Baptists that meet monthly rather than weely.

Hey Ben, I believe the practice has been around as long as the churches have. It was typically done because preachers were few and had to take care of several churches. And since congregations were small, they would travel from church to church. I would call it a moving fellowship.

The structure and practice is quite different than what you see today in churches.

The practice still occurs in churches of like practice such as the Primitive Baptists and United Baptists. Ministers, like my grandfather, would take care of 4 or 5 churches at a time.

David

 

I had never heard of this practice until last summer when we moved. and had wondered why they only met once a month. The Circuit Riding Preacher explanation seems plausible, and the practice has just been continued.
There is a Primitive Baptist Church across the street from our house. It was "Constituted in 1859, and meets every fourth Sunday and the preceding Saturday at 10:00 a. m."

 

In my association (Sovereign Grace asso. of ORB) we meet once a month, that would be our regular meeting time. then two of our four churches also have it every sunday night aswell. one focus of ours is to be able to visit one another and hear other preachers come to our local church, believing them to have different gifts that are for the churches. also members being able to go to other churches to take communion with them. the scriptures says let two or three speak and let the rest judge. In my oppion having only one preacher for service kinda leads the church to just take what he says and not judge. but when you hear two preachers that are not quite eye to eye on a subject it helps the members to go to God on it and trust in God for the truth not just man. Not to mention again that preachers have different gifts and just having one preacher a church may miss out on a gift. but i also believe all members have a gift as well to work in the church. ............bro. JB

 

the practice had two related orihins...first the denomination often has more than one preacer speak at a service...this included some preacher form the congreation and some visiting preachers..second when the practice started the visit requrired time consumaing travel by horse power or in the south often mule power...each congregation met once per month so the travel would not be too burdensome.

My Dad, grandfather, and great uncle were orb preachers...the two older visiting chuchss on mule back into the 1930's. The practice actually increased with cars and better roads.

This doesn't mean that orb members only attended chuch once per month...many visited nearby congrations...When Appalacian people began to move in large numbers to the big cities in the midwest...WWII though about 1965...orb came too and new churches started...they were less numerous and more scattered than down home. Many of these northern gongregations began meeting twice per month usually without much visitation. Some now meet weekly but the old way is still common...
Doug Ison

 

I believe the practice originated in colonial times when in some colonies, particularly Virginia, Baptists were only allowed to meet once each month.

I don't believe the shortage of ordained elders was ever a problem since I have attended many services where 3 or 4 men have preached and many more were available.

I might also mention that the practice of having multiple speakers is consistent with Paul's instruction to the churches on 1 Corinthians 14:29ff.

There is some merit to this practice since it assures a relatively consistent doctrine among the churches. Also Old Regular Baptists will travel many miles to attend worship services at other churches. Since services at a given church are held on Saturday [includes a business meeting] and Sunday many people travel sufficiently far that they spend the night with members of the church. This creates a wonderful fellowshio among the Old Regular Baptists.

Those interested in the Old Regular Baptists should read The Old Regular Baptists of Central Applachia by Howard Dorgan.

 

But you are looking at it from a modern perspective. In colonial days, Baptist ministers on the frontier were hard to come by. I have seen old minutes where an association of 15-20 churches had only 2-3 ministers. In the days prior to automobiles, that left little time to get from one church to the next. (Which they actually didn't attempt to do.). My great-grandfather who was an Old Regular Baptist minister often preached alone, and usually served as pastor of 4 churches, one per weekend.