What We Believe?

As a member church of the Baptist Union of Great Britain and the Baptist Union of Wales, we hold to their ‘Declaration of Principle’, which states that:

1. Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, is the sole and absolute authority in all matters relating to faith and practice, as revealed in the Holy Scriptures, and that each Church has liberty, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to interpret and administer His laws. 
    
2. Christian Baptism is the immersion in water into the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit of those who have professed repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ who ‘died for our sins according to the Scriptures; was buried, and rose again the third day.’ 
    
3. It is the duty of every disciple to bear witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to take part in the evangelisation of the world. 

We also affirm the ‘Basis of Faith’ of the Evangelical Alliance. Click here for their website.
 

What makes us a Baptist Church?

Every Baptist congregation has differences. Baptist churches meet in different kinds of buildings, adopt various styles of worship and may even have differing convictions on some matters. The same is true of other denominations, of course. It is also true that most of what Baptists believe places them in mainstream Christianity, whereby they share a common faith with other Christian denominations. In a Baptist church, there may be some things that are immediately different to any visitor from other traditions. In Bethania,

• Our worship is relatively simple without a large amount of material read from a prayer book;
   
• We place a strong emphasis on preaching, and this is likely to take up a fair part of any service;
   
• Our Ministers sometimes wear special clothes but are more likely to be dressed like anybody else;
   
• Church life can be quite busy. We enjoy being together and try to live as an open and welcoming community;
   
• When we celebrate communion, the bread is taken individually as a sign of personal salvation. The (non-alcoholic) wine is taken together as a sign of our unity in Christ.;
   
• When baptisms take place, this is by full immersion in water. This is where the name ‘Baptist’ comes from. Those being baptised are old enough to have made their own decision to follow Christ. To be a member the candidate will usually have been baptised.  Under certain circumstances, membership is possible without baptism, but this is not the norm.
   
• When infants and young children are welcomed into the church community, they are welcomed through a short service called a 'dedication’. In this service, the church leaders pray for the child, and the parents promise to raise the infant in the faith. The congregation promises to support the parents and child. The infant is not baptised. 

These ways of doing things reflect some of our basic beliefs and are important to us as Christians with Baptist beliefs.
 

Baptism

As a Baptist church, we do not practise infant baptism but what is called ‘believers’ baptism’. This is because being a Christian involves choosing to follow Jesus Christ, and nobody else can make that decision for us. It is a personal decision, and infants are too young to make it. To be sincere, faith has to be free and not compelled. Believers’ baptism symbolises this free decision. We believe being baptised does not make anyone a Christian, but is a public declaration of what has already taken place by faith and is the first step a Christian takes in following Jesus Christ.
 

Church Structure

Baptists believe in the ‘free church’ principle. This means that each congregation is free to make its own decisions under God. This results in Baptist churches being characterised by the very significant involvement of their members in making decisions about the life of the church. This is a process that others would describe as ‘democracy’. Baptists think of it as ‘discerning the mind of Christ’. They have also always been committed to the need for religious liberty and a free society in which to live.

All leaders in a Baptist congregation are there because the church members have elected them. Ministers are those who have been specially called to their work and extensively trained for it. They are commissioned by being ordained but can only serve any particular congregation because they have been called to do so by the church members.
 
They are teachers of the Christian faith and pastors of the church, sharing their faith in the community wherever they can. Together with local leaders who are known as deacons and (sometimes) elders, they serve the church by leading it in its mission. All of these people seek to be available to help others inside and outside the church.