Expert: Rev. Andrew Smith - 5/2/2008

Question
QUESTION: Dear Reverend,

    I understand that Baptists do not have any type of Apostolic Succession, like the Roman Catholic Church does, so who ordains a Baptist minister? Where do the Baptist Church leaders get their authority to ordain? The Roman Catholic Church believes that every Roman Catholic Bishop can trace his ordination backwards through a succession of ordinations all the way to the Apostles. So that by means of touch all bishops can trace their authority to the Apostles through an unbroken line of ordination.

    What do Baptists believe about their ordinations? Where does the authority come from?  What does it mean to ordain a pastor?

Thank You!
~ Andrew

ANSWER:    Andrew,

  Thanks for your question. I will answer it bit by bit, as you asked it.

  1) It's true, our practice of ordination does not rest on the idea of apostolic succession. For Roman Catholics, church authority inheres in the institution of the church itself, so it's important that leaders be systematically chosen and approved within the church who are trained to speak and act for the church. Additionally, the church provides the sacraments, and this can only be provided by ordained leaders.

  2) Among Baptists, authority, formally speaking, inheres only in the Bible, which is interpreted by gathered bodies of baptized believers. Local churches do not claim any special authority (in the Roman Catholic sense) to ordain, because ordination really doesn't convey any authority to speak for the church in the Roman Catholic sense. Baptist ordination has traditionally been a way to approve leaders that have been examined according to their doctrine and gifts for ministry, and acts as an assurance from the ordaining congregation to other congregations that a given minister is sound in doctrine and competent as a minister.

  3) Because Baptists believe that authority inheres in the text of the Bible and not in the church as an institution, we believe that the Bible, and not connection to the correct organization, is the benchmark of ministerial legitimacy. While Roman Catholics tend to affirm that there is no conflict between the message of the Bible and the dogma of the Catholic church, Baptists and other Protestants believe that Christian doctrine, if drawn exclusively from the Bible, differs from that taught by the Roman Catholic Church. Some Baptists would claim that Catholics are therefore not even Christians, but I think most Baptists (like myself) would without hesitation affirm the Christianity of sincere Roman Catholics. At the same time, we would deny that Christians must believe anything which cannot be drawn from a close reading of the scripture. Prayer to saints and purgatory represent a couple of examples of doctrine which is taught by the Catholic church but not included in the Biblical witness.

  I hope this helps. I will answer your other question soon.

  Andrew

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi,

    Thank you for your answer. But you didn't completely give me the information that I was looking for. I'm still wondering who in fact ordains a Baptist minister? Is it another pastor? Is it an entire congregation? Is it both? And what authority do those who ordain have? Is it just from the Bible, or does their authority come from those who ordained them? If it comes from those who ordained them, then how far back does that authority stretch? Is it in an unbroken line going back to the Apostles? I get the feeling from what you wrote that it is not, so I'm still sort of wondering.

Thank You!
~ Andrew

Answer
  The short answer to this question is that the whole church ordains a Baptist minister through a vote of the congregation, but that vote takes place on the recommendation of an "ordaining committee" or "presbytery" composed of pastors from the area, ordained ministers and deacons from the ordaining church, or some of both. Following the vote, the ordination is performed by a laying on of hands. Usually, in the Southern Baptist tradition, this is done by ordained people only, although increasingly some churches are inviting all members to lay hands on the newly ordained.

  Any authority that is exercised in ordination in a Baptist church stems simply from the conviction that Christ is present with and empowers the local church, defined as a locally gathered body of baptized believers. Christ gives local churches authority to do everything that the church must do to exercise its ministry, such as offer the ordinances and select officers. This authority is not historically mediated through ordination, as if it resided in the past and has to be conducted to the present through the pipeline of apostolic succession. The truths of the Christian faith are present in the Bible, are affirmed by the Christians in gathered churches, and this is publicly affirmed through baptism. We do not see any need for authority to flow from the past into the present in order to legitimate church practice. We do not affirm apostolic succession of any kind, simply because we do not believe we need it. Because the Bible itself provides a connection to the apostolic past, a connection through the institutional church is not needed.

  I hope this helps.

  Andrew