In my previous article in this series, I referred to the Georgia Baptist Convention’s (GBC) decision to end its 148-year relationship with the First Baptist Church of Decatur because it called a woman as its pastor. The main question in that conflict was not, “Is it right or wrong to have a woman pastor?” The critical question was, “To whom does God give the authority to make such decisions for our lives and churches?”

Historic Baptists do not hold the GBC’s fundamentalist approach that individuals and local churches are not capable of finding God’s will for themselves. Historic Baptists disagree with the belief that God chooses a few special “men” to find God’s will and if an individual or local church does not accept the chosen leader’s decisions, they are to be disciplined or kicked out.

Woodland is a CBF (Cooperative Baptist Church) because CBF churches believe the historic Baptist view that God gives each of us the authority and responsibility to interpret the Bible for ourselves and, after study, counsel and communication with God, to make our own decisions. We also believe in and respect the autonomy of the local church. The word autonomy comes from the Greek words “autos” and “nomos,” meaning “self” and “rule.” So, each local church has the God-given authority to rule itself, to make its own decisions, to find God’s will for itself. No person or small group or hierarchical structure should make decisions for a church. Each member has the right to share his or her ideas, and then collectively, decide what God’s will is for their family of faith. No doubt churches will make some wrong decisions and suffer the consequences. But, we believe that under the leadership of God’s Spirit, the local church will come closer to finding God’s will for themselves than they will if they put decisions in someone else’s hands. See you next week as we examine the question, “Do Baptists Have Priests?” Bill Nichols