Cascade Valley District, Ellensburg, WA
Query to the 2018 Annual Conference of The Old German Baptist Brethren Church
(New Conference) at Wesleyan University, Marion, Indiana. May 18, 2018
While the answer to the 2013 query on rebaptism has given sufficient direction on our position with our members who request rebaptism, and with trine immersion being our universally accepted method for new conversions, it would be helpful to have clarity regarding our position on believers who wish to unite with our fellowship but have been baptized by a different mode. The last paragraph of the query states, “We realize different circumstances can arise in each district, calling for a need for each congregation to have the freedom to biblically decide each case based on its needs.” Some have interpreted this paragraph to apply to the whole document but others feel it only applies to our members requesting rebaptism. To clarify the answer given to the query from 2013, do our individual congregations have liberty to use biblical discernment in receiving or denying believers who are applicants for membership based on the testimony of their lives and commitment to function within the scriptural authority of our churches, instead of the mode of their baptism?