23rd March, 2024
“Jesus called them together and said, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles Lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you, instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant” – Mathew 20:25-26 NI
The passage above epitomizes the attitude to leadership in the Baptist polity. However, this is beginning to look like a thing of the past, and the generality of Baptists are getting increasingly uncomfortable with the high handedness of some leaders, particularly at the Baptist Convention level.
The Convention is an association of local churches coming together under one body, to advance the work of the kingdom. This is the rationale behind the formation of the Nigerian Baptist Convention, with a secretariat that used to be run under a management headed by a General Secretary.
All that has changed, with the convention now having a President, who also ominously designates himself as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of a kind of ‘conglomerate’.
Recently, a group of prominent members of local baptist churches across the country, known as “The Concerned Nigerian Baptists” wrote a letter to the Executive Committee (EC) of the Nigerian Baptist Convention highlighting in strong terms, their concerns about the goings on at the convention.
This is not the first-time, though, that members and other concerned stakeholders will express their reservations about the disturbing manner the leadership of the Nigerian Baptist Convention has been piloting its affairs. This latest petition, dated Sunday 26 November, 2023 and signed by several distinguished members of the church, drawn from across the country, brings to the fore once again the recriminations of the local churches and members.
The petitioners drew the attention of the church leadership to the highhandedness of officials of the Nigerian Baptist Convention, their veering away from the age-old values and norms of the convention, their tendency to turn the Convention into an episcopal one, where a supreme church leader wields ultimate administrative power and control, unlike the congregational polity, where administrative authority resides with the congregation, made up of members scripturally cloaked in Royal Priesthood.
The concerned Baptists highlighted the burning issue of the attempt to amend the Constitution of the Nigerian Baptist Convention and went further to sound a note of warning, that if the Convention leadership does not take urgent steps to stem this tide by putting a stop to strange policies that are about to be entrenched in the Constitution, the fallout may be unpleasant.
According to them, “This shift has been slowly creeping up on us and we want to sound a clear warning that if the proposed amendments to the NBC constitution are pushed through and entrenched in the constitution of the NBC, the Baptist faith as we know and cherish it today, will cease to exist.”
The petition, through which the members expressed their grievances in unequivocal terms, begins thus: “We have observed with concern certain developments currently facing our Baptist family. These developments have been brought to the fore by the current happenings between New Estate Baptist Church, Surulere-Lagos and the leadership of the Nigerian Baptist Convention.
“We strongly believe that these happenings, if left unchecked have the potential of doing serious damage to our polity and by implication, our purpose of Missions and Evangelism, the chief objective of the co-operation of the Local Churches who have come together to form the Nigerian Baptist Convention. Incidentally, these developments are intertwined and centre on the continuing onslaught on our cherished and biblical principles as found in the Scriptures and enshrined in the Constitution of the Nigerian Baptist Convention.”
These core doctrines and cherished values that underpin the faith of the Baptist community and sets it apart, but which are under continuing assault by the church leadership in Nigeria include the following: (1) The supremacy of the scriptures (2) soul competency (3) priesthood of all believers (4) congregational polity (5) unity in diversity (6) autonomy of the local church.
These biblical doctrines and cherished values are enshrined in the Constitution of the Nigerian Baptist Convention and are pillars of the Nigerian Baptist community and they underpin the coming together of the churches in co-operation, establishing the Associations, Conferences and Convention as vehicles to pursue their core objective – missions and evangelism.
The petitioners also draw the attention of the convention leadership to “the continuing attempts to deviate from these long cherished principles, with the most brazen being the provisions contained in the booklet, “Beliefs, Policies and Practices of the Nigerian Baptist Convention,” which seeks to, more or less, run local churches from the headquarters and completely water down every one of the above listed core doctrines.”
The provisions of this publication, which describes itself as a GUIDE now appears to be assuming the status of dogma, which the Convention leadership wants to set at par with Scriptures or at the very least, the Constitution of the Convention. The attempt of the Convention EC to forcefully compel a local church to comply with a provision in this booklet is the basis of a current disagreement between the Convention EC and some local churches, who are rightly insisting that the demands of the Convention EC to a local church to change its governance structure is unconstitutional and an infringement of their autonomy.
The local churches are resisting the attempt to bring policies that are contrary to the Scriptures, as well as the norms and values of the Baptist Church into the Constitution through the back door, leveraging the above cited booklet.
