Question for Baptists: Do all Baptist churches differ from each other?

Question

I came across this article in which a Baptist preacher fired a Sunday School teacher because she was female:
http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=13257809&src=rss/oddlyEnoughNews

The thing that caught my attention was the following statement: "William Carlsen, executive minister for American Baptist Churches of New York State, said U.S. Baptist Churches are autonomous and that there would not be many other Baptist Churches that share LaBouf's view."

Does this mean that no two Baptist churches are alike? I would have thought that by being Baptist, they would all adhere to some kind of general Baptist doctrine that is followed by all Baptist churches within the denomination.

This reminds me of a friend of mine whose father was a Baptist preacher. He would often travel with his father to various Baptist churches, and one thing he noticed was that the church doctrine was always different from one church to the next.

Why is that?

Answer 1

American, Southern, and Independent Baptist churches in the USA are "autonomous". This means that they do not take orders from anyone-even the Baptist conventions. However, if any Church behaves in a way that is seen as "un-Baptist", they can be put under "watch". If they are found to be acting in a way unbecoming of Baptist standards then they will be ask to correct the situation. If they refuse, then the Baptist convention will no longer associate with them-but the people in the church get to keep their church and building/s.
Now in the article you reference, Pastor LaBouf has assumed that the passage concerning women and teaching means that women should not be allowed to teach. The word "teach" where Paul makes that statement means "pastor", not Sunday school teacher. If we did not allow women to teach or to minister in the baptist churches across America-we would have to close the doors. Every Baptist church I have been in has women teachers, some even have the title of 'Minister".

Now to your question-no two Baptist churches are exactly alike. But they are very similar, and the doctrine is the same. In fact most Baptist churches will have their beliefs printed and readily available. Pastor LaBouf is outside the norm.

Answer 2

Besides adult immersion baptism, Baptists are set apart from other denominations by the fact that they are independent, self-governing churches. There is no overseeing organization (such as the Vatican for Catholics) who tells a Baptist church what they can or cannot do, must or must not believe, etc.

The congregation should be the one making those decisions. And just as is the case when you take any two different people, or groups of people, there will be differences between them.

Hopefully, they are all following the Word of God. If you find one that isn't, it is not a true Baptist church (or true church of any kind for that matter).

Answer 3

It is because there are several different branches of the Baptist Church. There is Southern Baptist, which I am, American Baptist, Free Baptist and more that I can't think of at the moment. We Southern Baptist belong to the Baptist Association, which in my case is the Sandy Creek Baptist Association. There are many associations varying in size from a dozen churches to twenty five or so.

Answer 4

The differences among baptist churches can be important. The Southern Baptist Convention has become increasingly conservative politically over the last 10-20 years. By majority vote, it has pushed policies that have led some member churches or individual members to join other baptist or Christian associations.

Answer 5

They are all different. Southern Baptist, Fundamental Baptist, Freewill Baptist, General Baptist. No two are alike completely in method of worship. They all share BASICALLY the same doctrine, but will worship differently. Some are fire and brimstone, some are more progressive. The only similarity really is their love for full immersion baptism and potluck dinners!

Answer 6

Yes, there are different Baptist churches, with subtle differences from each other. The same is true of Pentecostal churches -- variations in the beliefs. Each believes they have the correct salvation.

I heard of that article about the Sunday school teacher. She has taught Sunday school for 54 years, and she was suddenly fired.

Attached is a link from one Baptist church, regarding their views and beliefs.

Answer 7

No all baptists are not alike. That is why we have Southern Baptists (the worlds largest Baptist group), and many other baptist groups. There are Southern Baptish churches in the north trying to convert catholics just as there are catholics in africa trying to convert africans. There are many baptist splinter groups and they differ in many ways. Some of them are holiness to a degree, and others simply split from the souther baptist origanization becayuse they felt left out or felt the origanization was wrong in its liberation movement. There are mildly conservative groups, liberal groups, to new grooups who claim to be baptish but actualy follow a leader in their roll as christians instead of the church.

Answer 8

Baptist churches usually have different doctrines. The only thing which is common to them is their belief in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit which is recorded in Acts.

Answer 9

Catholicism is a faith yet Baptists are a denomination. a guy or woman could be one or the different and neither one ability that the guy is a Christian. everyone can connect or grow to be a factor of the Catholic faith and everyone can connect a baptist church yet no longer be a new child of God.

Answer 10

same way here in Alabama most of the churches believe different things the way I see it as long as we know who Christ is and live our life for him... and live by bible and share the good news about Jesus then I'm going to heaven Iam tired of fighting about what religion is going to heaven or what church? who knows who cares all we should be concerned about is if we know the most important person JESUS CHRIST AND THAT WE LIVE OUR LIFE FOR HIM ..God Bless.....