You may have read this past week about the Annual Meeting of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention, where a change was rejected to the convention bylaws concerning practices of communion and baptism. Our church has exercised autonomy on these two issues for years.

While the bylaws of the convention call for “closed communion,” we have practiced “open communion” for years. We believe any born again believer who is right with God is able to experience communion with our church when we observe it together. We actually hold to a very conservative view, even telling our people they are to make sure they are worthy to observe communion on each occasion. We do not need to drink condemnation to ourselves because we are not right with God when we observe the Lord’s Supper.

While the bylaws of the convention call for no practices of “alien immersion,” our church has handled each case for baptism individually. The strict call of these bylaws would say that we cannot receive anyone who has not been baptized in a Baptist church. Well, that is just not right and definitely not biblical. At the same time, our own practice has been to take each case individually as well as hold to a strong belief and practice that we only receive baptisms from churches who are of like faith and order as our church. Yes, our commitment is to doctrinal purity. We hold the line tight, even to the point of losing possible members to our church. However, we are to be a biblically grounded, Christ-centered people of God. We cannot negotiate away the precious doctrine of salvation as well as other doctrines.

Please understand that while we do associate with the Arkansas Baptist Convention, we are an autonomous body of Christ. No convention office dictates to our church how to practice our faith. As a local body of Christ, we have the liberty to interpret Scripture as we believe is right and prayerfully historically accurate.

These bylaws need to be changed. I was unable to attend this year due to my Board of Trustees meeting with GuideStone Financial Services. I was surprised the bylaws were upheld since most churches believe in and practice their autonomy on these issue and others. Perhaps they can be changed in the future, but again, our church will continue to practice local church autonomy on these issues and others.

At least one great thing happened at this year’s state convention meeting: Dr. Wes George, Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church in Rogers, was elected President. He is a gifted man who has a heart to reach our region with the gospel. The Lord is using him in a great way and we are proud of him and for him. He is the right man for this season to help our churches through issues like these and others. I am thankful as well for the leadership of our outgoing President, Harry Black of Fayetteville. Harry is a great encouragement to my life and ministry.

Let’s stay prayerful and humble in these days.