Ecclesiology

Abstract This chapter proposes that Baptist ecclesiology is of the ‘covenantal’ type, with the covenant being centred on the act of believers’ baptism. A covenant ecclesiology envisages the local congregation as existing under the direct rule of Christ who gathers its members together, so that covenant is made simultaneously with each other and God. Two tensions are consequently typical of such an ecclesiology—a fluidity of oversight between congregation and officers within the local church on one hand, and a sharing of authority between local and wider manifestations of church on the other. Understanding the eternal covenant of God for the salvation of all humankind as being actualized in the covenant of the local church, it is inherent in Baptist ecclesiology to have a vision of the universal church of Christ. Thus the local congregation has freedom to find the mind of Christ for its own life and mission through the meeting of church members, and cannot be imposed upon by wider ecclesial authorities, but in discerning the mind of Christ it must also pay attention to the way that wider assemblies of churches stand under the rule of Christ and find his purpose. The twofold ministry of minister(s) and deacons fits within this covenantal structure. The chapter reviews instances of these two tensions or dialectic in earlier English Baptist churches, and then elsewhere in the world today, concluding that the seeds of the ‘Free Church’ as a distinct ecclesial type lay in covenant ecclesiology.