Down by the Riverside is the name of a book that a number of our church members are studying this spring. It’s a brief history of Baptist faith written by Everett C. Goodwin, an American Baptist author and local church pastor. For hundreds of years, Baptists have gone down to the riversides where the water is running to baptize new Christians in Jesus Christ.
When we are worshiping in our sanctuary, the most prominent feature we see is the front stained glass window. Commissioned to celebrate the centennial of our church in 1980, the window is a waterfall cascading into our actual baptistry. There are living things all around: birds in the air, blooming flowers, verdant trees, and swimming fish. On the left side window, the Chinese reads, “Come, accept the water of life.” (Rev. 22:17) We may not be baptizing new converts in an active river anymore, but we know that Baptists believe that to believe in Jesus Christ, the Living Water, we are to become active and faithful disciples living out our convictions in daily life.
The result of our book study has enabled many to understand who Baptists have been and where they came from. Baptists began in England and soon ventured to the North American continent. For the principle of freedom in faith against totalitarian authority, they were persecuted and marginalized. Baptists believe in the power and authority of the Bible and only have considered confessional statements to organize their life together. While Baptists strongly stand for individual “soul freedom” to interpret Scriptures with the responsibility to understand Scriptures in their context and with the wisdom of biblical scholarship, they are also committed to the local church where a democratic form of organization welcomes everyone to participate equally. Unlike some churches, where a person is credited as a “founder,” Baptists have no such person. We do have people along the way who have shaped who Baptists are today: missionaries Adoniram Judson and Ann Hasseltine, civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., President Jimmy Carter and many, many others.
Baptists do share core beliefs in the nature of God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, the nature and experience of humankind, the character and role of the church and other aspects of faith such as salvation, worship, and the ordinances of the Lord’s Supper and Baptism. Perhaps the most eye-opening discovery from our study is the realization that since the late nineteenth century, Baptist views of Scripture at times have been a source of disagreement among Baptists themselves. But what makes Baptists Baptist is this religious freedom in belief and worship, freedom in the interpretation of Scripture but always with the commitment to discern God’s truth, and freedom from interference by governmental and religious authority.
Our church is truly a healthy Baptist church enabling every person to have the freedom to read and interpret Scriptures. This is the reason why we present Bibles to Sunday school students or have Bibles in our sanctuary or encourage everyone to attend Bible studies. From this conviction to knowing the Bible and to share our understanding with other Baptists while always discerning the mind of Christ on matters of importance, we will continue to invite new Christians down by the riversides to be transformed by the Living Christ!
Pastor Don