Well, let's see if we can create an interesting scenario. You're Southern Baptist, for purposes of discussion.
Let's say you eliminate the word Baptist from your church sign, as a marketing strategy.
Do you also eliminate the Baptist Hymnal from your pews?
The last church I Pastored, we used the Trinity Hymnal.
Do you also quit using Lifeway Sunday School literature?
In my Southern Baptist Church I pastored, I wanted to jettison Lifeway from our church. I used a variety of literature from a variety of sources. Some in our church wished to keep the literature, but I encouraged people to find other literature. This church still had "Baptist" in the name. I am not a fan of Lifeway Literature.
Do you junk your support of the
Cooperative Program?
No, but I also was never a fan of exclusively using the Cooperative Program. I supported other mission endeavors from other sources.
Do you quit your ties to the local Baptist Association, your state Baptist Convention and the SBC?
No, but I do not exclusively have ties with them. I had ties with other organizations too. Granted, my associations with the Associations, State Convention, and National were all much more limited than other associations I had with other people. I had associations with non-Baptists and Baptists.
If someone asks, do you say you're not Baptist, but are baptistic?
I clarify according to my doctrinal statement saying that I hold to the 1689 LBC or that I am a Reformed Baptist. I rarely say that I am just a "Baptist." I met Baptists who deny the trinity, I would not want to be associated with them. Instead of muddy the waters with a vague word like "Baptist", I would rather be specific in what I do believe.
If you stop calling your church Baptist, but keep the rest of those ties in place, what happens when that new member who joined your fellowship finds out you're really Baptist in everything but name only? Is going to think you were less than honest?
I would not let someone join until they went through a new members class in which we explained what we believed and who we are. If someone would join my church without knowing, it was not because we "hid" our associations. We also stated that while we support Southern Baptist projects, we were supported many other organizations. Yet, just having "Baptist" on a sign does not tell them you are Southern Baptist, it tells them you are "Baptist". It does not tell them if you believe the Bible, or if you are charismatic. For some reason Southern Baptists in the South seem to point that since people have "Baptist" in their name then they must be SBC. I find that narrow-minded. Rather, just calling yourself a Baptist does not clarify anything.
Seems to me that you drop Baptist, you have to drop the other stuff, or you're getting people in the door under false pretenses.
No, if you have the word "Baptist" or not, you have to tell people what you really believe and why you believe it. You also have to tell people what your church is about. All Baptist seems to tell people, as Spurgeon noted, is that you believe in immersion. I would rather tell people what I believe and let them know it first hand, rather than assume they know it by what the sign says.
If you think your sign tells people what you stand for, then you are making a grave error in your assumptions.
