What is a Confessional Reformed Baptist Church?

• Introduction
• 1. What is a Church?
• 2. What is Reformed Doctrine?
• 3. What does it mean to be Baptistic?
• 4. Why are Reformed Baptist Churches Confessional?
• 5. The Law and the Gospel
• 6. Why Does It Matter?
• Appendix: How Are We Different?

Introduction

"Where do you go to church?”

This is often the first question new believers ask each other the first time they meet.

Next comes another set of questions:

What denomination is your church a part of?
What does your worship look like?
What exactly do you all believe?

Answering these questions can be a helpful part of building healthy relationships with other believers - knowing where we have commonalities and where we might have interesting and profitable discussions and debates.

However, when some believers ask me this and hear that the church we attend is a Confessional Reformed Baptist Church, it's not unusual for them to ask, "what does that mean?”

This book seeks to answer that question. Throughout the book when I use "us” or "we” or "our”, I'm specifically describing what I've seen in my own church and in other Confessional Reformed Baptist Churches, although each local church will be unique in its own way.

The shortest and simplest answer to the question "what is a Confessional Reformed Baptist Church?” may come across as sarcastic or even arrogant, but we believe it is true:

A Confessional Reformed Baptist Church is a biblical church.

You might not yet agree with me on that point, but I hope that the rest of this book makes the compelling case for that answer.

This book is written by a layman for laymen. I'm not a seminary trained theologian. I care about biblical doctrine because it helps me better understand God and my relationship to Him. I've also sought to learn about church history because it helps me understand how theologians have built upon the study and wisdom of those that came before them to better understand what Scripture is telling us.

This book rests most solidly on Scripture itself to explain what we believe, but also explains the history of how doctrines were clarified over time, and it also references confessions written by men in history to summarize and communicate those truths. Where I use quotes from the Bible, they will be from the New King James translation, unless otherwise noted.

The book is organized to describe Confessional Reformed Baptist Churches from the base out, with each chapter expanding the definition:

• What is a church?
• What is Reformed doctrine?
• What does it mean to be baptistic?
• Why are Reformed Baptist Churches confessional?

These chapters are followed by a chapter on the critical topics of the Moral Law and the Gospel. The book closes with a summary chapter on why all of this matters.

Also included is an appendix summarizing the distinctives of Confessional Reformed Baptist Churches and how we differ from some other groups that those visiting our churches may visit or consider.

Finally, before I launch into the main body of this topic, it is important to acknowledge that, although I believe a Confessional Reformed Baptist Church is a biblical church, you shouldn't expect ours to be perfect churches.

Any church is made up of people who are products of the Fall and are flawed, just as you are. While I believe our church leaders and members are redeemed and justified by Christ's sacrificial atonement, we are all still being sanctified and we still make mistakes. I welcome you to join with us and be part of God's sanctifying work in our lives and in our churches to the glory of God.

I would like to acknowledge and thank those who have contributed to this book, whether they know it or not. The only thing original here is the particular ordering of words to express the ideas contained. If I have written anything innovative or new, then I have failed. The entire goal of this book is to express truths that are as ancient as the Christian faith itself, and arguably even older than that. So the first and greatest thanks goes to the almighty and omniscient God of all knowledge and creation; to Him alone belongs all praise and glory.

Second I would like to acknowledge that every concept covered here has been written about more thoroughly and more wisely by learned men over the centuries and up to our current day. Some are named in these pages, but many have contributed to my understanding over the years and their knowledge has flowed back out in my explanations. My goal has been to synthesize and simplify for the general reader, but if there are concepts in this book that are new to you that you'd like to better understand there are undoubtedly good books available that go much deeper. If you need further reading recommendations on a given topic, ask your local Reformed Baptist pastor, or feel free to reach out to me.

Obviously, I have been most directly impacted by my own pastors over the years at Christ Presbyterian Church (yes, I was once only mostly reformed), Covenant Bible Church, Oak Hills Presbyterian Church, Northwest Bible Church, and the Reformed Baptist Church of Kansas City. I would specifically like to thank my pastor, Martin Nish, and brothers Trey Jadlow, Jared Ball, Konrad Holden, and Randy Scott at RBCKC for reading earlier drafts of this book, graciously correcting my theological errors, pointing out over-simplifications, and helping me see ways I could explain things more clearly.

Finally, I would like to thank my son Kevin and especially my wife Donna for reading many drafts, copy editing, helping with wording, and all of her support of this work.

Just like me, this book is not perfect. I welcome any constructive feedback offered to encourage this publication to better reflect what a Confessional Reformed Baptist Church is. Please send it to me at [email protected].