Capitol Hill Baptist Church

Capitol Hill Baptist Church
Capitol Hill Baptist Church
	Wikimedia \| © OpenStreetMap
Location	Washington, D.C.
Denomination	Southern Baptist Convention
Website	www.capitolhillbaptist.org
History
Former name(s)	Metropolitan Baptist Church; Capitol Hill Metropolitan Baptist Church
Founded	1878
Clergy
Senior pastor(s)	Mark Dever

Capitol Hill Baptist Church is a Southern Baptist affiliated church located on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., six blocks from the United States Capitol. Mark Dever serves as the senior pastor of the church, where he also runs his ministry 9Marks teaching principles of "healthy church" practices. It was founded in 1878^[1] and was originally named Metropolitan Baptist Church, after the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London.,^[2] although the naming origins are refuted by some. It was later named Capitol Hill Metropolitan Baptist Church, to differentiate it from another Metropolitan Baptist Church in the District of Columbia. It was subsequently shortened to be named Capitol Hill Baptist Church.

Senior pastors prior to Dever included: John Compton Ball; Walter Pegg; K. Owen White (one time president of the Southern Baptist Convention, early proponent of conservative theological fundamentalism in the Southern Baptist Convention, and later pastor at First Baptist Church, Houston, Texas); J. Walter Carpenter (later pastor at Kendall Baptist Church, Washington, DC); R. B. Culbreth; Harold Lindsell (interim) who was also Editor of Christianity Today; John Stuckey (later a United Methodist Church pastor); C. Wade Freeman Jr. (who also served as trustee at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary). Dynamic, theologically conservative preaching was a pulpit trademark during most of the early 20th century, Metropolitan/Capitol Hill Metropolitan Baptist Church years.

In the days of Metropolitan Baptist/Church/Capitol Hill Metropolitan Baptist Church, which spanned up through the 1980s, there was a multi-faceted approach to church ministry. It took in five general areas of church ministry, as reflected for several years within ministerial and professional staff. Being closely tied to Southern Baptist equipping in the areas of Sunday School, Church Training (Training Union), Missions, and Music resulted in lay leaders at Metropolitan participating for several summer in training opportunities at Ridgecrest Baptist Assembly, later renamed the Ridgecrest Conference Center. (The Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention sold Ridgecrest in subsequent years). The five overall ministry/church mission areas at Metropolitan included Worship, Instruction, Fellowship, Evangelism, and Ministry. Worship, for Metropolitan, primarily included corporate worship through the 1980s.

Worship at Metropolitan, which primarily referred to corporate worship, included preaching, proclamation of the Word, as well as corporate, participatory worship, which included various elements of Music Ministry. Metropolitan had a strong tradition of music, congregational singing, graded choirs, instrumental groups, and handbells. These directions were consistent with the Southern Baptist denominational emphases under the denominational music leadership of Baylus Benjamin (B. B.) McKinney, W. Hines Sims and William J. Reynolds. Hymnals used from the 1940s through the 1980s included the Southern Baptist Baptist Sunday School Board published hymnals: Broadman Hymnal (1940), Baptist Hymnal (1956), and Baptist Hymnal (1975). Music directors and Ministers of Music from the 1940s through the early 1980s included: Norman Chase (formerly of Bob Jones University); Homer Phillips (Northwestern University graduate and formerly United States Navy Band, solo trombone); John Kooistra (Bob Jones University graduate, noted keyboard performer, vocalist, and member of the Centurymen); John Travis (interim music director); and, Lyndel Vaught (later Professor of Music at Southwestern and noted authority on geriatric vocal science).

Instruction, also sometimes referred to as education ministry in Southern Baptist churches, was encapsulated in Metropolitan's commitment to calling and employing a ministerial staff member to be responsible for the Southern Baptist institutions of Sunday School (Bible Study), Baptist Young People's Union (Discipleship), later called Training Union and Discipleship Training, Missions (under the supervision of the Women's Missionary Union), and Youth or student ministry, specifically involved 12-19 year-olds.

Fellowship (more to come)...

Evangelism (more to come)...

Ministry (more to come)...

CHBC is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention,^[3] and has been described as the "epicenter of the new Calvinism". The average age of its members is 31.^[2]

CHBC emphasizes the need for a regenerate church membership, and has implemented a church covenant to that end.^[4]^[5]

Although conservative, Capitol Hill Baptist Church supports the practice of having female deacons.^[6]^[7]

References[]

^ Newton, Phil A. Elders in Congregational Life. Kregel Academic. p. 12. ISBN 9780825494789. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b George, Timothy (2 May 2016). "Puritans on the Potomac". First Things. Retrieved 2 September 2016.
^ "SBC Church Search". SBC website. Southern Baptist Convention.
^ Hammett, John S. (2007). "Regenerate Church Membership". Restoring Integrity in Baptist Churches. Kregel Academic. p. 35. ISBN 9780825497575. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
^ "Capitol Hill Baptist Church Covenant". Archived from the original on October 6, 2014.
^ White, Thomas (2010). "The Offices and Women: Can Women Be Pastors? or Deacons?". Upon This Rock: A Baptist Understanding of the Church. B&H Publishing Group. p. 188. ISBN 9781433672989. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
^ "Deacons & Deaconesses". Archived from the original on October 6, 2014.