This study examines how diverse Christian traditions understand and practice the principle of local church autonomy, with particular attention to the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), United Church of Christ (UCC), and United Methodist Church (UMC). Employing a historical research method complemented by historical theology, this study is a historical-comparative conceptual study that analyzes official resolutions, theological statements, and denominational documents to trace the development and application of local autonomy across these traditions. The SBC’s 1992 and 2019 resolutions affirm congregational self-governance while emphasizing mutual accountability under the Lordship of Christ, explicitly rejecting the misuse of autonomy to conceal sin. The UCC’s 1969 statement grounds autonomy in a democratic polity ordered under Christ’s authority, rejecting isolation in favor of an interconnected freedom. The UMC’s connectional system offers a distinctive model in which local churches exercise defined autonomy within a global, episcopal structure. Drawing on the historical experience of the Convention of Philippine Baptist Churches (CPBC), this study identifies how American Baptist missionaries first introduced local autonomy to the Philippines, where it was enshrined in the 1935 CPBC By-Laws. Key findings reveal that across these diverse traditions, authentic local autonomy is consistently understood not as absolute independence but as responsible self-governance exercised within covenantal, connectional, or associational relationships. The study concludes that for the CPBC, these comparative insights offer valuable resources for articulating a contextualized understanding of local autonomy that balances congregational freedom, denominational cooperation, and mutual accountability.

Keywords: local autonomy, Baptist church, Southern Baptist Convention, United Church of Christ, United Methodist Church, CPBC, connectionalism, historical analysis, historical theology, comparative ecclesiology