The Baptist Church Covenant: Its History and Meaning, by Marshall Davis. Self-published, Kindle Direct, 2017, 137 pages, $8.24, paper.

We have a saying in the upper Midwest: “There is more than one way to skin a cat.” Do not worry, your favorite Felix is safe. The saying is a holdover from the North American fur boom of previous centuries. Today, most men have never owned a skinning knife, but the phrase persists because it contains timeless wisdom. A different way of doing things is not always a threat—sometimes it is an opportunity to improve your craft.

Marshall Davis’s The Baptist Church Covenant aims at a greater understanding of congregational life. Readers, general officers and special officers alike, will be encouraged in their commitment to one another. In short, the book is a Baptist pastor’s attempt to “renew a sense of commitment to the local church” (14). One could engage in eye-ball gymnastics over the gentle nod to congregational rule. Still—once your iris has returned where it belongs—do not miss the opportunity to learn.

The Baptist (mistaken) commitment to congregationalism causes them to leverage the general office of believers in church life (see Form of Government 30.1). Presbyterian commitment to elder rule (locally and extra-locally) leads us to emphasize the special office. It is precisely where we differ that there is an opportunity to enrich one another.

Dr. Davis introduces the Baptist church covenant anecdotally, historically, and theologically. Reformed or Presbyterian readers will find Chapter One a helpful visitor’s guide (15–26). The practice of church covenants is modeled after Nehemiah’s reform efforts (cf. Neh. 9) and the covenant renewal ceremonies of the Old Testament (18). One is reminded of the Scottish Solemn League and Covenant at this point.

There were various church covenants in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Practice converged in 1853 with the publication of the Baptist Church Manual (containing the New Hampshire Confession and John Newton Brown’s version of a covenant). Brown’s church covenant—still in print today—forms the basis of most contemporary church covenants. The remainder of the book is a commentary on Brown’s covenant.

Orthodox Presbyterians may choke on a few things in the book—congregationalism, credobaptism, Independency, and non-covenantal notions of church membership. Playfully—some Presbyterians may find the section on teetotalling the most difficult to swallow (81–84). But should we really be surprised that Baptists are, well, Baptist?

Like other Presbyterians, we have a Book of Church Order. It is our “church covenant.” As a church planter, I love the membership vow in our Directory for Public Worship (DPW). The fifth vow begins, “Do you promise to participate faithfully in this church's worship and service . . . ?” Baptists skin that cat with a church covenant—elaborating on faithful participation in detail. Look over their shoulders. Read this book. You may gain a renewed commitment to your local church and the people who constitute it, the people to whom you made promises when you became a member of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (see DPW 4.B.2).

Nathan P. Strom is a minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and serves as the church planter at Breakwater Church in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Ordained Servant Online, February, 2025.