Originally Posted by DMcFadden

Anyone with El Rushbo as an avatar is in no danger of being ignored!

Baptist polity (I have actually lectured on it in seminary several times as a guest lecturer) is a funny animal. In the ordinances, er . . . ah . . . "sacraments" for you presby folks, baptists spend so much time explaining that it REALLY does NOT mean this, that, or the other thing, that by the time we are done we end up with a doctrine of the "real absence." In our governance, we may be firmly committed to doing what we do, but for reasons that are somewhat epistemically lame. Most baptists, for example, will admit that one can "legitimately" adduce biblical precedent and precept to "support" any of at least three forms of polity.

It you examine the broader historical matrix in which a particular polity became popular, it is not surprising that episcopacy tends to seem obvious to people who live under monarchy, presbyterian government seems clear and compelling to those exposed to a parliamentary system, and congregational polity only surfaces when there are lots of people making "democratic" noises. Perhaps unlike some of my sisters and brothers with other forms, baptists are often willing to allow the role of holy expedience and sanctified pragmaticism in the development of the baptist approach to church government.

Still, nobody is more stubborn than a baptist. So, biblically, there is ONLY one way to do it . . . OUR way (even if we admit that expedience has as much to do with why we do it this way as anything).