Featured Ashamed of being a Baptist

thanks! Misunderstood, thought you meant if not a baptist church, would not drop in!

 

Sometimes an obscure name helps fulfill the mission.

Philadelphia Biblical University recently changed its name to Cairn University
Part of the reason for the name change was that some of its graduates were finding it hard to enter missions needy countries where Christianity is perceived as a threat to the religious establishment.

An obscure name would not raise any alarms.

Rob

 

Much ado about nothing. Many Baptist institutions of days past never had the word in their name. The word "Baptist" as used to describe churches did not even come into use until circa 1641.

 

I do think it is a matter of being ashamed. Why? I have NO idea. Tell it like it is. If you are baptist, then SAY IT. Why do people beat around the bush? I am baptist, not ashamed of it, I proclaim it / Why can't pastors and churches do the same? I never heard of a catholic calling themselves anything other than catholic, Jews call themselves jews, Muslims call themselves muslims, etc. :BangHead:

 

Being ashamed of being a Baptist started right after Clinton took office.

 

It has no bearing on the issue what people in the distant past did. If churches are removing Baptist from the name of the church to hide the fact that they are Baptist then shame on them. The Baptist and especially the Christian community needs more integrity than that.

 

I beg to differ, I think it started around 1980.

 

Well, cant argue with that. Forgot about him. LOL

 

In most cases they will identify themselves as such. Same with General Baptists. Except for Calvinist Baptists. They don't put it on their church sign, but they don't hide it.

 

All this name-changing boils down to one factor: marketing.

No problem here. But it's still marketing.

 

Deceptive marketing

 

Many many "Baptist" churches have never had the name Baptist on the sign. Do they lack integrity?

Such silliness!!

 

What is silly is ignoring the core of what I said and you quoted. What you said has nothing to do with what I said.

 

Sigh... so apparently it is ok to not advertise your church as Baptist as long as you don't do it from day one, but if you advertise it as Baptist and later remove it from the sign you lack integrity?

Got it.

 

What you are missing is not the act but the motivation. It cannot be denied that what I said is a dishonest act.

 

So you are able to judge the motives of every church that has removed the name Baptist from the sign as being dishonest? Wish I had your powers of judgment. I'm afraid that mine fall well short.

Our church changed it's sign last year- our old sign was damaged and needed replacing. The decision was made to change the sign to reflect what the members and locals had long called the church and to reflect the diversity of the ministry. It changed from Baptist Temple to BT for Buena Tierra (Good Soil). Our pastor felt that reflected our community of churches- we have a Spanish and a Deaf church as well as an English church- as well as our vision of seeing folks saved and discipling the believers. In other words, rooted in good soil.

It was not done without much forethought and prayer. I personally was not in favor of the move but now I see how it truly reflects our church's unique mission and vision.

 

You get the last word. God Bless

 

Salty,

I made this post several years ago when my church was mulling over taking Baptist out of their name. I do think some churches are ashamed and some are confused. We have never seen so many churches go for changing names like we have over the past two decades. I feel it is just another result of the Seeker Sensative movement. These emergent and seeker preachers for the most part want to paint fundamentalism as bad and the name Baptist goes along with fundamentalism. It's all marketing, they want to attract Joe Six-pack, so make the name easy to attract--

There are dozens of Baptist churches in our area that went by 1st Baptist or "whatever Baptist" and now are not after over 100 years of going by the same name.

The church leaders in the past 2-3 decades who have been rolled over by Purpose Driven programs and the like are responsible. I too am to blame. I was in church leadership and was a lone voice that couldn't stop a Rick Warren clone surrounded by yes men.

We need strong Christian men to seek God's purpose for today and not man's purpose. God help us.

 

Instead of changing the name maybe we need to work in a biblical fashion and change the so called perception rather than the name. Reach out in love. Get up off the pew. But heck, then someone would have to actually do something constructive.

 

I'll say it again, where are the solid conservative men today? Seems Seminaries pump out weak minded Pastors these days, but it is because they aren't taught the fundamentals anymore. They begin weak. Is this God's judgment on us all?