General Baptist Denomination

We have a single Regular Baptist Church in my area (+/- 20 mile radius). It has about 5 members remaining last I saw. I'm in the mountains of NW NC.

 

The old Baptist General Conference (originally Swedish Baptists) with Bethel Seminary in Minnesota as it's flagship has renamed itself as "Converge" (why not, since it does away with "Baptist" in the name). So that might be where the General Baptists have gone.

 

For the OP, an interative map of congregations of different religious groups, by US county.

Select "General Association of General Baptists", it takes a while to load the map.

It does show a cluster of counties with those churches in western Kentucky. Also clustered in southern Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana.

 

As for other posts here,

Sigh.

The terms "general association", "general conference", "general assembly" have nothing to do with the doctrine of general atonement that characterizes the churches the OP is describing.

Oxford English Dictionary, definition 2A of general is: "Concerned with, or established for, the whole of a certain territory....[as] opposed to local, sectional, etc."

Thus, Particular Baptists of Britain met as a "General Assembly" in 1689.

The two "generals" in the name of the group the "General Association of General Baptists" are not redundant, the first describes how it's organized, the second describes its doctrine of salvation.

 

Probably for the same reason that Western Conservative Baptist Seminary changed their name to Corban Seminary.... Something about trying to appeal to the world by avoiding what their trustees considered a "divisive"-type moniker.

(Still waiting for the SBC to do something similar in view of previous suggestions and attempts).

 

No, Western Conservative Baptist Seminary went incognito as 'Western Seminary'.

It was Western Baptist Bible College that ended up as 'Corban University'.

 

Thanks for the correction.... So not one, but two west coast schools dropped Baptist from their names, probably for similar reasons.

 

Yes, and Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary generic-renamed itself Gateway Seminary a few years ago!

 

I live in Evansville, where the "mother church" (Howell/Liberty) is. The General Association church nearest to me averages about 20 on a good week, so I'm told. There are many such small congregations spread throughout the city and the broader area, but they seem to be in decline if that's the best they can do in the area they were founded in. People here seem to prefer the Southern Baptists instead.

 

In the news a few years ago:

Pastor Criticized Overweight Wives

"After a video from the sermon gained attention online, the General Association of General Baptists said in a March 1 statement that Clark resigned from his position as moderator of the 2022 meeting of the denomination. The group also criticized the sermon as 'not consistent with the positions and values of General Baptists'."

 

Re: 'a "divisive"-type moniker'
In some locals the term "Baptist" may be associated with an social religion rather than any particular Baptist doctrine.

Where I live on the East Coast, the Baptist reputation is poor enough that some people would not go to a church with the name "Baptist".

And on the other side of the coin...
I live near the old Philadelphia Bible College (long ago relocated to Langhorne, PA) (see above)
They changed their name to Philadelphia Biblical University (PBU) for a while.
And then changed their name once again to Cairn University.
If you thought that taking "Biblical" out of their name indicates something about their priorities, you'd be right!
Students that were missionary-bound were having trouble obtaining Visa's to enter a foreign field with the word "Bible" in their school's name.

Rob

 

From the article:

The statements do not note when Clark will return to preaching.
​

Perhaps after he's lost a hundred pounds or so?