Featured An Honest Question for Fundamentalists Baptists of Good Will

Hi, Rhet. It's been awhile.

I agree with Squire. Hopefully next week sometime I'll be able to give more details. But here is my view.

1. There are almost 14,000 IFB churches in the US according to a recent survey. This number is increasing because of several church planting movements. Fundamentalists have become quite sophisticated in their approach to church planting.
2. The movement has localized in its approach to Bible college, which explains the decrease in student body at BJU and some other schools. In other words, many small local colleges have sprung up.
3. The movement has globalized. My own former mission board has grown steadily since the 1970s when I joined as missionary #32, so that now there are about 350. Many other IFB boards have also grown, so that now there are 1000s of fundamental churches around the globe not usually considered in evaluations of the movement.
4. The movement remains strong in its approach to ecclesiastical separation, which explains the demise of such schools as Northland, Tennessee Temple and Calvary Baptist Theological Seminary.

 

As a former fundamentalist, I would say the movement is dying. That isn't any different than any other christian group in the United States.

Lots of reasons, relevance, tendacies to splinter and split and general change in society as a whole toward things christian.

Don't think it will ever die completely, there always will be a stream of people that are bent toward the comforts fundamentalism provides, but it will move further and further to fringes of both societial and church culture.

 

None of this is true.

 

None of that is true.

 

Do tell? I know it's not your normal link to someone else's article, "that's not true" pattern, but this is a discussion forum after all.

 

Your experience of growth was not my experience. The discussion was about drawing a line in the proverbial sand and maintaining "the old paths", not becoming a church singing seven eleven songs, upholding "standards" and refusing to compromise with the world.

There was absolutely talk and effort to plant new churches but most efforts I saw were attempts at replicating an existing (usually sending church) church. Most of the successful ones I saw were those that "hid" their fundamentalist roots.

These issues, though specifically directed toward fundamentalism, could be directed to other evangelical groups with a slight tweek here or there. The evangelical voice in America is being pushed from its long held position of influence within the culture and all churches are feeling the squeeze. The sooner we accept that, the better. Once off the perch we can once again embrace the Gospel as the counterculture salt and light it was always meant to be.

Yes, what we knew is dying but that's not a bad thing.

 

I was at a GARBC seminary last August, and they were self-identified fundamentalists.

 

If the IFB movement is dying, the figures don't show it.

According to a 2008 survey, there are 13,719 IFB churches in America (Church Still Works, by Paul Chappell and Clayton Reed, p. 15). This number is growing yearly. The average IFB church has 180 different attendees sometime during the week (ibid).

Now, as I indicated above, the IFB movement is increasing globally. (Info in this paragraph: ibid, pp. 28-30). In 2008 there were 4,876 IFB missionaries serving in other countries. Compare to only 3,898 SBC missionaries (this does not count home missions). Included in the SBC number are educators and administrative personel, but IFB missions rarely have such, being usually devoted strictly to evangelism and church planting. (Note that there are almost 3 times the number of SBC churches in the US as there are IFB churches.) Average giving per IFB church to missions was $13,295.98, compared to only $4,426 per SBC church.

Admittedly, church planting in the US has decreased marginally, but there were still 2,744 new IFB churches started in the period of 1990-2008 (ibid, p. 28). If the movement were dying, this certainly would not be happening! My wife and I personally support young friends on deputation to start churches in New England.

There are many church planting efforts in the movement to this day. One center for this is Fairfax Baptist Temple in Fairfax, VA, a church I know well. They support church planting missionaries, plant churches themselves in the area from the main church, have a conference on it every year, and support COEBA, which is a church planting movement by IFB black pastors (http://www.ourcrossroads.org/coeba).

Having said that, the main IFB church planting efforts are taking place overseas, which is why the typical Baptist in the US is not aware of it. IFB churches overseas are even sending out national missionaries to other countries. I've personally ministered with a Japanese medical missionary to a Muslim country where a church planting movement is taking place. Again, our church supports and actually participates (by sending soul winners and evangelists) in a church planting movement in an African country. The IFB national pastors there are essentially leading the movement, with the American missionaries and visiting evangelists being the facilitators.

I certainly hope that this information proves conclusively that the IFB movement is alive and thriving. If this thesis remains unproven in the eyes of someone, then I have no idea how it could be proven.

 

I know the Japanese leader of the Far East FBF. He's a good man.

 

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