The petitioners go on to state, with emphasis, that “If we truly believe in our core values and tenets of faith, why do we need an additional level of micro-management and control to the extent that something as basic as cleanliness of church environment and length of a church service has to be legislated (see “Beliefs, Policies Practices of the NBC”, pages 15, 17/18). Surely, an autonomous local church made up of Holy Spirit-filled, priestly and soul competent believers and led by a Baptist trained Pastor, can be trusted to make such decisions, without instructions and supervision from the Convention EC.”
The Concerned Baptists go further to warn that, “The concentration of power in the hands of a few and particularly in the person of the President of the convention to recommend, approve or in other ways sign-off on the appointments of officials from Conference Presidents to members and chairpersons of Boards and Committees of various institutions in the Convention, will entrench the patronage system that is reminiscent of our national life, eroding the independence of our institutions.
“As long as the officers of our Associations, Conferences, Convention and other institutions and organs owe their appointments, principally to the Convention President and the EC, they will serve at his pleasure and jeopardize the independent thinking and decision-making that is the hallmark of strong and lasting institutions.”
The petitioners also point out some problematic amendments being proposed to the NBC Constitution. They include 1. Article III, Clause 5c, which attempts to designate pastors as ‘staff’ of the Convention, who are therefore not autonomous of the Nigerian Baptist Convention.
“What this implies is that the Convention EC has authority over Pastors of Local Churches, such that they can be recalled, reassigned or withdrawn from the pastorate of a local church at the pleasure of the Convention President or EC. The import of this is that the Convention EC can wield power over a local church and in seeking to punish or rein her into compliance, infringing on her autonomy, it can instruct Pastors to withdraw their services from the church,” they noted, stating how a few years ago there was an attempt by a convention president to unilaterally dismiss a pastor from a local church, which was resisted by the church and degenerated into a court matter. It remains to be seen how the Convention Executive Committee or Convention president will turn into its staff by fiat, a pastor who was never called in the first instance and whose conditions of service were negotiated by respective local churches!
Another proposed amendment, which is entirely new, according to the petitioners, is Article III, page 7, which forbids the local church, organ, Association or Conference from acquiring separate legal status with the Corporate Affairs Commission. This implies that churches and institutions cease to have a corporate identity outside of the Nigerian Baptist Convention, which completely nullifies a core doctrine of the Autonomy of the Local Church, shifting our polity from independent, autonomous, congregational churches cooperating for the purpose of Missions and Evangelism TO a unitary, hierarchical church model, with administrative authority flowing from the Convention EC, through the Conferences and Associations to the local churches.
Still, another proposed amendment, which goes against the norms and principles of the Baptist Church is Article V, clause C, which requires churches to fill out a form applying for membership of the Nigerian Baptist Convention. The petitioners believe this gives a false impression that new born churches mothered by a local church, who is already a member of the NBC, are foreign to the NBC and therefore have to be screened before being admitted into the fold. What the aggrieved members are asking, therefore, are how do these amendments, which are not in sync with the Convention’s cherished heritage as Baptist, advance the core objectives of association, which are missions and evangelism?
The petitioners then ask the Convention leadership, to note the following points: That the local churches, which are not pastor-founder churches, formed the NBC on their own efforts and co-operation to attain certain ends, particularly missions and evangelism, and not the other way round. That associations, conferences and conventions are vehicles through which the co-operating local churches organise themselves to pursue their objectives of missions and evangelism.
“These co-operative objectives are carried out, enabled by the funding of the local churches through their monthly dues. In turn, these bodies as agents of the churches are accountable, under God, to the churches and are expected, at their annual sessions, to render their stewardship and agree on future endeavours as agreed by the Local Churches. It would appear that this structure and practice is slowly being upturned. The result of many of these amendments, if sustained, is to reverse the existing order, contrary to our well tested practice of congregationalism.
“What used to be our annual business sessions where our officials give account of their stewardship, allowing the congregation (Convention messages of local churches) to ask questions and incisively interrogate the progress of the work and make recommendations, have now become annual Revival meetings. The business sessions (a few hours on the last full day at the end of the week long gathering) has simply become a hurried exercise which ultimately result in mere rubber-stamping due to lack of time and robust deliberations.
“The Baptist distinctive of Congregational Polity where authority rests with the congregation and power flows from the congregation to the top is being aggressively tampered with and if care is not taken, the powers being exercised by the Presidents of the Conferences and the Convention President may become akin to that of Arch-Bishops, General Overseers or Primates in hierarchical church models.
