We know a lot of people hear the word “Baptist” and think of stuffy legalism or maybe a man in a suit thundering hellfire and brimstone while a flag waves triumphantly in the background. We get why even a lot of Baptist churches have taken “Baptist” out of their name.

 

But at Jubilee, we want to reclaim an older, more interesting meaning of that word. The original Baptists (like the first Christians) were for the most part workers, poor “mechanick preachers” who heard God calling them without wealth, education, or status. They organized “free churches,” little democracies that dissented from the powers of this world and bore witness to a different world. 

 

“Baptist” just means that our church is organized around freedom in Christ: freedom from oppressive hierarchies and freedom for a different kind of life together. The early Baptists developed several habits that help us practice that kind of life, and those practices are important to us too:

 

-We read the stories of the Scriptures as our own stories

-We remember we all need each other

-We make decisions together 

-We dissent: from power structures that hurt many to benefit the few and any forms of religion that would uphold those structures 

 

Don’t worry if you don't consider yourself a “Baptist,” you come from some other tradition, or you have never been a part of a church. If a community organized around stories, struggles, and the needs and gifts of every member sounds interesting to you, you’ll be right at home. 

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Jubilee is excited to partner with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and CBF North Carolina