A Baptist Exodus: Why Are There So Many Former Baptists?
I was sitting in a hotel lobby, talking with fellow pastors about various theological controversies. This time, like other times, I was surrounded by Presbyterians and Anglicans, and they smelled blood in the water. I’ve been in situations like this before, where paedobaptists (those who baptize infants) try to convince me of the error of my Baptist ways. They used many of the same arguments I’ve heard before, but to no avail. As usual, many of my opponents were themselves former Baptists. “I used to believe what you do,” they said to me.
This encounter echoes many I’ve experienced since running in a more “worldview” type crowd. I am often the token Baptist who reminds others of their former life. To be fair, the Baptist circles most of them critique are the very ones I also oppose. Having been raised in shallow and trite Baptist life, I find that many former Baptists are largely ignorant of the best of Baptistic thought. For this reason, I am often very familiar with their arguments, but many of them are blissfully unaware of the most rigorous and biblical Baptistic thought. (But that is a topic for another day.)
All of this reflects a larger trend—a move away from lower-church traditions like Baptistic thought toward higher-church traditions like Presbyterianism, Anglicanism, Catholicism, and Eastern Orthodoxy. I encounter such stories all the time—from recent graduates of Baptist seminaries to pastors of Baptist churches leaving due to their conversion to a higher-church tradition. Every time I hear of another individual joining this Baptist exodus, the words “another one bites the dust” echo in my head.
The pressing question that drives this article comes from this Baptist exodus: “Why has this become a trend?” To my fellow Baptists, we must honestly wrestle with this question.
I recently put this question to Facebook (dangerous, I know). I received a plethora of reasons, yet precious few mentioned biblical arguments for such conversions. There are many tangled threads we could pull to explain this exodus. For example, there is a sharp rejection of the consumer-driven shallowness of doing church that marks some Baptistic churches. I am very sympathetic to that, but such practices are not inherent to Baptist theology. Today, I want to explore two more foundational reasons that drive this Baptist exodus—worldview and culture. These two are closely connected.
The Lack of a Baptistic Worldview
I believe the primary reason that drives people from Baptist life toward higher expressions of church is rooted in our lack of offering a distinctly Baptist view of life. What has been characteristic of many Baptists is a two-tiered view of life, something Francis Schaeffer calls the upper/lower story division. This is the belief that life is fundamentally dualistic, divided into two different and largely unrelated areas. This dualism has taken many forms, but today it is best understood as the secular/sacred split. The upper story is the realm of personal beliefs, like Christianity, and it must be private. The lower story is public, objective, and secular (free from religion). For Christians, this dualism restricts our faith to private spiritual disciplines, personal experiences, and religious beliefs. Thus, Christianity has little importance in the lower, secular, and public part of life. Christianity becomes a way to escape the troubles of life.
As I’ve written elsewhere, this view is thoroughly unbiblical. While it is certainly present (even dominant) in Baptist life, it is not inherently Baptist. For example, popular Presbyterian thinkers like David VanDrunen argue for some variation of this upper/lower view of life.
The truth is, sequestering Christianity to our private lives worked well when the larger culture was still living off the borrowed capital of Christendom. But the challenges believers face today come primarily from the lower story, and accepting this dualistic view of life leaves them vulnerable and ill-equipped. Moreover, today’s rabid secularism is openly seeking to devour the upper story, religion and all. The two-tiered view of life cannot withstand our current threats.
As this dualism dominates much of modern Baptist thought, it sparks two reactions that drive individuals to the higher (e.g., more formal) expressions of Christianity.
The first reaction is one of people fleeing the problems of secularism by going further up into the upper story of personal religious experience. The reality is that the pietism that has dominated Baptist thought cannot compete with mysticism and “smells and bells” of the higher-church movements. Many individuals retreat further into the upper story as they seek a super spiritual experience that offers escape from the conflicts of our day. In short, Baptists who prioritize the upper story to the neglect of the lower simply cannot compete with the pietistic and mystic upper story of Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. Their version of the upper story offers a much better way of “escape” from the problems that plague the “secular” parts of life.
