Baptism in The Covenant 3: Why does this discussion matter?

1. It matters to the Ministerium.
As pastors and churches communicate to their members who we are, their accuracy and clarity is important so that their members have a clear picture. This is a Ministerium issue because, in all likelihood, at some point in the future Covenant ministers will be exploring new avenues of ministry. If a local church body has not clearly understood the breadth that exists in The Covenant, its pulpit vacancy may effectively become a closed door for pastors who reflect the best qualities of Covenant freedom and openness – simply because the local church in question is not looking for a Covenant pastor, but for a pastor who holds baptism convictions in a more specific and limited way than The Covenant as a whole does. Ministerium members may find The Covenant, their own denomination, a less welcoming environment to its own pastors.

2. It matters to the Department of Church Growth and Evangelism.
Church planting is a specialized form of ministry, and I fully support the way The Department actively recruits and trains Church Planters (Incidentally, the pastor of the church whose website I have quoted is not a pastor brought in from outside The Covenant). I hope that such recruited pastors are clearly understanding and following the commitments they make in signing the policy. The danger is that churches don’t ever catch the ethos of freedom in The Covenant.

3. It matters to North Park Theological Seminary
It is still true, to the best of my knowledge, that most new pastors in The Covenant are North Park trained. And that’s a good thing, because North Park does such a good job of preparing pastors for ministry within that ethos of freedom. But if churches lose contact with that, and seek pastors with a less-open mindset they may have been taught (intentionally or not) by their previous pastors, a NPTS education may begin to have less credibility to churches seeking staff. Already there is evidence of a preference for clergy from outside The Covenant. And while I have nothing but good to say about almost all of the pastors I know who have entered Covenant ministry from outside – my own home church’s pastor and one of my most intimate friends and mentors among them – it may begin to bother NPTS graduates when they find themselves being passed over in favor of pastors from outside The Covenant.