churches dropping the word "Baptist" from their names

I am not in love with the name Baptist, but I am in love with what it once stood for. I would rather have the name Baptist clearly in the name than some nebulous coward's castle and deceptive moniker.

The name Christian is the most devious title in the world to-day, but frankly, I refuse to allow the world to rob me of that precious title.

Yes, modernistic Baptist Churches have been around as long as I can remember, but that doesn't deter me from standing strong for the Lord and standing up for what a true Baptist should be. Since when did we allow the world to decide for us where we stand?

I am a Baptist and will remain so to my dying day. It is my responsiblity to let the world know what Baptist really stands for and not for them to define it for me.

Cheers,

Jim

By the way, Spurgeon's name was mentioned:

"There was a Baptist preacher named Spurgy,
Who didn't like our liturgy.
His sermons were fine, and sometimes were mine,
And many more of the clergy."

He never denied publicly who he was.

 

My church has a website, but we don't have a phone or a church office yet. If you call the "official" church number, you get our pastor's cell phone.

We're still a relatively new church (about 4 years old) and we're renting space. We hope to have a real church office when we buy our own property.

 

If you remove the name "Baptist," you lose the reason for Baptist distinctives, and your church might later take on speaking in tongues, baptizing infants, or other stuff that is not Baptist.

Some people are okay with these things and that's fine, but they are not Baptist.

 

Are we moving into an age of the "generic" Christian?

 

It's really funny that you said that. There are a lot of Baptists who don't even know what the Distinctives are. There are even more than don't adhere to them (most often the discinctives of local autonomy and individual soul liberty).

 

Often choosing to drop the denominational moniker is a decision made after much prayer, discussion, and thought. For situations where I have served that dropped the denominational term from their name it is usually out of a missiological decision to connect better with unchurched and dechurched people.

Is it a form of marketting? Yes, but all our churches market in some form or fashion. That isn't a bad thing imho.

Baptist is a theological and denominational moniker. It is meaningless without the proper observance of the distinctives of a Baptist church. I've been to Baptist churches with and without the word in their name. Often the ones without outstripe the ones with in terms of true Baptist polity and theology.

 

Very true on both counts.

 

Well, it would be nice to think this, but it's not what I've seen. Many use scripture to support infant baptism and speaking in tongues. Many non-denominational churches I know of are charismatic.

 

Those things aren't scriptural essentials (yes, I know we Baptists think they are, but they aren't). But to the point, a Baptist church isn't going to start doing infant baptisms or sprinklings just because it drops the denomination off the shingle. Speaking in tongues or not speaking in tongues isn't a definition of beign Baptist, so whether a church has the word "baptist" on the outside isn't in and of itself an indicator of their position on the subject.

 

I get annoyed at false advertising!

Maybe, just maybe, it is high time we started re-teaching Baptist distinctives and stopped playing games.

If you start off on a weak knee, you just might end up a cripple.

Cheers,

Jim

 

I wouldn't have a problem if "Baptist" was dropped from our church name. It currently says "Baptist", and we are (SBC, actually), but the name acts as more of a deterant to the unchurched. I, too, live is east Tennessee and have the same problems mentioned by others (Tater77 and TomVols) as far as assumptions and predisposition against Baptists.

A few other churches here have dropped the name of the denomination, but no Baptist churches. One is a large COG church. It now has "A ministry of the Church of God" along the bottom of their sign, but are now known as a "Community" church.

Denominations are extra-biblical. While I am a Baptist/SBC and adhere to the distinctives and doctrines, the name "Baptist" has a much different meaning to those outside of the Baptist denomination. If dropping the "Baptist" from the church sign would help the lost come in I am all for it.

 

Yes, I know they are not essentials, but I would not belong to a church that practiced them.

If you have a Baptist church that already has people who are charismatic and some who believe other things non-Baptist, there is a good chance that if the Baptist name is removed, down the road those other things may become part of the church.

 

I hear this argument quite a bit. I have thought about it a lot and at one point, actually leaned toward this view.

However, now I think that it's not worth changing the name to "attract the lost." If the lost won't come because the name is "Baptist," they'll find another reason not to come. Saying the word "Baptist" keeps people away just shows that people will be kept away by anything if they don't want to attend. Besides, I think the church is mainly for believers and to equip believers to witness to the lost.

If someone is being drawn by the Lord, the name "Baptist" won't stop them.

 

And it also serves as a deterrent to those with much different beliefs. I don't think that's a bad thing.