FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF CAMERON

“That is Who We Are”

What We Believe

About the Bible

Baptists are confessional. Instead of having a small group determine our theology and expecting the rest to adhere to it, baptists have come together to create statements of belief that state how we can generally agree. In 2000, Southern Baptists voted to accept a new statement of faith. It is called the Baptist Faith and Message 2000. Earlier statements were affirmed in 1925 and 1963.

The Baptist Faith & Message explains Southern Baptist beliefs on many subjects like “Who is God?” “Who is Jesus?” “What is the Bible?” and “How will the world end?”

How are we organized?

Each Southern Baptist Church is “autonomous.” This means that we have our own system of leadership and that each church makes decisions for itself rather than being told what to do and how to believe by another group of people. We have been called “people of the book.” By this we mean that our only rule or authority is from the Bible. Our leaders, such as the pastor, is selected by the whole church. Deacons and teachers are selected by the local church also. They are called when the church recognizes that God has called them first.

Constitution.

We have a document called the constitution that spells out the guidelines for how we will conduct the decision making process in our church. Each month we have a “business meeting” to hear reports of decisions made through the month and to vote on any decisions that the whole church needs to decide upon.

Authority.

Committees and pastors are given some authority to make decisions throughout the month, but many of the larger decisions must be made in our business meeting each month. No one person in the church has the authority to make these larger decisions.