churches dropping the word "Baptist" from their names

Here in my area of east Tennessee when you hear Baptist you think of some guy getting behind a pulpit yelling and screaming at you for 30 minutes. Somehow around here, preaching the Good News got turned into continuous sermons about how wretched you are and the gazillion ways to go to hell and maybe just maybe 1 sentence about getting to Heaven.

Then there are the doomsayers and naysayers that preach about the end of the world and little more. They spend 29 minutes on the rapture and how many are going to hell, then about 1 minute on how to get raptured up yourself.

Then after all this, they pass around the offering plate..................

A LOT of indoctrination and little Biblical education. A lot of eisigesis and very little exegesis. Here's a definition for those that don't know:

Eisigesis is commonly used when talking about reading/understanding a certain text, usually Biblical text.
Eisigesis means reading into the text; which means that while reading the text, one would understand the text in accordance to his own presupposition and agendas. Eisigesis is widely used to prove a point rather to search for the truth. ​

Sorry if I offend anyone, but the simple fact is we as Baptists have made a bad name for ourselves in our attitude and behaviors.

Somehow saying "For God so loved the world....." got turned into " YOUR GOING TO BURN IN HELLFIRE FOR ETERNITY". Its just that the title Baptist carries a stigma in many places, so Churches have to drop it from the name to get people to actually come in the doors.

In closing, "hard preachin" is like using a grenade. It comes in handy when you have a job to do and your in a tight spot. But if you use them all the time, eventually one is going to blow up in your face. :thumbs::jesus:

 

Just up the road from you Tater.....

Charles Spurgeon didn't have Baptist in his church name. John MacArthur doesn't. Martyn Lloyd Jones didn't. And Peter did not deny a denomination, so that's apples and oranges.

We have a bunch of Baptist churches that are NOT baptist in any way, shape or form. they wouldn't know a Baptist if it came up and bit them, with their deacon boards, man-centered theology and worship, and lack of understanding of Baptistic theology. I'd rather have a church that was Baptist than one that just called itself such.

That said, about ten years ago a group published a study of the 100 fastest growing churches in the country. Of those churches, less than ten didn't have a denom in the name. So while I don't have a major issue with this, I am interested in motivation. It's not the be all, end all marketing tool people think it is.

 

We have kept the name Baptist in our name, but we know that the word puts off a lot of people. It is not a positive word here in the eyes of many.

 

You hit the nail on the head.............with a sledge hammer !!!!! :thumbs:

Though I was a bit wordy about it and might not have said in these exact words, our bad apples have ruined the tree for the rest of us. Kinda like bad leaven I guess. What a Baptist Church is supposed to be, is not what people see when they walk in the doors of many "Baptist" churches. I choose to be a Baptist because "on paper", the Baptist beliefs are closer to Scripture than other denominations in my opinion.

It is really hard around here to find a "balanced" Church. You either have a guy screaming at you with his personal eisigeses of the Bible or hunky dory hugs n kisses for everyone. To one way or the other they tend to be "man centered" as TomVols pointed out.

Tis sad really.....

 

Now ask him what he means by 'man-centered theology' :smilewinkgrin:

I know.... I'm bad :laugh:

 

I was wondering the same thing. I believe it is the code words for, "any belief I do not agree with." :laugh:

 

It's a marketing too, pure and simple. It's bothersome to me personally, but that's just me. Don't say it's wrong, but it is what it is--an attempt to broaden the appeal and in some ways disguise the church's beliefs until you get inside.

 

Problem is that Baptists are so diverse that the word means very little now. We have so called baptist churches who have women senior pastors. We have so called baptist churches that define inerrancy as inerrancy of purpose. We have so called baptist churches that allow people as members who have been sprinkled in church of Christ churches. So using the name baptist in a church's name means almost nothing.

If we were to try with our church names to let everyone know what we believe our names would be several sentences long.

 

This sounds like something I have said before, but the name seems different somehow??

 

Hello Tatter77 & TomVols,

I'm just down the road a way from you and I know exactly what you mean. Here it's not just Baptist churches who are dropping their denomination name. Several pentecostal churches here have become <name of street> Ministries, for example "Keith Street Ministries". From what I can tell it has more to do with the inner politics of their denomination than marketing, though I'm sure that plays a part.

It is very true that you have a wide range of beliefs under the name "Baptist". We keep the name in our church and pray people will judge us by our actions and what we teach and not by the name. If all the churches who preach the gospel drop the name Baptist then the only "Baptist" churches left will be the ones with questionable doctrine. What will people think of Baptists then?

 

There are many good Bible believing and Bible preaching churches that practice and preach the faith. The last time I took a look at the convention that gives the largest amount of per capita giving to missions it was not Baptist. Look at the largest mission organization. It is not Baptist.

 

Who, the mormons?

 

If I were looking for a church how would I know it were a baptist church if it didn't say so? I could be walking into anything. I wouldn't visit a church if I didn't see it was baptist. And if it choses to remove the baptist from it's name how can I know they are still teaching baptist docrines?

 

Many churches do not have web sites.

 

My Church just voted to do this with our entry sign outside the Church. Whats going on?