The Baptistification of World Christianity

The Power of the Baptists

A Baptist church I attended for many years took the name “Baptist” off its church sign. They said it was a negative in trying to recruit new people. Secularist America is apparently put off by the Baptists. But it didn’t bother me. Take the name away if you want but don’t eschew the Baptist values which have made us one of the most powerful groups in world history.

Many years ago the eminent Lutheran historian, Martin Marty, said that what we are seeing today is the “baptistification” of world Christianity. He said it without sympathy. What did he mean? He meant that the spread of Christianity around the world was through groups that are Baptist in their way of doing things. Pentecostals are Baptists who speak in tongues and there are now 500 million of them to go along with all the other Baptists. A friend of mine said that a non-denominational church is simply a Baptist congregation with a cool website.

What makes a church baptistic? Well, obviously, they practice baptism by immersion and they only baptize adult converts. But there are two other Baptist distinctives that make it a powerful religious force. Each Baptist church is run by the congregation itself—there is no hierarchy telling it what to do. And Baptists believe that each individual Christian is, in effect, his own Pope. He is responsible for reading the Bible as his final authority and doing what it says. There is no giant bureaucracy telling him what to believe or how to act.

And that’s the kind of Christianity you see growing around the world. If Martin Marty were alive today he would be even more unhappy.