Baptists are a mainstream Christian group with 4 key values: .
That baptism is for those who have come to a personal faith in Jesus Christ .
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3. A priesthood of all believers, i.e. that every Christian has direct access to God through Jesus Christ, needing no human intermediary - although we also believe in a trained, ordained ministry. Equality of status, however, does not mean that all have the same role. .
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4. The autonomy of the local church, i.e. local Baptist Churches are independent and self-governing - decisions are taken by regular meetings of Church members. There is no national Baptist Church only a Union of independent local Baptist Churches. Each local Baptist church appoints its own leaders - or ministers/pastors - to have particular responsibility for preaching, teaching and pastoral care. Working alongside these ministers are also deacons, who together with the minister(s) form the leadership team of the local Baptist church. .
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The Baptist Denomination .
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The modern denomination was founded in the sixteenth century in Europe by the Anabaptists, who were the most radical wing of the Reformation, and who suffered much from both Catholics and Protestants for their views. .
Anabaptists did not gain a strong foothold in Britain, but in the following century the first British Baptist churches, distinct from the continental Anabaptists, were founded. They suffered a great deal of persecution during the remaining years of the century, apart from the period of the English Civil War and Cromwell's Protectorate. .
From the eighteenth century, persecution, though not all restrictions, of ';Dissenters' was ended, and they were able to flourish, achieving phenomenal growth in the nineteenth century. .
Like every other denomination in England and Wales, Baptists went through a period of decline at the beginning of the 20th Century. However in the 1980s a new spirit of hope and commitment began to take root.