Missional or Misguided? Exploring the Ecclesiology of New Zealand Baptist Churches Without Church Buildings

Abstract

From their earliest beginnings in 17th century England, Baptists have been committed to radical expressions of discipleship and have engaged in mission in innovative ways. The local church was envisaged as a group of believers who had made a binding covenant to God and to one another. Together they were the visible witness of the kingdom of God in the world. Within this traditional Baptist ecclesiology, church buildings were used for mission initiatives in the local community. This has been the traditional paradigm in the New Zealand context, but in the last thirty years several Baptist churches have chosen to function without their own designated church buildings. This research project makes a case study of four Baptist churches that had chosen to exist without their own buildings and explores the proposition that the choice to depart from the prevailing paradigm represented a deeper and more zealous commitment to mission. The project first explores the development of a Baptist ecclesiology in the New Zealand context to develop a frame of reference. Seven church leaders were interviewed and their experiences and values were evaluated against an historic Baptist ecclesiology. There were significant differences in the interviewees understanding of their role in God’s mission and the place of the local church. There were also significant differences in the way that each church made decisions. These differences demonstrated a departure from an historic Baptist ecclesiology and the choice to function without church buildings had not necessarily resulted in these churches adopting a more missional or more radical stance. Effective mission and vital witness may be achieved without church buildings, but only when there is a will to engage strategically and theologically with issues of Baptist identity and calling.