Journal of European Baptist Studies, Volume 7, No. 3, 2007

e church ought to refashion its ecclesial understanding to suit the times in which we live. The present short article is a brief exploration of this question, meant merely to be suggestive for further reflection. It begins by outlining early Baptist thought on covenant and moves to contemporary expressions and development of that theology. Then it calls into question those who want to dispense with covenant/ relational models of church community, suggesting key theological ideas that need to be taken into account if we are to be both true to our past and true to the kerygmatic call of Christ to be contemporary in the world. Early Baptist understanding The early English Baptists believed in a covenanted church by which they meant a gathered church of those who had covenanted together under Christ as Head of the church. In his excellent historical overview, English Baptist History and Heritage, Roger Hayden speaks of this, mentioning the church in Gainsborough as an example, in which the member William Bradford described them: 6 Journal of European Baptist Studies as the Lord’s free people, [having] joined themselves (by a covenant of the Lord) into a church estate, in the fellowship of the Gospel, to walk in all his ways, made known, or to be made known unto them, (according to their best endeavours) whatsoever it should cost them, the Lord assisting them. 1 This is a crucial statement. It indicates the importance of intentionality about membership of the church - they were ‘the Lord’s free people’. We might notice, too, the centrality of both Christ and of the gospel in this comment. Of particular significance, though, are the prominence and the centrality of the covenant for membership of the local church (‘a covenant of the Lord’), which appears to be evidenced in unity and sharing (‘the fellowship of the Gospel’) and its daily authenticity, for it clearly cost them to covenant in this way. Here is clear expression that the concept of church at this time was of a regenerate community. For instance, John Smyth writes: [T]he outward church consists of penitent persons only, and of such as believing in Christ bring forth fruits worthy [of] amendment of life. ... [A]ll penitent and faithful Christians are brethren in the communion of outward life, wheresoever they live, by what name soever they are known. 2 3 Thomas Helwys speaks in similar vein: [T]he Church of Christ is a company of faithful people, separated from the world by the word and Spirit of God, being knit unto the Lord and one another, by baptism, upon their own confession of the faith and sins. Indeed, the theological undergirding of this early concept of church was the eternal covenant of God’s grace as it became actualised, concrete and contemporary in the life of believers joined together in church. Interestingly, in his developing theological understanding, John Smyth changed the notion of baptism (as entrance to local ch