So How Does Russia's ECMU compare to Baptist Ecclesiology? Part 1

John S. Hammett makes a case for Baptist ecclesiology in his book Biblical Foundations for Baptist Churches: A Contemporary Ecclesiology. He personally argues that there is a clear Baptist heritage and theological stance when it comes to the doctrine of the church. From an historical perspective, he identifies a certain biblical and theological position as indicative of traditional Baptist ecclesiology. Interestingly, Great Commission Church of ECMU holds to this exact formula for Baptist ecclesiology.

Images. Hammett employs several biblical images to describe the church. According to Hammett, Baptists see the church as the New Testament “people of God”[1] reflective of and with some spiritual connection to the Old Testament designation for the children of Israel. He also employs the image of the “Body of Christ”[2] to describe the unity, diversity and mutuality of its members. Moreover, he uses the term “Temple of the Spirit”[3] to identify the church as well. In its Creed and Important Teachings for Missional Ministry, ECMU has also employed the same terminology to describe the church as “the people of God,”[4] “the body of Christ,”[5] and “a building made by the ministry of spiritual gifts.”[6]

Marks. Hammett lists several marks of a Baptist understanding of church, namely oneness, holiness, catholic, and apostolic. Although ECMU does not employ these exact terms in its documents, Dmitry Frolov says ECMU “expresses a unity of believers who covenant together to live godly lives in accordance with Scripture.”[7] Hammett says that the church is organized, local, growing, gospel-oriented, and Spirit-empowered.[8] ECMU’s official statement on the church expresses an organization that is “local… a live organism… with a call to share the “gospel of salvation to the world (Matthew 29:19–20)… by means of the Holy Spirit.”[9] 

            Although the question of unregenerate members is also addressed by Russian Baptist churches by excommunication of those who are in danger of losing their salvation for falling into particular sins, ECMU addresses it by employing a discipleship process for its members. Hammett believes regenerate church membership is the hallmark of Baptist ecclesiological identity and the “center of Baptist ecclesiology.”[10] Hammett cites Justice C. Anderson in his connection of regeneration and church membership as the “cardinal point of Baptist ecclesiology, and logically, the point of departure for church polity.”[11]

           

Ordinances. Baptists observe two ordinances of the local church: the Lord’s Supper and baptism. ECMU, like Russian Baptists, practices baptism by immersion in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.[12] Although Hammett suggests that “baptism is a decision of the church in which it endorses the reality of the [candidate’s] decision,”[13] Frolov sees baptism as the “first step of obedience”[14] in the life of a new believer and places more emphasis on the individual being baptized. Most Baptists do not practice infant baptism but rather adhere to credo-baptism. The Russian Baptist practice of not baptizing anyone under the age of sixteen without parental permission is reflective of their state legal system whereby a child becomes legally accountable for adult crime at that age.[15] There are even some among pastors in EMCU that wait until age 18 for baptism candidates.[16] Though the actual practice of many churches in the Southern Baptist Convention is to baptize small children under the age of five [17], who arguably do not understand fully what they are doing [18], most church members come from a higher age bracket and are accepted on the basis of profession of faith as an older teen or adult. Hammett believes this postponement for later ages comes from a strong Baptist heritage of both Separatist Baptists and Particular Baptists of the seventeenth century.[19] According to Frolov, ECMU also does not usually practice childhood baptisms.[20]

This disdain for paedobaptism in early Baptist history ultimately led to a congregational form of church polity whereby the local church expressed its local autonomy and freedom to direct its own affairs. Hammett deals extensively with leadership roles in Baptist congregational polity.

Local autonomy, one aspect of congregationalism, is also supported by the overwhelmingly dominant use of ekklesia to refer to local churches in the New Testament. There is no superior organizational level to which churches are accountable.[21]

Due to its hierarchal structure and prescribed levels of authority within the Russian Baptist Union, most Russian Baptist churches operate more from a Presbyterian form of church government.[22] In contrast ECMU, as typified in the Great Commission Church of St. Petersburg, also holds to a more congregational form of church polity. Therefore, it could be argued that ECMU in Russia is more closely associated with Hammett’s idea of historical Baptist polity than the Russian Baptist Union. But some Baptist historians have begun to challenge this thinking with examples of presbyterian polity present in historical Baptist examples.

            The ordinance of the Lord’s Supper is a celebratory event in the life of Great Commission Church. Hammett admits that “Baptists typically emphasize the human actions involved in the ordinances…The danger here is missing a blessing God may have for us, because we never look for it.”[23] It is for this reason that ECMU attempts to make this event both a “celebration of koinonia with each other and communion with God.”[24] The Great Commission Church celebrates this observance as a regular monthly event.

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[1] John S. Hammett, Biblical Foundations for Baptist Churches: A Contemporary Ecclesiology (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2005), 32.

[2] Hammett, Biblical Foundations, 37.

[3] Hammett, Biblical Foundations, 43.

[4] See Evangelical Christian Missionary Union, “Символ Веры,” (2003), http://www.exmc.ru/about/credo (accessed August 1, 2009).

[5] Evangelical Christian Missionary Union, “Аспекты вероучения, важные для осуществления миссионерского служения,” (2003). http://www.exmc.ru/about/faith_aspects (accessed August 18, 2009).

[6] Ibid.

[7] Dmitry Frolov, pastor of ECMU church in St. Petersburg, Russia. Interview by author.

[8] See Hammett, Biblical Foundations, 67-76.

[9] Evangelical Christian Missionary Union, “Символ веры.”

[10] Hammett, Biblical Foundations, 98.

[11] Justice C. Anderson, “Old Baptist Principles Reset,” Southwestern Journal of Theology 31 (Spring 1989), 8 in Hammett, 98.

[12] Frolov, interview by author.

[13] Hammett, Biblical Foundations, 272.

[14] Frolov, interview by author.

[15] Yuri V. Podosenov, interview by author, written notes, St. Petersburg, Russia, 5 February 2004.

[16] Sergei G. Fedotov, pastor of The Source ECMU Church in Slavyansk-on-Kuban, Russia, believes that it is permissible to baptize youth as young as 12 years old as long as there is parental permission. However, he believes that without parental permission, a person must wait to receive baptism until he is the adult age of 18 or older. See Evangelical Christian Missionary Union, “Крещение младенцев,” ECMU Forum (February 22, 2009). http://www.exmc.ru/pub/viewtopic.php?t=582 (accessed August 19, 2009).

[17] Lifeway Research, “2007 Southern Baptist Statistics: Number of Baptisms,” (2008). http://www.lifeway.com/lwc/files/lwcF_LifeWay_Research_2007_ACP_Summary_Charts_Part_2.pdf (accessed August 18, 2009).

[18] Hammett, Biblical Foundations, 112. Hammett argues that “it is hard to see how these preschool children could have convinced earlier Baptists that they were in fact regenerate or competent to take on the duties and responsibilities of church membership.”

[19] Hammett, Biblical Foundations, 91.

[20] Frolov, interview by author.

[21] Hammett, Biblical Foundations, 146.

[22] Frolov, interview by author.

[23] Hammett, Biblical Foundations, 262.

[24] Frolov, interview by author.