The two most commonly used reformed confessions in the United States are the Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF) and the London Baptist Confession of Faith (LBCF). What many people don’t know is that there is a third confession which was the bridge from the WCF to the LBCF – this bridge was the Savoy Declaration.
It essentially comes down to two issues: church government and baptism.
The Savoy matched the WCF in almost every detail except church government. Where the WCF is presbyterian in its governance, the Savoy is congregational. This isn’t to say it’s a democracy – not at all – a congregation is still elder led, but the final authority rests in the local body rather than a denomination.
The LBCF keeps changes made by the Savoy (church government) and then adds additional changes on the topic of baptism – changing from a classically reformed paedo baptist position to a credo baptist position. At Hot Springs Reformed we hold to baptismal catholicity allowing this to be a matter of conscience.
Here are links to all 3 of the referenced confessions:
If you’d like to specifically compare the differences between these 3 confessions, you can find a handy comparison here.