Baptist Ideas: The Leading of the Spirit

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Martin Sutherland

In these reflections we are examining core Baptist ideas. If we are looking for a single big idea which provides the spark to Baptist thought and mission it is that the Christian life consists of radical discipleship. This “following whatever the cost” involves adult choice and covenanted communities of fellow travellers. It is a costly idea, but one rich and full in its implications.

There is, though, another conviction which runs alongside this first one. It is that all who follow Christ share in the same measure in the Spirit of Christ. Indeed, you simply can’t be a follower unless you are empowered, enabled to be by the Spirit. All disciples share in the Spirit and, conversely, none can claim to have a greater share than others. I am not talking about gifting here - obviously we are equipped in different ways, which meshes mysteriously with our personalities and experiences to make us all unique followers of the one Lord. Rather, I mean the deep engagement with the Spirit which is the experience of all children of God.

Baptists do not imagine faith to be a private matter. Christianity is not about a series of disconnected individuals, each interested only in their own hotline to God. The covenanted community is itself an expression of the Kingdom of God and individual faith is to be exercised among others. But at the same time it is crucial that none are oppressed by the group or by other individuals in the group. Church is about the celebration together of the Spirit’s presence in all members’ lives, not just in certain classes of Christian, or special individuals.

Congregational Government

It is at this point that the logic of congregational government emerges. All Christians assert the truth that there is only one Lord of the Church and that is Christ himself. But that is a meaningless claim unless it is followed up with some view on how the lordship of Christ is expressed. This is where the twin convictions about the Spirit’s role in every believer’s life and the corporate nature of Christian following come together.

It is fundamental to the Baptist view of congregational church government that the Spirit is uniquely active in the “coming together” of believers. Baptists take very seriously Jesus’ words in Matthew 18:15-20, where he anchored the authority of the community in his own presence “wherever two or three are gathered in my name”. Gathering in Jesus’ name is the key church event. It is in this coming together that the body is physically made “one” and when it hears the voice of God most authentically and reliably. As an early Anabaptist hymn put it

Assembled by thy grace, O Lord
We seek fresh guidance from thy word
Now grant anew thy blessing

In the nineteenth century British and American Baptists, taken along by the full flood of expanding democracy, resorted increasingly to the expedient of majority votes to sort out disputed questions. Fair enough - in most cases, where goodwill is operating, it is a clean and tidy means of deciding. But the Westminster system is not of the essence of congregational government. Committed, prayerful openness to the Spirit’s voice in the community is.

The congregational meeting is not a space for arguing, neither is it a place for democracy as such. But then, neither is it a mass rabble that is to be manipulated or harassed by leaders or factions. It is the gathering of disciples who, together, are seeking the mind of the Spirit. In this process it is essential that all voices have an opportunity to be heard, because all are children of God and all have the Spirit in equal measure.

Aiming At The Ideal

Now, the way this works in practice is, we all have to admit, uneven at best. Congregations can be slow, indecisive, wrong at times. Too often they have been given inappropriate things to decide – either too technical or too trivial. But just because a system is at times hard to implement perfectly does not mean its fundamental truths can be abandoned. More hierarchical, even dictatorial structures are sometimes preferred for their speed, but they can lead just as quickly to alienation and division. In any case, the implication that some Christians are to be regarded as uniquely qualified channels of the Spirit for everyone else is to Baptists unacceptable theologically.

Most important of all is the Baptist confidence that the Spirit is at work in our midst as gathered followers of Christ. I have suggested in this series that a sacramental view of baptism is not open to us. A true sacramental event is, however, to be found in the gathering itself. Here, in this otherwise mundane and natural event, God does something special. When believers come together, giving themselves to each other in their shared commitment to Christ, the values of the kingdom itself can operate. This is a visible sign of the grace of God. The making of decisions is enabled by this, but the business function is peripheral. By contrast, the presence of Christ through his Spirit is the core. Baptists don’t have meeting for their own sake. We are not trying to shape a club, or an efficient organisation. We gather together to meet our Lord.