What We Believe(Who are we)

Also see What we Believe Baptists are Bible People Baptists are Church People Baptists are Gospel People Baptists are Irish People Baptists are Diverse People

The baptists? Who are they?

Baptists are Bible People, Church People, Gospel People, Irish People, Diverse People

For most Irish people identity is important. Christians who are called Baptists are no exception.

Like many Christian sub-divisions Baptists must live with the name they have been given by history. In the 16th century they were nicknamed "Anabaptists" or "re-baptisers". In fact, their main distinctive is not their mode of baptising but their understanding of the nature and make-up of the local church. This in turn is based on the authority which they recognise in God’s word, the Bible.

In the 16th century the early Anabaptists, the spiritual parents of to-day’s Baptists, set out their thinking in five simple statements:

1. The Bible, as the Word of God is the final source of authority, what to believe and how to behave.

2. The true church of Christ is a fellowship of believers, free of state control.

3. Biblical baptism is for believers who choose to confess Christ in water baptism.

4. Christianity is more a way of life than a system of belief.

5. In matters of religion there should be toleration rather than compulsion.

Baptists formed their first churches in Ireland over 300 years ago. They spread out from Dublin into both urban and rural areas, early congregations gathering at Cork, Waterford, Kilkenny and other major cities. The village of Cloughjordan in Lower Ormonde had a church of almost two hundred people, many of whom emigrated to New Jersey in the 17th century.

Baptists see themselves as standing in line with the early Christian churches of the first century. They try to base their beliefs and church life on the teaching of scripture. Each local congregation is organised in such a way that members take their own decisions in a church meeting. Elders and Deacons are chosen leaders, recognised as gifted by God and appointed by the congregation.

Each congregation is independent. There is no outside hierarchy. Each church is self-financing as well as self-governing. There are no central church funds.

At present there are about 25,000 people attached to over 110 churches all over Ireland, which belong to the Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland. In the Republic there are over twenty congregations with a total community of over a thousand.