Denominational Affiliations
What Kind of Church Are We? We Are a Baptist Church, of Course!
- But What Kind of Baptist Church are We?
- The Autonomy of the Local Church
- The Priesthood of the Believer
- Religious Liberty
- Democratic Church Governance
- Every Member is a Minister
- The Lordship of Christ
- The Bible as our Guide
- Ecumenical Inclusion
But What Kind of Baptist Church are We?
When you think of Holmeswood Baptist Church, you realize we have a middle name: "Baptist". The river of Protestant Christian faith has many streams and tributaries. The Baptist stream of Christian faith is the source of much of our identity as a church. That heritage has shaped and formed us as Christian believers.
The Autonomy of the Local Church
In that belief, we value our freedom as a church to determine our own path. We have the freedom as a Baptist church to choose our ministry partners without outside interference. In that freedom, Holmeswood has chosen to partner with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of churches, both in Missouri and across our land and the entire world. We have chosen to affiliate with the Kansas City-Blue River Baptist Association for cooperative ministries in the Kansas City area.
The Priesthood of the Believer
That's a fancy phrase for saying that each believer has the freedom under God to shape and form their own beliefs according to their own conscience. The POB means that every believer can state faith in terms that they believe and a sense of mutual respect between believers is observed. Disagreements over particularities of faith statements exist in any congregation. On many subjects, we agree to disagree and find common ground where we can. But we choose to not make any one person's faith statement dogmatic for others.
Baptists helped bring religious liberty into being. By that, it is a Baptist conviction that all persons of faith, Christian or non-Christian, regardless of denomination or creed, should be protected from government intrusion. Likewise, the reverse is true and it is equally valued that government should be protected from any particular faith. Baptists throughout history have made this principle a guiding force in protection for themselves and also for many other faith groups. It is a distinctive Baptist contribution to religion in this country.
That means we have an organizational system that allows for plenty of input from many church members. The congregation votes on matters of business and conducts its business openly and fairly. Sometimes it's a cumbersome process, but it allows all members to have their say.
We believe every Christian has gifts of service that God wants to use in helping and serving others. While we do have a ministerial team that gives leadership to programs and ministries, we believe that every member is needed to do ministry in our community. We have programs to help believers discover what talents have been given to them by God and are ready to help members in utilizing those gifts to serve Christ and this community together.
At the heart of our congregation is the belief that Jesus Christ was born and lived a sinless life; we believe Christ died and was resurrected on the third day so that we might have peace with God. We preach and teach the way of Christ and invite all persons to commit themselves to living the faith adventure with Christ as Lord.
We believe the scriptures are our guide for faith and practice. We believe the Bible is the message from God to lead us to faith. We preach and teach from the scriptures and seek to incorporate its teachings into every aspect of our daily lives.
In addition, we are ecumenical in nature, meaning we find richness and friendships with many non-Baptist groups who share the name, "Christian". The Baptist stream of Christian faith brought us into being and we choose to honor and respect other Christian streams of belief. We find that our understanding of faith is deepened by others who are seeking to discover God's will.