I have just had the pleasure of spending a couple of afternoons with Tom Nettles’ new biography of the founder of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.  Every preacher, involved lay person, or history buff who cares about the beginnings of our Southern Baptist Convention will thank Dr. Nettles for this splendid contribution to Baptist history.  While the book cannot replace the wonderful biography written by one of the co-founders of Southern Seminary, John Broadus, it supplements the sympathetic memoir with details of Boyce’s life and ministry that one might not otherwise discover.

One trait of our early Baptist leaders that keeps jumping out at me from the pages of history and biography is - their BAPTISTNESS.  That’s probably not even a word - but maybe you know what I mean.  They were - as the ditty has it -

“Baptist born and Baptist bred, and when they died they were Baptist dead.”

Somehow we have forgotten or become ashamed of some of our Baptist principles that defined our Baptist forbears and set them apart from other groups.

For instance, Dr. Nettles has several insightful paragraphs about the church in which James Boyce found Christ, the First Baptist Church of Charleston, South Carolina.  In 1682, the First Baptist Church of Boston, Massachusetts, recognized that a congregation in Kittery Maine, was, indeed, a regular Baptist Church.  The church at Kittery was formally authorized by the Boston congregation because the congregation had “given themselves up to ye Lord and too one Another in a Solemn Covenant,” (p. 22).  The committee from the Boston congregation helped the Kittery group to ordain their leaders and “in ye name of ye Lord Jesus & by the Appointmtt of his church” recognized them “to be a Church of Christ and ye faith and order of ye Gospel.”  

Dr. Nettles adds that the “faith” that the Boston and Kittery churches held in common was the London Baptist Confession of 1677.  He writes, “The covenant mentioned probably is the earliest example of a Baptist covenant in America.  They promised to ‘walk with God & one with another In A dew and faithful observance of all his most holy & blessed commandmtts, Ordinances, Institutions or Appointments, revealed to us in his sacred word of ye ould & new Testament and according to ye grace of God & light att presently through his grace given us.’”

Fourteen men and seven women signed the covenant, thus becoming members of the newly-formed Kittery church.

A few years later, the group moved from Kittery to Charleston, South Carolina and formed the first Baptist church in the South, the church where Dr. Boyce found Christ.

Three points jump out at me from this narrative.  First, the Kittery church became a recognized Baptist church because an existing Baptist church oversaw their faith and order and approved them.  Second, both the Boston Church and the Kittery congregation adopted confessions of faith or doctrinal statements that clarified their teaching and guided their membership.  Third, these earliest Baptist churches were birthed by covenants and every member of the churches signed the covenant.  

In the minds of these early Baptists, a church was a covenant community, established upon Baptist doctrine and the commitment of its members by covenant to uphold the faith and practice of the congregation.

At EFBC we have attempted to recapture this element of our tradition and to celebrate our Baptist identity.  We are a covenant church and we have clearly enunciated our confessional and doctrinal standards.  

When I read books like this new biography of Dr. Boyce, I thrill to wear the name “Baptist.”  My chest swells as I think that we are in the same family of churches that have produced men like J. P. Boyce, John Broadus, Basil Manley Sr.,  Basil Manley Jr., and so many more.  I marvel that for decades we seemed to be on a mission to get as far as possible from our roots.  I celebrate the renewed emphasis on our Baptist heritage, church covenants and confessions, and biblical discipline.

Biblical discipline?  Yes - and more of this later.

Pastor Alan Day