A Baptist church is a place for regular services, prayer, and worship in the Baptist denomination of the Christian faith.

The Baptist tradition places particular emphasis on baptism following a personal profession of faith and on the local congregation. A congregation may belong to a Baptist union or convention while retaining its local organization.

Local independence does not make a Baptist congregation a non-denominational church. Its Baptist affiliation identifies the worship use; baptism or Bible teaching alone, which occur in other traditions too, does not establish that affiliation.