Local Church Autonomy

If you were to draw a diagram of ABC structure you would find an upside down pyramid in which the churches are at the top, the regions are beneath them, and the ABC is at the bottom.

The ABC is a congregational denomination in which each local church runs its own affairs, elects its own officers, chooses its own pastors, and decides how its mission dollars will be spent. The ABC/USA is actually not a denomination in the same sense that the United Methodists or the Roman Catholics are. We are really a federation of Baptist bodies who come together for missions.

The upside of the system is that each church can follow God as we are led. The downside for some is that it does not create a cohesive system where we all agree on doctrinal issues. American Baptists accept the Bible as our sole authority but, no other document, body, organization, or entity has final authority over a Baptist church.

This mean we are in a body of believers where we have to respect differences and cannot tell another American Baptists church or how to do its ministry.

Local church autonomy allows for exciting ministry as long as you don't have feel like we have to walk in lock step to walk side by side.