The authority of a Baptist association: recently the authority of Baptist associations and state Baptist conventions has been headline news. Baptist historians have spent far more time studying Baptist associations than analyzing Baptist state conventions. The latter is a fertile, if boring, field for some intense investigation.

But what about Baptist associations? What authority do they have over local churches? If you really want to know, read carefully the eight major eighteenth-century Baptist documents listed on the next page. They describe the nature and power of Baptist associations.

Good people may read these documents differently. But it is hard to do! These documents are easy to understand. They agreed on some "fundamental" issues of Baptist polity. First, associations cannot "dechurch" a Baptist church; associations, by any actions they take, have no authority to determine the legitimacy of a Baptist church. Second, and inherent in the first, Baptists are congregationalists in church polity. Specifically, that means a Baptist church can determine its beliefs, membership, ministers, and actions. Baptist churches do not have to belong to any other organization to be a Baptist church. The associational documents listed spent far more time "protecting" the authority of local congregations than in expanding associational authority.

However, the documents also "urge" Baptist churches to "associate" together. Moreover, they dearly state that an association has authority to determine its beliefs, membership, and actions. "Can an association," someone asks, "'kick a church out' of the association?" You bet it can! Associations are autonomous. Like the word "trinity," autonomous is not a biblical word, but it is a good word that describes something basic in the Baptist polity of local churches, associations, and state and national conventions.

While Baptist associations have legitimate power to control every aspect of their lives, they have usually carried that authority lightly, with a keen eye on the unity of the fellowship of the churches. Also, associations in the early years kept a very sharp eye on the congregational authority of a local church. Associations rarely acted petulantly.

"Eighteenth-Century Statements on Baptist Associations"

1. "Of the Church," Article XXVII, Sections 14 and 15 of The Philadelphia Confession of Faith adopted by The Philadelphia Baptist Association in 1742 and published in 1743.

2. "Of the Communion of Churches" is Article IX of A Short Treatise of Church Discipline written by Benjamin Griffith in 1743. Griffith's brief statement was attached to The Philadelphia Confession of Faith.

3. "Essay on the Authority and Power of an Association of Churches" by Benjamin Griffith, published in the 1749 Minutes of the Philadelphia Baptist Association.

4. "Of An Association" is Chapter LIV of The Customs of Primitive Churches, written by Morgan Edwards and published in 1768.

5. "Sentiments Touching An Association" by James Manning and adopted by the Warren Baptist Association in 1769. See Reuben Aldridge Guild, Early History of Brown University (1897), pp. 76-77 of the Arno Press edition published in 1980.

6. "Appendix VII" in Morgan Edwards, Materials Towards A History of the Baptists in Pennsylvania (1770) is untitled but speaks to [The Origin, Nature, and Usefulness of the Philadelphia Baptist Association].

7. "Of the Association of Churches" is Chapter VI of A Summary of Church-Discipline published by the Charleston Baptist Association of South Carolina in 1773.

8. "Of the Fellowship and Communion of Churches" (Chapter XI) and "Of an Association" (Chapter XII) in Samuel Jones, A Treatise of Church Discipline published in 1798.

Walter B. Shurden

Executive Director

The Center for Baptist Studies Mercer University