“By the NBC Constitution, a Local Church is, “…. Self-governing, Self-financing and Self-propagating…”” Therefore, how a local church governs itself is her sole prerogative, especially if its governance structure does not contradict any known scriptural tenet or has in any way, shape or form hindered the ability of the church to fulfil its missionary objectives.
“A situation where the Convention can demand that a local church should make changes in its constitution, its governing instrument is clearly alien to our polity and an infringement on the autonomy of a local church. By our tenets, an autonomous Local Church, made up of Soul Competent and Priestly believers and led by a Baptist-trained Pastor has the necessary capacity, competence, skill and authority to make decisions for itself as guided by the principles of God’s Word and the leadership of the Holy Spirit.”
The Constitution of the Nigerian Baptist Convention is very clear with regard to the autonomous status and independence of the local churches. But, sadly, this is what the leadership of the convention is breaching, either overtly or covertly.
In terms of the membership of the convention, Article III of the Constitution of the Nigerian Baptist Convention clearly states that: “The Nigerian Baptist Convention shall consist of all Baptist churches in Nigeria that desire a general organisation for Christian service which shall fully respect the independence and equal rights of the churches that work together under the accepted Declaration of the Principles and Objectives set forth in this Constitution and who are willing to accept the responsibilities and privileges of the organization.”
In concluding their petition, the aggrieved members of the Nigerian Baptist Convention, who belong to local churches spread across the country, including the FCT, Abuja , made the following demands. This, according to them, is in line with their ”commitment to strive for the advancement of the Church of God, harmony in the polity and the progress of our co-operative work, namely missions and evangelism”:
“1. That the contents of the booklet, “Belief, Policies and Practices of the Nigerian Baptist Convention” remains a GUIDE as it is so defined on page 54 of the publication. The provisions of this booklet should, under no guise be engrafted into the Constitution and made mandatory on local churches and Baptists in general. Furthermore, the contents of this GUIDE should be urgently reviewed, to ensure that its provisions, do not erode our core doctrines and the fundamental principles of our faith.
The Scriptures, under the leadership of the Holy Spirit must remain the final authority in all matters of faith and doctrine:
2. That the proposed amendments to the constitution should not detract from these our cherished core values, the fundamental principles of our faith and polity and our co-operative objectives. Particularly, provisions that diminish our core doctrines and values, making it more in form than in substance should be jettisoned. Furthermore, any clause that shifts our polity away from Congregationalism to Episcopalism, by concentrating power in a body, a group of persons or an individual, giving this body, group or individual the power of patronage should be unequivocally rejected. Strong structures and institutions, not persons are the hallmark of any organisation that will remain relevant and vibrant into the future.
3. That the annual sessions of our Associations, Conferences and Conventions stay true to their purpose – Business sessions for rendering of accounts of stewardship by our elected officers and discussing and taking decisions on the cooperative work. Surely, members receive nourishment in their local churches through their Baptist-trained Pastors. The Master’s business is urgent and important and must be given priority at our annual sessions. While we have no objections to other avenues of grace during the convention in session, they should not be reason to jettison or abridge the opportunity for examining the performance of the NBC officials, Departments and organs at Business sessions. Relegating business discussions to a few hours on the last full day is unacceptable and can be suggestive of an attempt by NBC officials to water down a more incisive interrogation of their stewardship.
“The current trajectory of our Convention portends a clear and present danger to what we believe as Baptists and the biblical practices that were handed down to us by the founding fathers of our faith. Just like our founding fathers, we have chosen to earnestly contend for the faith. Let the Local Churches be as envisaged by scripture and the NBC extant constitution. Our prayer is that the voice of reason will prevail at this time, that we will avoid distractions occasioned by the whims of men and that as a people, we will remain focused on the mandate of Jesus, the Lord of the Church to wit, Evangelism, Discipleship and Missions. May God help us so to do. Amen!
But the question begging for answer now is: Will those who have been entrusted with the leadership of the Baptist Convention at this time allow the humility and love of Christ to permeate their hearts for the overall benefit of the Baptist polity and the work of spreading the gospel of grace and salvation, which is the major reason for the co-operative work of the local churches, which gave birth to the convention in the first place?
That remains to be seen as the annual Convention in session approaches. May convention leaders consider themselves more as servants in the Lord’s vineyard than Masters with Executive powers. May Jesus Christ , the only true Lion of Judah, remain the head of His Church, without rival or equal in the Baptist Polity. This has been en enviable distinctive of the Baptist polity. It’s a legacy worthy of being celebrated and preserving.