Ask the pastor: What’s the difference between the United Methodists and Southern Baptists?
This is a timely question as a number of people have recently left United Methodist churches (UMC) and some are ending up at Southern Baptist churches (SBC). This begs the question… what are the differences between the two denominations? Before I got this question, I did not know a ton about the UMC so I had to do some research and below is what I found.
But before I talk about the differences, let’s remember some of the similarities.
Similarities
Both denominations are considered Protestant, as opposed to Roman Catholic or Orthodox. According to Got Questions, “The Protestant tradition has historically been represented by the five solas: faith alone, Christ alone, grace alone, Scripture alone, and God’s glory alone.” These solas point to three important doctrines:
- The Bible as the sole authority
- Faith alone for salvation
- Living for the glory of God
Now onto the differences. As I give these, please keep in mind that both the UMC and SBC are big denominations with a wide range of beliefs, so these are more generalizations and may not apply to every single church in that denomination.
Differences
Here are some of the main differences that stood out to me:
1. Salvation: Southern Baptists generally hold that salvation has some measure of predestination and that once a person is truly saved, they cannot lose their salvation. On the other hand, United Methodists generally emphasize free will and believe it is possible to lose your salvation.
2. Scripture: Southern Baptists have a much stronger emphasis in the authority of Scripture guiding all matters of faith and practice. The United Methodists would also hold to the authority of Scripture, but also look at it through the lens of tradition and experience. This leads to a less literal view of certain passages. As an aside, this is also why the the UMC has gotten into so much “trouble” (from my perspective) recently. When you do not hold firmly to the authority of Scripture your foundation gets very slippery.
3. Sanctification: Southern Baptists see sanctification (spiritual growth) through the lens of justification through faith. United Methodists see justification and sanctification more side-by-side.
4. Church Government: SBC churches place a strong emphasis on a congregational form of church government. This means that each church is independent from other SBC churches and no one from the SBC can tell any one SBC church what to do. This has pros and cons and does lead to some interesting variations of SBC churches. The UMC, on the other hand, has an episcopal type of church government in which bishops from the denomination do oversee individual churches and pastors. One way of looking at the difference is that an SBC church is “bottom-up” while a UMC church is “top-down.”
5. Baptism: Southern Baptists hold to “believers baptism” which means that a person is not baptized until he puts his faith in Jesus. Baptism is also always done by immersion. United Methodists hold to infant and adult baptism and will baptize through a number of different modes.
6. Women in Ministry: SBC churches generally do not ordain women to be pastors. In fact, this has become a more prominent issue recently as they have begun removing churches from the denomination that have female pastors. The United Methodists do ordain women.
7. Social Issues: Southern Baptists are more conservative when it comes to social issues and do not affirm the LGBTQ+ movement, same-sex marriage, or approve of abortion. The United Methodists have obviously moved in the direction of affirming same-sex marriage and LGBTQ+ inclusion. While doctrinally opposed to abortion, “the United Methodist Church was a founding member of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice” (link).
There are other differences and these are generalizations. I am sure pastors from both sides would disagree with me on some of these, but this would be a quick overview of some of the differences between the two denominations.