Sam Waldron’s commentary on the 1689 Baptist Confession opens with an excellent essay by Dr Robert Paul Martin called ‘The Legitimacy and Use of Confessions.’

I can’t speak for other contexts, though I would expect it’s about the same, but in Baptist church culture in Scotland there’s a real aversion to creeds and confessions.

This aversion is communicated implicitly, in the near complete absence of creeds and confessions in our gathered worship, statements of faith, discipleship practices, baptismal liturgies, and pastoral training programs; and sometimes even taught explicitly by those who believe and claim confidently that ‘Baptists don’t do creeds’. In my own training, this was often stated as though it were an incontestable truth, even though, historically speaking, it’s indefensible.

So when you want to use and promote the use of confessions in a Baptist church, as I do, you face apathy about confessions in general, suspicion of the clarity and precision they contain, and questions about liberty of conscience around areas of difference. All of these concerns are answered succinctly and well in Dr Martin’s essay, which you can read online here.