Bishops or Balogna?

For years I have been asking people to please explain to me the role of a Bishop in the Baptist or nondenominational Church. Since the advent of the “Full Gospel” movement in the 1980’s (was there ever a partial Gospel?), More and more Baptist and nondenominational Pastors have been popping up with the title of “Bishop”. The thing about it is - I have yet to figure out what makes a pastor in these churches a Bishop.

To be sure, the definition of the title Bishop has different connotations and meanings depending upon the source. And, while the Bible is not specific as to the function of a Bishop, the many definitions I have discovered will all fit into three basic categories. 

First, is the belief that a Bishop is of direct succession to the original 12 Apostles of Christ. Since there is no direct evidence that any of the Apostles left children behind, we must assume that this is a succession of office and not genealogy. This definition appears to be more mythological than factual because I doubt anyone can claim such lineage and provide any credible proof of such. Furthermore, since Baptist churches have been largely autonomous since their advent over 400 years ago and nondenominational churches have always been independent, I doubt any Baptist or nondenominational “Bishop” would be ridiculous enough to make this claim. 

The second group of definitions defines a Bishop as one who has administrative authority over a geographical area of churches or Christians. Again, since by definition a Baptist church (and most nondenominational churches) is independent and autonomous, this definition too would be silly to apply at best. 

The third group of definitions defines a Bishop as one who has religious authority over some organized group of Christians (which may or may not be geographical in nature) including the powers to perform certain religious ceremonial acts and confer the title of Bishop upon others. Once again, since every Baptist pastor (and the vast majority of nondenominational pastors) has the authority to perform every religious sacrament and ceremony recognized by the church, this definition would assume that the only purpose of a Baptist or nondenominational “Bishop” would be to create other “Bishops”.

For 400 years, Baptist and nondenominational churches have organized themselves into “conferences” or “conventions” for the purpose of combining certain resources for missions and evangelism and examining the doctrine of local churches. Part of the doctrinal function of these organizations is the ordination of ministers. While these organizations have no actual doctrinal authority over their member churches, ministers ordained by these bodies have been certified to be fully prepared and qualified to lead their local church doctrinally, ceremonially and administratively and each member has agreed to accept the qualifications of ministerial ordination conferred by the body. This being the case, I cannot figure out a purpose or need for creating additional bodies to create mythical “Bishops” with no actual authority over anything other than their local church, which they already possessed prior to claiming the mystical title of “Bishop”.

In this age where church membership has declined to its lowest levels (by percentage of population) since the advent of our nation, where the moral decline of our country has become so prevalent and where poverty is spreading like cancer, I would dare say that the pomp and circumstance surrounding this mystical creation of Baptist and nondenominational Bishops is just plain silly.