2003 marks 180 years since the Baptist General Association of Virginia was founded. This is the third in a series of articles telling why the BGAV is still “the right choice” for the Baptist churches of Virginia.

Reprinted by permission of The Religious Herald.

Denominations are dead, some say. They are institutional dinosaurs that thrived in the 19th and 20th centuries, but they are dwindling into extinction in the postmodern climate of the 21st century.

Don’t be too hasty. Denominations are not dying; they are transitioning to match the demands and realities of what some are calling a post-denominational age.

Denominations provide for a rich diversity of religious life in the United States. They allow some to be dunked while others are sprinkled, some congregations to be democracies while others are oligarchies or dictatorships, some to have latitude in their beliefs while others have little theological wiggle room. Different strokes for different folks.

When it comes to Baptists, there is a denominational style that needs to die. It is the denomination as corporation.

Baptists are the staunchest defenders of local church autonomy and non-connectional church polity. Our method for doing church business is bottom-up, not top-down. The local church is of supreme importance and the state or national denomination, while vital, have a lower priority. Each of these is separate and distinct.

Baptists in the South forgot this in the latter half of the 20th century. We fell into the mindset that the national denomination was a huge religious corporation. Churches were franchises of the corporation. State conventions were agents of the corporation.

In this style of denominationalism the national denomination became an enforcer of doctrine and church practices. Churches looked to the denomination to set their identity, theology, hymn book, requirements for membership, architecture, calendar, leadership structure, and missions strategy. As franchisees model the brand of a corporation, Baptist congregations modeled the brand of the national denomination.

The corporate approach to denominationalism is alive today among Baptists, but no Baptist congregation must adopt it. Baptist General Association of Virginia churches are embracing with enthusiasm a better approach.

It is the idea of denomination as hub.

For anyone over age 50 a hub is the center point on a wheel. It is the point around which the wheel rotates. Say “hub” to people under 50, on the other hand, and immediately they think of the internet. The World Wide Web is composed of millions of links dominated by a few highly connected nodes called hubs. These hubs are the place where all the links connect. Vbmb.org is a web site; Yahoo! is a hub.

In the 21st century the BGAV needs to become a regional hub. It is a denominational entity that exists to link individual Virginia Baptists and Virginia Baptist churches with each other and with resources and ministries that enable Christians and churches to fulfill their unique calling under God.

Through Experiencing God Henry Blackaby has reminded thousands of Virginia Baptists that Christians are to find out what God is doing in the world and join God in it. No local church, no matter its size, has the capacity to know the breadth of God’s work across the world. But the BGAV, acting as a hub, can connect Baptists in Rich Creek, Troutdale, Upperville, Zuni and Callao with the work of Southern Baptists in the Seychelles, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship among the Romani and the Baptist World Alliance in Cameroon.

Denominations are not dead, nor are they dying. They are, however, changing. You can hardwire your church to a denominational style that will tell you what you must believe, who your church can call as pastor and how your church must conduct its ministry. But that does not leave any room for the Holy Spirit to speak to your congregation, and it is not Baptist.

Or you can connect with the BGAV, which in turn will honor your autonomy and link you with resources to accomplish God’s work in ways that match the limitless extent of God’s grace.

Part 4 >>>