Begins today
March 9, 2011 (Wednesday)
According to the online encyclopedia, “Wikipedia,” “Lent in the Christian tradition, is the period of the liturgical year leading up to Easter. Lent is a time of sacrifice for Jesus. The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer — through prayer, penitence, alms-giving and self-denial — for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, which recalls the events linked to the Passion of Christ and culminates in Easter, the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.”
Today marks the beginning of the Lenten season.
Why don’t Baptists observe Lent? Before giving the answer, it may be of interest to note that some Baptist churches have begun observing the liturgical year, including Lent. Many Baptist churches, while not observing the entire liturgical calendar of worship events, are beginning to incorporate parts of it, such as Advent, displaying certain colors, candles, etc. around the time of Christmas. A greater emphasis upon Holy Week has become quite common in almost all churches of various denominations. Some Baptist churches join with other congregations of different denominations for Lenten lunches once a week during the Lenten season. While not observing Lent per se, a church joins with Christians of other faiths for Christian fellowship and to emphasize solidarity of belief in Jesus Christ as Lord.
Traditional Baptists emphasize the authority of the local congregation and are fiercely independent. The disagreements within the Southern Baptist Convention have involved the issue of doctrinal solidarity, centered in a statement of doctrinal beliefs known as “The Baptist Faith and Message.” The crucial question for some has been, “Is the statement a creed?” Disagreement about whether it is or not has characterized debate within the denomination. Historically, Baptists have eschewed creeds.
A long time ago, if a church wanted to become part of a local association of Baptist churches, it submitted its own statement of beliefs. The association, made up of churches that had voluntarily become part of it, would examine the statement of beliefs, and if it agreed with what the existing members of the association considered to be Biblical beliefs, the statement would be accepted. Consequently, within an association of 35 churches, theoretically there might be 35 statements of faith, but they all basically agreed with each other.
As time went by, associations and conventions of Baptists adopted statements of faith that generally reflected what that association or convention deemed to be representative of what the churches believed. Baptists have always resisted efforts to tell a local congregation what it should believe or how it should worship. The doctrines came from the churches to the denomination, not the other way around. That spirit, coupled with emphasis upon the local congregation as an independent, democratic body of believers, made adoption of a liturgical calendar handed down by upper echelon authorities, no matter how dedicated to Christ they might be, impossible.
Having said that, a local Baptist church is free to adopt whatever methodology, including a liturgical calendar, it desires–as long as it is consistent with sound doctrine. The ties that bind the denomination together have always been voluntary and cooperative, never authoritarian and hierarchical. At least that’s the way I learned it at Baylor University, at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, in every church I have served as pastor, and in every Baptist association in which I have served since my ordination 60 years ago.