.

In this context, the first Baptist theologians were preachers, (and vice versa), who led by their preaching – “theologically radical, politically dangerous, ecclesiastically Nonconformist, they preached sermons that spoke so clearly to their age that they often found themselves in prison.”[i] Thomas McKibbens’ history of Baptist preaching emphasizes the intellectual rigour of these first preachers, many of them Cambridge University graduates (like John Smythe, Thomas Helwys, and Henry Jessey), whose passion in declaring personal salvation was matched by commitment to serious biblical and theological study. He identifies two distinctive marks: “learning and piety.” Serious biblical study and theological reflection, especially concerning the church as gathered believers, was combined with evident personal spirituality and evangelistic zeal.

To learning and piety I would add evangelism and courage. That's not a bad place to start, is it?

[i] Thomas R. McKibbens, The Forgotten Heritage, Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 1986, 4