Letter from the Pastor 3/4/2025
Introduction
For nearly 5 years, our church has recited an ancient church creed every Sunday in our worship service. For several years, we recited the Apostles’ Creed, and we have begun reciting the Nicene Creed. Our plan going forward is to recite the Apostles’ for half the year and the Nicene the other half. If you were worshipping with our church in 2023, you’ll remember that, alongside the Apostles’ Creed, our church also worked its way through a recitation of the Heidelberg Catechism modified for us Baptists, of course. More recently, I published a series of seven letters that exposited chapter nineteen of the Second London Baptist Confession. Currently, on Sunday mornings, I am co-teaching a survey of the seven ecumenical councils of the church. All of this may seem odd coming from a Baptist church in the South. Why all the focus on creeds and confessions? Isn’t the Bible all we need? Shouldn’t we just focus on loving Jesus and not worry so much about theology?
I want to engage these questions over the next several weeks, specifically because I pray that our church becomes increasingly more confessional in the years and decades to come. For the next 5 weeks, we’ll use the following outline for this series of letters:
1: Why Must We Be Confessional?
2: Why Confessionalism is Unavoidable
3: What are Creeds & Confessions?
4: What is the Relationship Between Confessions & Scripture?
5: What Good Comes from Confessionalism?
Think of these as the “frequently asked questions” that come to me as a pastor. I pray that by the end of this series, you will see not only the value of confessions, but the great need for churches to embrace robust confessionalism. For now, let’s ask the question: “Why must we be confessional?”
Defining Confessionalism
I’m confessionally Baptist. In other words, I’m Baptist because I believe the Holy Scriptures teach those doctrines of the church that Baptists have historically defined and defended. I am not a Baptist because my parents were Baptist (though they were and are). I am not a Baptist merely because I happen to pastor a Baptist church (though I do). No, I am confessionally Baptist; which means that my personally held confession of what the Scripture teaches is Baptistic rather than Presbyterian, Methodist, Anglican, or Roman Catholic. In my personal study of Scripture, I adhere to historic Baptist confessions of faith.
But what does it mean for a church to be confessional? Very simply, it means that the local church adheres to, and requires its members to adhere to, not just the Scriptures, but a particular confession. In the case of Lake Wylie Baptist, we currently adhere to a modified version of the Baptist Faith & Message 2000. If you grew up in a faithful Presbyterian church, it means you adhered to the Westminster Confession. If you grew up Roman Catholic, you adhered to the Catechism of the Catholic church. Confessionalism means that the church doesn’t merely include a confession of faith in its bylaws, or that a church gives mere vocal ascent to a confession. True confessionalism joins affirmation with action. Confessional churches emphasize both orthodoxy (right beliefs) and orthopraxy (right actions related to beliefs).
If our confession teaches regenerate church membership, yet we allow professing unbelievers to join our membership, we are not confessional in any meaningful sense of the word. If our confession teaches that only men can be elders, yet we allow women to preach in our gathered worship, then our confessionalism is hollow. Confessionalism means that our stated beliefs inform and shape our practices.
Why Must We Be Confessional?
Robust confessionalism is one of the great needs of the hour in the evangelical church for at least three reasons.
Young Christians Must Mature
First, young Christians must mature, and confessions help summarize vast swaths of Biblical teaching into manageable and systematic portions. When I first introduced the Apostles’ Creed to our liturgy at Lake Wylie I really only had one goal: teach new and especially young Christians good theology. I’ll never forget the first few times a parent in our church posted a video of one of their children, toddlers even, reciting the Creed from memory. I was so pleased. Reciting Creeds and Confessions shows us that even toddlers can learn good theology. They may not understand everything they are reciting, but we are giving them the building blocks of faith that can mature and develop over time.
Churches Never Drift Towards Faithfulness
Second, churches never drift towards Biblical fidelity. This is why the preaching of the Word must be central in the life of the church, even above the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Because confessions summarize Biblical teaching, they become invaluable tools for critiquing and evaluating our own theology and practice. By constantly returning to time-tested confessions of faith we ensure our own church can stand the test of time. It’s so easy for a church to invent and innovate when they ought to “hold fast to the trustworthy word as taught”. (Titus 1:9)
Denominations Have Weakened
Finally, over the last two hundred years we have seen the weakening of large evangelical denominations. I’m convinced this decline is, in large part, due to a lack of emphasis on confessional unity. In our own denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, many wish to emphasize our commitment to cooperation in missions, sometimes to the relegation of our confessional unity. We would be wise to remember the question the Lord asked Israel through the prophet Amos: “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” (Amos 3:3) The same could be asked of our denominations. Our unity in doctrine feeds and increases our unity in cooperative work. Put another way, a large reason for declining cooperation between churches is diverging beliefs. What we believe about the nature of the church, the offices of elders and deacons, the ministry of the Word, and the meaning of worship places limits on our willingness to cooperate with other churches.
Conclusion
For these reasons, and more, I believe confessionalism is one of the great needs in the church today. We live in a low-trust culture. Faith in institutions is waning. One of the ways we regain trust and build a foundation for the future of our own faith, our individual congregations, and denominational structures is by a renewed commitment to doctrinal unity that can only come through robust confessionalism that is worked out into the practices of our lives and churches.
I’m excited for the future of Lake Wylie Baptist Church. We love the Word of God. We love the God of the Word. And I pray the Lord will root us firmly in the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. (Jude 3)
In Christ,
Pastor Jonathan