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What Kind of Baptists We Are

Baptists come in many flavors and are not all the same...

As a denomination, Baptists come in many shapes and sizes. Currently, there are over 80 separate Baptist denominations in the United States and the diversity is surprising. For example, Primitive Baptists ardently defend predestination; so do Regular Baptists and Reformed Baptists. But Free Will Baptists believe just the opposite. Swedish Baptists and German Baptists live primarily in the midwest; Northern Baptists (who later became American Baptists) held sway in the northeast. Southern Baptists began in the south and still have their largest numbers there.

National Baptists are primarily African-American. Conservative Baptists and Fundamentalist Baptists pride themselves in their strict adherence to "the faith once for all delivered to the saints," while the Alliance of Baptists delights in diversity and nonconformity. There are even those who call themselves Cooperative Baptists, which to some must sound like an oxymoron...and the list goes on.

In light of this diversity, what kind of Baptists are we at Brookwood?

First, we are evangelical Baptists. This means we are Gospel-centered. Jesus Christ is the most common name in our church's vocabulary. The Bible is the primary book we study. We are concerned about knowing Jesus Christ and making him known to others.

Second, we are ecumenical Baptists. While we are Baptist, we believe that God is bigger than Baptists. We rejoice in God's activity in numerous denominations and para-church groups. We want to cooperate with and be open to all that God is doing in these organizations. We respect and love anyone who makes the common Christian confession, "Jesus is Lord." We are more interested in the Kingdom of God than in a specific denominational label.

Third, we are open-minded Baptists. Within the limits of the New Testament, we want our members to enjoy the freedom that comes in following Jesus Christ. This does not mean that one person is free to use the Bible while another uses the Koran, or that one is free to worship Jesus while another bows to Buddha, or that one is free to obey the Golden Rule while another is free to reject it.

Being open-minded does not give a believer the right to ignore or disobey Biblical teachings and the example of Jesus. With that said, however, there is not a lock-step mentality at Brookwood that requires every Christian to look, walk, and talk the same. Our goal is to follow Jesus Christ, and that necessitates a spirit of liberty (and responsibility!) which we cherish here.