Review of John Hammett's Biblical Foundations for Baptist Churches

John S. Hammett, Biblical Foundations for Baptist Churches: A Contemporary Ecclesiology.

Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2005.

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Perhaps because so few Baptists understand why they believe what they do about the church, Dr. John Hammett, Associate Dean of Theological Studies at Southeastern Seminary, attempts to lay a theological foundation for ecclesiology from an historical Baptist perspective. This point of view guides the reader into the core of what Baptists believe about the church.

            In the first part of his book, Hammett begins with the biblical foundation for doing church. Tasking the aspects of the nature, marks and essence of the church, he outlines a true definition of the church. Hammett sees the church as the ekklesia of the Bible, the called out ones, both on a local and universal level. Using Trinitarian imagery of the people of God, the body of Christ and the temple of the Spirit, Hammett highlights the church’s nature. The church is marked by unity, holiness, universality and apostolicity. In its very essence, the true church is organized, local, growing, gospel-based and Spirit-empowered. These objective statements help to lay the groundwork for his argument that church should have an ontologically biblical foundation.

            In part two Hammett turns to more cultural expressions to describe Baptist praxis. He argues that a clear Baptist mark is regenerate membership, not a mixture of saved and unsaved. He draws upon Baptist church history to make a case for believers’ baptism, congregational polity, closed communion and church discipline. Although fundamentally sound, his written argument is weakened in part by his heavy reliance upon historical precedence rather than textual support from Scripture. This overreliance on historical praxis is usually more of a hallmark of Eastern Orthodoxy and Catholicism than of western evangelicalism. Hammett claims that Baptist churches have gone astray by losing their historical adherence to church covenants as binding agreements for enforcing church discipline, something that the early church of Scripture did not explicitly address. This seems to be a culturally-biased assessment for the American church, as many Baptist conventions worldwide have tended to err in the opposite direction, often by annually excommunicating more members than they baptize.

            In part three Hammett makes a case for congregational church polity. He briefly surveys Presbyterianism and the Episcopal tradition, and he blanketly declares them to be unbiblical. On the basis of excluding all other options, congregationalism is declared the ecclesiological victor. However, his argument again is weakened slightly by a noticeable absence of any theological objections to congregationalism. Perhaps this is simply outside the scope of his book. He does address cultural and practical challenges, but there is no theological dialogue.

Hammett successful employs the images of church as being a non-hierarchal structure based on mutuality and democracy. As Scriptural evidence he cites the fact that the epistles were addressed to entire churches, not just to their leaders. Hammett’s argument for congregationalism is largely built upon his supposition that “the New Testament uses the terms elder, overseer (bishop), and pastor interchangeably” (p. 154). In chapters 7 and 8, Hammett explores these definitions of eldership in more depth. He also deals with the qualifications of deacons and problems associated with ordination. He cites Baptist historical use of these terms for further evidence. It can be counter-argued that this supposition is not universally accepted all Baptists; therefore, Hammett’s argument for congregationalism is based on a traditional cultural translation of biblical terminology. Nonetheless, Hammett asserts that Baptists should “resist elder rule” (p. 157).

In part four Hammett fleshes out the functions of church. Highlighting the ministries of teaching, fellowship, worship, service and evangelism, Hammett surveys Southern Baptist pastors Rick Warren and Mark Dever for their practical applications of these ministries in their respective churches. Hammett seems to exhibit a clear preference for Dever’s approach. In chapter 10 he expands his observations to deal with practical questions regarding the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

Interestingly, chapters 11 and 12 in his final section deal with the missiological dialogue between Baptists and postmodernists or Baptists and the rest of the world outside of America. Inadvertently, Hammett has raised the question of Baptists’ relevance both domestically and internationally. He rightly highlights the current problems Baptist missionaries face with their Pentecostal counterparts, the emerging church phenomenon and the rapid growth of Islam. However, Hammett seems to advocate a very conservative stance in church planting as a solution to dialogical conflict.

Hammett’s assessments regarding ecclesiological doctrine and the necessity of a proper theological framework for church planting is warranted. However, I am concerned that this book could be classified as more of a catechism for historical Baptist polity in America than a dialogue with the rest of the world. Hammett’s insistence on Baptist church history tends to make this book a defense from the past rather than a conversation with the present. If that is what he intended, to show Baptist ecclesiology’s historical roots, then his book is very successful. But his last two chapters indicate at least a desire on his part to create a dialogue with non-traditionalists, so in this regard his book could benefit from yet another chapter or two devoted to dialogical exchange and counter-arguments. Overall, however, the book is a must-have for lovers of Baptist history and for students of protestant theology.