19/08/2026
20 REASONS BAPTIST IS NOT A DEMOCRATIC CHURCH
1. Democracy and Baptist Church Autonomy concepts involve freedom, but they address different kinds of freedom and operate within different contexts. Democracy is a political concept, while autonomy is an ecclesiastical concept.
2. Origin of democracy can be traced to the ancient Greek political experience, while Baptist Autonomy developed within the Christian concern for the Church.
3. Democracy is not inherently God-centred because it is founded upon a humanistic political framework in which authority is vested in the people, whereas Baptist Autonomy must instead remain consciously centred on God.
4. Democracy belongs primarily to the governance of the State, whereas Baptist autonomy concerns how the Church is governed.
5. Democratic government is the government of the people by the people and for the people, while the Church government is the government of God through His people. Therefore, ultimate authority in the Church belongs to God, not to the congregation.
6. Democracy exists as a system for governing citizens and protecting their political rights and interests, meanwhile the Church exists for Christ, His glory, and His purposes, not primarily for the satisfaction of its members.
7. Decision-making in democracy is usually politically motivated and often seen as a political contest, while Church decision-making should be spiritually motivated, arising from a sincere search for God’s will.
8. In democracy, voting is the power vested in the majority members to have their will established in the state. Meanwhile, voting, when considered necessary in the Church, should be approached as a spiritual responsibility before God, rather than as a political contest.
9. Democracy does not make morality the decisive factor in decision-making as long as the majority votes for it. In the Church, however, what is right before God must take precedence over what receives the most votes.
10. A democratic decision is accepted simply because it receives the majority of votes. Meanwhile, numerical strength should not be the ultimate criterion for determining God’s will in the Church.
11. In democracy, the will of the people, particularly the majority, is central. In the Baptist Church, however, God’s will is supreme, because a majority decision may not necessarily represent God’s will (Num. 13:26–33; 2 Chron. 20:1–27).
12. Democracy naturally permits opposition parties, factions, caucuses, lobbying, and struggles for political power which are inconsistent with the nature of the Church as a spiritual family whose members are brothers and sisters.
13. If the Church government is defined with a democratic concept, pre-meeting caucuses, factions, and lobbying will inevitably find inroad into the Church and people will manipulate decisions in order to achieve personal, factional or group interests.
14. Democratic thinking encourages people to pursue personal, factional or group interests in the Church, contrary to the Christian call to seek God’s glory and the welfare of the whole Body of Christ.
15. Democracy thinking often turns Church governance into a struggle for power and control, whereas such struggles are inappropriate for the Church because leadership should be exercised as service under divine authority.
16. Democratic thinking of the church often leads people to believe that they have the right to elect, reject, recall, hire, and fire leaders according to their preferences. However, Baptist Congregational practice does not permit anyone to become unruly toward the Church or its leadership.
17. Democratic thinking is the reason for democratic practices with confusion, crisis, carnality, worldliness, and struggles for position in the church.
18. Democratic thinking will interpret Baptist autonomy as permission for a local church or its members to determine their own will independently of God, whereas Baptist autonomy is not independence from God.
19. Baptist Church Government has theological roots, and it must, therefore, be interpreted from Scripture and Christian theology rather than from secular political roots.
20. In Democratic Government, the essential question is, “What do the people want?”, while in the Baptist Church Government the essential question is, “What does God want, and how can the Church faithfully obey Him?”
In summary, Baptist Church Government is not democratic and should not be defined using democratic concept. Some politicians are members of our churches, while other church members observe how democracy is practiced in society. So, defining Baptist Church Government with democratic concept is a direct invitation for democratic practices and its attendant brouhaha in the Church.
Yours in Christ,
Akintayo Oyedele PhD
[email protected]
For details read:
J. Akintayo Oyedele, Understanding Baptist Church Autonomy: Separating the Weeds from the Wheat (Kaduna: Soltel Enterprises, 2021).