Second, for those who see the raging fires on the lower story and desire to run toward the conflict, they often associate Baptist thought with a refusal to do so. Baptist theology is seen as being fundamentally opposed to a holistic Christian world-and-life view. I hear such objections from my fellow Baptists all the time as they accuse me of being “Presbyterian” merely for seeking to apply Scripture to culture. When Baptist leaders refuse to engage the “secular” parts of life, we train our people to think that they must go elsewhere to find answers to the daily questions they face. Then we act shocked when they leave Baptist thought altogether.
The truth of the matter is that Baptist theology is not inherently secularist. Moreover, two-tiered spirituality, whether Baptist or not, leaves people ill-equipped to deal with the comprehensive threats of life in the ruins of Christendom. To summarize, this two-tiered view of life sends people in one of two directions—either toward a comprehensive view of life that applies Christ to all of life (welcomed into Reformed thought and covenant theology) or further up into the upper story, resulting in more mystic pietism (welcomed into Roman Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy).
The solution? Baptists must offer a unified view of life. We must reject the upper/lower story divide and instead seek to see all of life under Christ’s redemptive rule (Col. 1:15–20). We need to develop a thoroughly Baptist vision of reality that does not abandon most of life to the secularists—a view that highlights the inherent meaning and enchantment of life under the Lordship of Christ. Thankfully, there are Baptists out there doing this work (e.g., Stephen Wellum, Christ Over All, etc.).
An Anemic Baptist Culture
Closely related to these worldview concerns is the reality of an anemic Baptist culture. Many Baptistic churches can best be described as trying to “keep up with the Joneses.” As one pastor puts it, whatever the world does, evangelicals do five years later and a whole lot lamer. In our tumultuous age, where the very foundations of culture are shaking, it makes sense that more people desire a sense of rootedness, tradition, and steadfastness in their religious experiences.
In our transient age, we long for transcendence. But going to church in the equivalent of a shopping mall, set against the backdrop of a fog machine and flashing lights, appears trite and silly (and it is). Compare that with the feeling of stepping into a cathedral that bears the marks of centuries of tradition and an air of otherworldliness. It is no wonder that many are leaving behind the shallow forms of mega- and multisite churches in search of a culture that feels ancient and rooted.
Additionally, Baptist life appears endlessly divided and tribalistic. I have been close to two major centers of American Baptist thought, and I have run in many of these circles. In short, the tribalism that marks much of the behind-the-scenes of Baptist life is shocking and unbecoming. It is understandable, especially if one has grown up in these settings, to think the grass is greener on the other side. Yet, to all who are paying attention, such tribalism is not unique to Baptists.
What is the solution to this anemic Baptist culture? First, we must do a better job of tying our beliefs and practices to our tradition. Second, we must focus on highlighting God’s transcendence, and we must become less interested in keeping up with the Joneses. The faith is not dictated by the latest fad, but by the eternal word of God. Finally, our conduct toward one another must reflect the character of Christ and recognize the universal nature of the church. In short, we must put to death our tribalism while arguing for the eternality of truth.
Holding the Line
Anemic worldview and culture are two weaknesses that plague much of modern Baptist thought and practice. The good news is that neither is unique to what it means to be a Baptist.
Moreover, fads come and go. It was not that long ago that many fled the old “traditional” churches because they were, in essence, whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but dead on the inside. We must not forget that while the higher-church movements are rebounding now, they died off much quicker than the Baptistic churches did. It was we who held the line. One of the main reasons the United States has not decayed as quickly as European nations have is that high church cultures have been far more susceptible to the allures of modernism, secularism, and cultural decay. For all our faults, Baptistic churches thrive because of our fierce commitment to the word of God, and not the traditions of men. This is what we must be known for again.
