Who is a Baptist? What defines a "Baptist church"?

[Sandy]

Self identification? A specific set of doctrines and practices? I thought it was an interesting question raised in another thread.

Depending on the source you cite, there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 32 million people in the United States who are counted in total membership of churches that fall within the category of "Baptist." The largest denomination in the classification is the 16 million member Southern Baptist Convention, and I think the smallest specific denominational group is the Two Seed in the Spirit Predestinarian Baptists. Independent Baptists, which include fundamental and non-fundamental, account for about 8 million.

I would say the most common denominator is baptism, by immersion, following a profession of faith in Jesus. The second might be congregational church governance, though not all Baptists are congregational, and not all have churches that are completely independent or autonomous. I would say that a "high" view of scripture would be a common characteristic. Most Baptist denominations define a doctrinal belief that the Bible is without error, and its teachings are infallible, but not all. The one thing I would say that makes an individual a Christian of the Baptist persuasion is self-identification and membership in a church that identifies as such. The independence and autonomy of most congregations, and the lack of a separate "clergy" class or membership is not a Baptist distinctive, but is characteristic of most Baptists.

Obviously, there are both Calvinist and non-calvinist Baptists, and some hyper-calvinist Baptists (Two Seed in the Spirit Predestinarians for example) reflecting the differences in the origins of Baptist groups. This also separates the "missionary" Baptists from the non-missionary Baptists, with the previous group being the larger, and most influential.