Free Baptist Faith

Edited by Robert Gonzales Jr. A growing number of Baptist churches today are rediscovering their confessional heritage. The contributors to this book welcome this rediscovery. Indeed, they hope it continues! With that end in view, they have written and compiled these essays to celebrate and commend the use of creeds and confessions in Baptist faith and life. The primary audiences they have in view are local church leaders and members because sound theology is not just the province of the academy but is essential to the health and ministry of the local church. Contributors: Nicolas Alford, Thomas K. Ascol, Brian Borgman, Vadim Chepurny, Robert Gonzales Jr., Michael A.G. Haykin, Jeffrey D. Johnson, Thomas J. Nettles, Samuel E. Waldron, Luke Walker, Steve Weaver

"A church free from state control and a state free from church control"--Such is one of the radical insights of a baptist vision of church and society. -- What exactly is a baptist vision of the church? -- What are the biblical, historical and theological roots of this approach to Christian community? -- What is the place of such a vision in the context of a global church that includes alternative notions of the body of Christ? Free Church, Free State is a textbook on baptist ways of being church and a proposal for the future of baptist churches in an ecumenical context. Nigel Wright argues that both baptist (small 'b') and catholic (small 'c') church traditions should seek to enrich and support each other as valid expressions of the body of Christ without sacrificing what they hold dear. Written for pastors, church planters, evangelists and preachers, Nigel Wright offers frameworks of thought for baptists and non-baptists in their journey together following Christ.

Southern Baptists are the nation's largest protestant denomination, with over 43,000 churches and millions of members. Since its inception, controversy has surrounded the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, Southern Baptists' most recent confession of faith. The present volume consists of essays by Baptist scholars explaining and defending that document. Each of the 18 articles of the BF&M 2000 is addressed, with special attention to the most critical issues and changes from the denomination's 1963 confession. Also included is an appendix comprising the full text of all three Baptist Faith and Message statements from the 20th century (1925, 1963, and 2000), in side-by-side columns for easy reference and comparison. Contributors include Al Mohler, Paige Patterson, Tom Nettles, Dorothy Patterson, E. David Cook, and C. Ben Mitchell, with a foreword by Susie Hawkins. Brief yet comprehensive, detailed yet accessible to the non-specialist, this volume is a must read for Southern Baptist professors and students, staff and church members, and anyone interested in one of the most powerful religious forces in America.